The Best Way to Prepare and Answer Behavioral Interview Questions

0:00 Today I want to talk about how to think about how to answer some of those interview questions that you get asked likely midway through the interviewing process. I'm going to be very specific today about how I see these interviewing questions surface. And they're they're they're anything related to those questions you tend to worry about because either they're so general like tell me about a disagreement or a challenge you overcame or a problem you solved or they're asking you for your style like what's your leadership style or your leadership approach or whatever that might be and you're just not quite sure how to answer these. And I want to bring some some color and and a new way of thinking about how to answer these so that you can score you can max out your scoring. And what a lot of people do is they make a huge mistake when they prepare for interviews because one of the biggest among the teen mistakes that job candidates make when they prepare for job interviews. One of the biggest mistakes that they make is first thing they do is they start preparing backwards for an interview. What I mean by that is instead of thinking about what do I need to say? What does the employer need to know? What what goals do they have? What aspirations do they have? What problems do they have? And how can I tell stories that articulate how I'm going to address that or how I'm going to help them transform? What a lot of job seekers do is you think backwards. You think what what questions am I going to get asked like what's my leadership style or a disagreement or a challenge? And you try to think in a vacuum about stories you want to tell because you think they're good examples to address that particular issue. Well, number one, that's a very inefficient way to go about prepping. And I could even live with your inefficiency. But what I absolutely cannot have is you choosing the wrong story because you're selecting a story that you think is a good example of a disagreement. And I've got news for you. Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody hires you for your disagreement skills. No one even hires you for the way you lead people. No one, and I mean no one, hires you for the way you solve problems. That's just not what they hire you for. It isn't. They hire you because you're going to transform their lives, their team, their unit, their business, whatever it is, and you're going to help them achieve their goals. So, I want to show you how to think backwards into how to choose the right stories so that you can max out the points you score. Who's tracking with me? This is maybe counterintuitive to what I'm sure it's counterintuitive to what you think and it might be counterintuitive to what other career coaches teach you, but I'm here to tell you that when you're in an interview, you're in sales mode. And the way to sell is to show them how you're going to transform their life. Okay? So, that's the first thing. Now, let's let's let me let me kind of give you an overarching blueprint. And if I had more time, I'd have built you a whole infographic cuz that's my dream with what I'm about to tell you. But since I don't have a lot of time, but I want to get the message across and I don't want you to wait a year for it, I drew this fancy card to show you the anatomy of an interview. This is how 90% of interviews go. And when I say 90, I mean when you get in an interview and you're actually talking to somebody or you're in person or even if you're on a Zoomer or whatever. excluding things like you're going to go take a test or or something like that. Generally speaking, most interviews follow this sequence.

3:38 Okay? There's the intro part, the tell me about yourself. How have you been? What do you do? Who are you? Right? walk me through your resume, those kinds of things. I've given you introduction formulas. They're all over my the internets on my YouTube channel. And then there's what I call a power story. The power story is one of your more complete stories. Not when I say complete, I don't mean 20 minutes. I just mean as fast as possible, as soon as possible in the interview, you want to bring forward a story that helps the employer understand how you're going to how you're going to transform them based on a story that you've created from scenes from your work life, okay, that where you've done something very similar. And so when you look at a job description, you're looking at what is it they want me to do? What deliverables am I going to be responsible for? What are their goals? Whether they explicitly state them or whether I can infer them. What are some of the challenges that they likely are going to need me to help them overcome? And you're looking for a story that addresses all of those. One neatly packaged story. That's what I call a power story. Now, it's great if you have one where you've done something like what they need you to do. You've done it in a different environment, but it looks just like what they're going to need you to do in their environment. That's the Nirvana. Other other times you might have to make analogies and you might have to to cherrypick pieces, but essentially speaking, this power story is it's like it's like the drive in golf. I don't know if you're a golfer. I used to play a lot, but the first shot down the fairway, the way you hit it sets up the whole hole. It sets up the rest of the hole. Whether you're going to be scrambling and trying to get out of trouble, it's maybe the first play in football. If you gain five or six yards, you only have to go four or five yards. You got the whole playbook at your disposal. That's what I'm talking about. That's a power story. And if you're wondering what a power story looks like or how to tell your power story, I have videos on my YouTube channel about my car technique. It's C A R. You can just look it up and you can find out a lot more information on that. But what I want to talk today, what I want to talk about today is the branches. And I use the term branch because I use the term power. So, and I'm an electrical engineer from the Iowa State University. Well, there's electrical branches, those offshoots, so to speak.

