You passed the recruiter and the first round of interviews. Now you meet the recruitment manager. They will probably ask you a series of behavioral questions to evaluate whether you are a good cultural fit for the team. They will also assess whether they believe that you have the manager and leadership challenges for the role.
Preparation for behavioral interviews can be nerve -racking. The bet is high and it is easy to feel overwhelmed by all the possible scenarios they can throw at you. I have spent more than a dozen plus for years preparing people on interviews and talking to people on the recruitment side. As a result, I have developed an approach to behavioral questions that will help you shine in the behavioral interview. It’s about making sure you start strong.
The star framework and why it doesn’t work completely
Many people use the star framework to structure the answers of interviews. This method helps candidates to describe their experiences to illustrate the desired competencies. Start with “s” the situation they were confronted with, “t” their task, “a” which action they took and “r” the result they achieved.
Now this framework will help you to organize your thoughts and to distil a story to illustrate your experience and competencies. Unfortunately, this approach fails rhetorically because it lacks a strong start. If you lead with situations or context before you reach the task, the interviewer must wait too long for the payment. You risk losing the interviewer before achieving the action and results.
An interview is like any presentation, you have about 30 seconds somewhere to crochet your audience. Starting strong means a clear, concise explanation of value that records what kind of leader or manager you are. It also offers the interviewer a blueprint of where to listen in your response.
How behavioral interviews work
Behavioral interviews are based on the starting point that past experiences are a predictor of future performance. The questions are generally less about getting the “right” answer. The point is to help the interviewer understand your approach, how you think, how you relate to others and your values.
As a staff manager told me: “When a candidate explains how he or she thinks about solving a problem, I get much more insight into what it would be like to have in my team than from them that they recite the solution.”
In my opinion, the Star formula focuses too much on the story and not enough on the meaning. To borrow language from the Golden Circle model of Simon Sinek for organizations, interview candidates who strictly adhere to the star approach that focus too much on the ‘what’ and not enough on the ‘how’ or the ‘why’. When you start your answer by naming the principles or values that have led your action, you quickly touch the core of the matter. You also refer the interviewer about what you should listen to while the story unfolds.
How you prepare for behavioral interviews
The Star method is a good start to help you distil the stories that illustrate your experience and competence. But to ensure that you have a strong start for every star story. Think about the fundamental values that have led your actions. This can be empathy, responsibility, cooperation, customer focus, data -driven decision -making, fairness, relationships, trust or transparency. Articulating these principles will help determine what kind of leader, manager or contribution you are.
Examples of strong answers
After you have identified a set of 5-8 principles or values, you can use them to frame almost any answer. For example:
Behavior question #1
“Tell me about a time when you had to influence without authority.”
“Influencing without authority was an important part of my role at ABC Company. There were three things that I always tried to keep in mind: empathy for my cross-functional stakeholders, transparent communication and ruthless customer focus.
On XYZ Project, as a product manager (situation) I had to influence my technical counterpart to work for an aggressive timeline (task). I knew her team was under a lot of pressure. I had a series of 1: 1 conversations with her about the requirements. I made sure I listened with empathy, so that I understood all her limitations (action).
I also shared the potential impact of the customer of the position. It turned out that her team had pronounced frustration that she did not feel appreciated. So it was the key that she could motivate her team to work on a more visible position (action). We found a few compromises and could land on a timeline that would be a piece for her team, but what she was enthusiastic about (result). ”
Here are some other examples of strong starts:
Behavioral question #2
“What was a time that you failed?”
“Let me first start to say that, in order to be useful, it must go further than what you have done before, and so there is always a risk to scale. The key is to communicate to stakeholders as soon as I know we are going to miss, taking the property of failure and using an opportunity to learn.
Behavioral question #3
“How did you manage the conflict within your organization?”
“Well, conflict is inevitable, and in my opinion, if it is treated with empathy for both participants with accountability for results, it can be a chance to learn more about each other and to build trust and improve cooperation.
The importance of principles
As soon as you have a strong list of principles, you can connect to almost any behavioral demand and determine the answer. And if your interview is on video, you can write all your values on a message and add them to your monitor. This will act as a reminder to check you during the interview. You can then start any response with an articulation of your values and priorities. This will ensure that your interviewer gets a real feeling, not only what you have done, but also how you approach problem solving and what you stand for.
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