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100 COMPETENCY-BASED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Despite my efforts, he never asked for assistance and he continued to per-
form poorly.

Result: In the end, I fired him. Or, I should say, he fired himself be-

cause I gave him the opportunity to succeed.

Question 64. Give an example of a situation in which you changed the

status quo in order to cultivate leaders.

Situation: The managers at National Stillwater promoted or praised

employees who never ruffled feathers. They frequently overlooked employees
who questioned procedures or offered suggestions for improvement—unfor-
tunately, these people were usually labeled “difficult.” From my point of view,
that was a mistake. The managers needed to differentiate between doers and
visionaries, and to promote accordingly.

Action: I instituted a training program that emphasized the character-

istics and accomplishments that managers should search for when defining
the leaders in their departments.

Result: The number of qualified leaders who moved up the corporate

ladder grew as a result.

Question 65. Describe a time when you managed an individual who

had excellent hard skills, but needed help with his or her soft skills.

Obstacle: A technician in my department was effective at his job. Un-

fortunately, before he attended to customer problems, he would provide the
customers with ways they could have avoided the situation in the first place.
Though that information was useful, the customers felt that he should first fix
the problem and then lay out the details of how to avoid troubles in the future.

Action: I spoke with the technician and explained the situation while

complimenting his hard skills.

Result: His work continued to be stellar, and at the same time the

number of complaints I received decreased tremendously.

Employee Motivation

Employees are an organization’s richest resource. Motivated teams lead
to better results in the marketplace. As such, interviewers will ask ques-

American Management Association
www.amanet.org