6:03 Or if you want to use the branch analogy because you're a horiculturist or you're a nature lover and you want to talk about a big tree, that's your power story. Then you got the branches and then you you get hopefully time to a ask your questions. Now, what are branches? So, if you go through and you tell a power story and you're telling somebody how you ran a project or how you built a built a division or whatever it was, that usually has a lot of the a lot of the the steps that you've taken, a lot of the accomplishments that you made, the things you overcame, all that stuff's neatly packaged. But what what good interviewers will do or even bad interviewers, you will eventually get questions like, hey, based on that project, within that project, what was one of the biggest challenges you overcame, right? That's that's one of those tricky questions or or what was the toughest problem you needed to solve in order to develop the strategy that actually was going to work? Or what was the most difficult issue you had in trying to convince the board or the steering committee to actually put forward the budget in order for you to do that? Okay. So what what happens is whether somebody is just giving you behavioral interview questions and they're just rifling them at you because they told you it's the behavioral interview or whether you're just having a conversation but you've had a chance to get your power story out early. These little branch questions or these confusing questions will come and a lot of the interview will be made up of these follow-up questions. Even if they even if they appear to be reading off a sheet, it doesn't make any difference because you can get your power story out early because the power story is something you should have designed because it's the story that's most illustrative that shows your accomplishments and how you're going to help them transform in their environment. So that's what that's what the interview generally looks like. And so when you're thinking about how do I make the best out of the interview? How do I sell myself the most? I want you to start here. I really want you to start here. I don't want you worrying in a vacuum like, they're going to ask me about the leadership question. they're going to ask me about the disagreement question.

8:08 they're going to ask me about the challenge question. I want you to start and I want you to just think based on the job description or if I don't have a job description, based on the type of company it is, what their product and service is, what team I'm going on, whatever it might be. What are their goals? What are their problems? And what are the solutions that they anticipate? All of this can be ascertained from here because you know what you do. What are you responsible for?

8:36 What is the ultimate goal that you are trying to help somebody achieve on the team you're on? The goal is not to run the project. The goal is not to build the team. The goal is not to design a dashboard or a reporting tool. Those aren't goals. Those are activities. Those are never the goals. The goals are I want to increase my revenue. I want to increase my market share. Things that are related to the grade eight. If you don't know what those are, check that out on my YouTube channel. But ultimately, there are certain metrics that all employers are going for. So, an example that I love to use is if you're on the marketing team, every marketing team that has existed for all time and will exist for all time what wants to what? Raise their company's brand or recognition or awareness. What? Call it whatever you want, but b make it more familiar.

