In this instructional video, Natalie Fisher explains why interviewers ask the situational question “Tell me about a time you had to communicate with someone who was difficult to communicate with,” and how to craft a compelling answer. She outlines the purpose of the question—assessing a candidate’s ability to handle conflict and maintain productivity—and introduces the SARI storytelling framework (Situation, Action, Results, Interesting features), noting its equivalence to the STAR/SAR models. Natalie then walks through a concrete example from her experience working with a head developer who was hard to reach. She details the situation, two key actions (inquiring about preferred communication methods and then offering personal empathy with a coffee conversation), the mixed initial response, the breakthrough when the developer revealed personal stress, and the positive outcome. She highlights the insight that the difficulty stemmed from underlying burnout rather than poor communication skills. The video concludes with a call to action, promoting a free guide and workbook that provide ten situational interview examples, fill‑in‑the‑blank templates, and additional questions to help viewers develop their own stories. The tone is conversational and instructional, with an enthusiastic and supportive sentiment throughout.
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Hi, my name is Natalie, and in this video we're going to answer another situational interview question, and it goes like this: Tell me about a time you had to communicate with a person who was difficult to communicate with. In this video, we'll cover sneak peek into the mind of why the interviewer is asking this question, what you are going to say when you answer this question, and a concrete example to get you thinking. So stay tuned. So what is the objective of this question? What are people hoping to learn about you when they ask you? Conflict with people is inevitable in the workplace, with people having different communication styles and personalities. Not something that you will be able to avoid or get around, especially if you see other people at work. So the interviewer really wants to know how you navigate it when someone isn't peachy all the time and they might be difficult to communicate with or they might be unwilling to cooperate. This is an obstacle that gets in the way of productivity and they want to know how you have dealt with it in the past to still get the job done. So when did you turn someone's frown upside down? Cheesy, I know, but when it comes down to it, that's what it is. And I'm going to explain to you exactly why in the story I'm going to tell you in a minute. So here's how you answer. You answer by telling the story. And if you watch my videos, you know that I'm a big fan of storytelling, and I talk about it in my program too. The SARI formula is the framework we use to tell our stories. And SARI, if you haven't heard of it before, it stands for situation, action, results, and interesting features. You may have also heard of it being referred to as the STAR formula or just the SAR formula. It's all the same. So you're going to tell your powerful story that paints a good picture and Shows the situation, how you rose up to the challenge, and what happened in the end. So let's do the example. So the step 1 is the situation. So let's say— I'm going to use my example here— I was working with the development team on the company website, and I needed to guide them with what we wanted and what we needed, and they were going to implement. The head developer on the project who needed to make the changes was a bit difficult to communicate with, and since there was a lot of communication needed between the two of us to get the job done, I knew that we needed to do something about it. So that's setting the stage, kind of giving them an idea of exactly what was happening. So step 2 is the action or the actions. So you can talk about more than one action if it's relevant and if it really puts you in a good light. I'm going to talk about 2 actions. So what were the sort of actions that you took and what outcome did they lead to? So my examples continuing on with the story are the first thing I did was I asked him a few questions. I said, how would you prefer that I communicate with you? Would you prefer phone, email, or in person? I asked him things like, how much time would you ideally like for requests? Like how much notice would you like? And Is there anything else I could do to make working together easier? So that was the first thing I said, and it didn't work right away. At first, he was actually not that happy. So the result is twofold because there's another action coming. So the result at first was he didn't respond super well. He wanted to communicate only by email, and he was still very non-responsive. He wanted to talk a ton He wanted a ton of notice for anything that he was working on, and it wasn't always possible to give him as much notice as he wanted. And when I asked him what we could do to make things easier, he just said nothing. And in general, he just seemed really grumpy and unhappy. So he was a great developer, though I knew I couldn't give up because he would— we would just be starting at square one where we needed to get this job done and we were just being interrupted. So the second action I took I was asking him what was really going on. So this is where I got really personal with him, and I just sat down. I brought him a cup of coffee, and I said, what's going on with you? Is everything okay? I feel like our working relationship could be a lot better, and I'd like to make sure that you're okay because you don't really seem like yourself. So this was where the great result came. This is where it all kind of came together. So this is where we wrap it up. And he said, he broke down and he said, To tell you the truth, I'm really overwhelmed. I've been having issues sleeping and I have had so much work pile up. So many people have these expectations of me and I haven't been able to meet them. And I'm really sorry for giving you the cold shoulder. And I'm sorry that I've been difficult to work with lately, but this is what's really happening. So he appreciated my concern. Wanted to make a better effort to let me know where things were at. And from then on, it went a lot better. So step 4 is the bonus, which is the interesting features to highlight anything interesting about the story. So for me, the learning here was that this person wasn't actually difficult to communicate at all with under normal circumstances, but the thing that was causing him the problem was twofold, both his lack of sleep And a lot of work making him cranky. So his communication skills were fine. The problem went deeper than that, and it was way beyond the actual surface of what it looked like. And there you have it, the full-on answer to how to communicate with somebody who's difficult to communicate. If you're ever asked about your communication skills or anything like that, give them a story like this and you are sure to nail that answer. So can you think of a time when you had the opportunity to break down communication barriers with somebody? How did you feel afterwards, and how did it turn out? Thank you for watching. This is Natalie TV. I'm Natalie Fisher. Remember, nailing the interview questions is great, but there is so much more to it than just that. In fact, if all you do is answer the questions, you've already lost the interview. So you need to have an entire interview strategy at play. So that's what I help you with in my free guide and in my programs. So if you'd like to get started with me, you can click the link below, grab my free guide. It's called The Ultimate Guide to Situational Interviewing. It's got 10 examples, much like the one that you just saw in this video, but all different, answering the top 10 interview questions that you're most likely to be asked. In the behavioral interview setting, and it's got an in-depth look at the SARI formula and the psychology behind why it works so well. You're going to get a series of concrete examples, the top 10 most commonly asked questions. You're going to get fill-in-the-blank templates, so everything you want to know, you just fill in the blanks and you'll be prepared to answer your own questions. Then you just got to practice. So if you're still getting stuck because preparing for your own stories is very tough, I've also included, uh, 25 questions that you can ask yourself to come up with your own stories much faster, more effectively, and without so much effort. You'll get all this in a beautifully designed workbook designed specifically to prepare you for your next situational interview questions. And by the end of working through the guide, I think you're going to be a lot better than you were before. So thanks again for watching. I look forward to seeing you on the other side. I have to itch my nose and I had to itch it throughout the entire video and it's been really hard. I thought I was gonna sneeze. Okay, we're done. Sorry, I wasn't like picking it, I was just itching. And I hope that you didn't hear Carly because she's kind of running around in the background. I think there was a dog outside barking or something.