9:26 They want to generate more leads. They want to generate more leads at a lower cost. They want to generate more leads at a lower cost and a higher conversion rate that turn into customers. Those are the kind of goals. I know those will be the goals. There's no question about it. They have to be the goals. That's what a marketing team does. And then their solution might be, well, we need to write better social media copy and attach it to better videos that we're going to circulate on the internets or we're going to put television commercials together or we're going to hold events or we're going to do whatever. Okay. When you are asked a branch question, hopefully you've told a marketing story about how you built a campaign that generated more leads and did it cheaply and turned into high conversion rates or whatever it is that you're doing. When you start to think about these supplemental questions, these tricky ones that you get along the way, like, well, how about a time where where you disagreed with somebody? When you are thinking in advance going into an interview of what you might say if if you're faced with a question like that, I don't want you to think in a vacuum about what your best disagreement was because nobody hires you for your disagreeing skills. What they're hiring you for is to transform their marketing department. the disagreement that you want to choose or the leadership example you want to choose or the influential example that you want to choose or whatever it is that they're asking you needs to be in the context of what it is they want you to accomplish for them. So I'm able to do this in these situations and this is how it's going to affect you. So the first thing you need to do is select your story in the context of their goals, their problems, and their anticipated solution. And then once you once you select the story correctly, you want to prime the story. I call this the context. But whether it's a behavioral interviewing question or a situational question or or you're telling a story about a project, makes no difference. You always, always, always want to preview the story first step, step one, with the answer and the result. Anybody who tells you otherwise has absolutely not clue one about what works in sales. Okay? If I'm going to if I'm a health coach, the first thing I'm going to do is show you somebody who lost 50 pounds on my program, right? He dropped 50 lbs. She dropped 50 lbs in one year or whatever it is. want to know how I did that. So, you got to get their attention early with the result. What does the result? What could the result look like? It could look like there was a $40 million opportunity.

12:13 I'm foreshadowing. There was a sixinute wait time for our customers. They were pissed. Okay. You're telling me likely likely what the issue was, the context, the challenge in a metric form, and I'm going to assume that whatever follows is the path to fix it at a minimum. So, you're always you're always for foreshadowing. I had a two-day lag in the turnaround time when the when our staff put in their their tickets related to their PCs that weren't working. Whatever it is, that comes out early and it comes out first. Second thing is I always want you to ask, well, what is it that I'm trying to sell today? What is it that I'm selling? And so when you think about they're asking me a disagreement question, but I'm not selling disagreeing skills. I'm selling my organizational skills. I'm I'm I'm showing how I'm a I'm a great operator within a team. I'm showing that I know how to transform their marketing department. When you're thinking about how you're going to sequence out your story, it has to include the components that you are selling. And you will always be looking and selling them in a fashion where it's what is it that the employer wants to accomplish? What are those skills I'm trying to show them I have?

13:36 I can see them on the job description because because they spelled them out for me or I can infer them because I know what kind of skills a good project manager has, a good salesperson has, a good accountant has. And then I want to show them how it's going to happen in their environment and then I want to show them how they're going to transform. That's what you're selling. So, when you're looking at telling a story, once you prime the result and you tell them what the challenge is, regardless of how the question flies into you, then what you're ultimately giving them, which they're ultimately buying, and this is where you're going to win the story, is in the steps. So if you get a disagreement question, if you get a leadership question, if you get an in how did you influence question or whatever it might be, when I need to or when I find myself in a disagreement, when I find myself in a situation where I need to influence the management team, where I need to pitch my solution, where I need to lead my staff, when I need to handle a problematic employee, Everything goes into the steps and everything you've done in your entire life has been reverse engineered into this formula and this formula gives you the ability to sell what they're buying. So then what you're going to do is you're going to win the answer right here in the steps. So the first thing I did and the second thing I do and the third thing I do, remember you have not given them yet the specific situation and the exact story you're going to tell them. You only foreshadowed it. You said, "I needed to fix the lag time in the customer service system." You told them there was a problem. You told them exactly what the problem was. There was a 6-minute delay. It was costing us X. It was it was it was it was contributing to the fact that 50% of our customers didn't renew the second year. Whatever it is you want to say up front, they'll understand that as a situation or context. But where you're really going to win the story is citing the steps. This is what they buy. So what do I mean specifically? Well, when so there was this this this six minute lag time and I had this solution on how we were going to fix it, but my my colleague didn't agree with my solution. So you're going to tell them you're going to tell them what the steps are that you would take anytime you disagree, anytime you influence, anytime you lead, whatever the question is, you're going to give them the steps first. because this is what neutralizes the story. They don't hire you because you tell a good disagreement story. They hire you because you know and you have an approach to the way you handle conflict on the staff in the staff in the teams and in the in the building or whatever it is. The first thing I would always do anytime we don't agree on something is I listen. I listen to make sure I have all the information.

16:35 The second thing I do is once I gather the additional information in the other person's point of view, I look to see if based on what I think is there an even better solution. Now I go and I engineer the solution with this additional information in mind. I'm not arguing. I'm not trying to prove my point yet. I'm trying to be a good consultant. Then if I'm able to see a better solution, I want to present that and and let's work that. If I don't see a better solution, I would actually try to share my viewpoint. So when it came to this sixinut lagtime issue where my colleague and I didn't agree I listened to what she had to say it then you go through and you give them you give them the actions. So as I mentioned on this six-minute delay my colleague and I didn't agree. So I listened to her and when she told me this this and this it dawned on me that. So then when I went in and I was trying to think about a new way of approaching it, this is what I came up with. Then finally, as it turned out, based on her information and my better understanding of what the issue was and something that I didn't know, we were able to put an even better solution together.

17:46 Now the story that in that you selected as your example is irrelevant because once they absolutely hear these steps once they hear these steps you're hired. That that's what wins because I'm buying the traits. I'm not buying the story. These is this is where you get to show them how you think what you do and that you have a method for every single thing that you do. and you can reverse engineer it and articulate it to them which makes you a great teacher makes you a great team player makes that the fact that you have a playbook expedites everything that you do on the job. So it's here are the steps when I need to here's what I do here's the example that I was telling you about and then at the end with the result you always want to have the echo of the result you always want to have a crescendo so we not only were able to eradicate that 6 minute delay we got it down to 15 seconds but what we were also able to do was and what then happened was the retention rate went up from 50% to 75%. That's your crescendo at the end. You always want to have a surprise tack on of the result so that whatever you foreshadowed, they're going to assume at a minimum that you you solved that, right? That's what captures their attention. That's what understands helps them understand the overall blueprint of what you're telling them and why it was important. It's what gives you heft to begin with and then you're crescendoing at the end. So, just to recap this, I want you to remember that you're going to spend a lot of your interview time in these branches with these ridiculous questions that they ask you. When you note them, I always want you to make sure that you are asking yourself before I get in before I get into the into the session, what is it that I'm selling? Meaning, what accomplishments am I selling? What skill sets am I selling? You want to make sure that that comes out or that that that comes through in your prep. You want to think of it in these terms. It's what's my accomplishments and my skills that I can show them in their environment that will help them understand how they're going to change or how they're going to improve. And then when you get into the formulas, I want you to think about I want you to think about from a problematic standpoint, from a goal aspiration standpoint or whatever it is, what are their goals and what are their problems and what have I done? And then in the context of my stories, I will peel out those other questions that they could potentially ask me just so I'm very prepared. But I'm not going to think back. I'm not going to think about what stories I want to tell. I'm going to think about them first. I want to think about what they need, the problems they have to overcome, and where in my background I've done exactly that or something very close. Then I will peel these stories within the context of those larger stories that I likely will have already told. And then I can I can do it by again tapping into Andy's car car formula.

20:48 Check that out. Prime it with the result. Make sure make sure that you are running through your steps first. This is a big big success point. And then when I need to, whatever it is, then you tee it up to recap and replay for them what it is that you're about to tell them. Then you go into the story. So whenever, so as I mentioned, here's exactly what happened with this disagreement, when I needed to lead, when I needed to handle the conflict or whatever it is. And then lastly, but not least, never forget to crescendo. If you want more, this is the video I refer a lot of people to. it's a great starting point if you don't know my car technique. It's context and then there's the approach and the action items or basically the actions and then the result. Again, it's an echo. The job interview formula guaranteed to get you hired. I hope you liked that little guy right there. That's a little guy for me anyway in 20 some odd minutes. If you enjoyed it, please click the like button. Share this. People need help. And if you're here with me live, we're going to the chat. If you're watching this on the recording, I'll see you next