Give me an example of leading a team through a difficult situation

• Decisions, not status. Having chaired a student society proves nothing in itself. What counts are the two or three moments when you had to make a call that was not comfortable.
• How you treated people. How you spoke to the person not pulling their weight, how you split the work, how you handled those who disagreed.
• The outcome for the group. Leadership is measured by what the team achieved, and by the state it was in at the end.
• Your perspective. A candidate who says what they would do differently sounds more mature than one who tells a flawless story.

1. 1

   Pick a situation with a real obstacle

   An impossible deadline, a member who drops out, a fundamental disagreement on direction, a project taking on water. Without difficulty there is no leadership to show, only coordination.
2. 2

   Describe your diagnosis

   Before acting you understood something: why the team was stuck, what was really blocking it. This part shows that you think before you decide.
3. 3

   Tell two or three specific actions

   What you said to whom, what you decided to drop, how you reorganised the work. Stay in the first person and in the concrete, including the awkward conversations.
4. 4

   End on the result and on what you learned

   What the team delivered, what the members said about it, and one thing you do differently since when you lead a group.

"In my final year I coordinated a team of six students on a consulting project for a small business, through my school's student consultancy. Three weeks before the deadline we had barely half the analysis, and two members had almost stopped replying. At first I assumed it was a motivation problem. Calling them one by one, I understood something else: the scope I had agreed with the client was too wide, and each of them had lost heart facing a part they considered impossible.

I made two decisions. I called the owner back and proposed cutting the project down to two of the four planned questions, explaining frankly why. Then I redid the allocation with the team, in pairs, so that nobody was left alone with a blocker..."

This example is made up: it shows the tone and the construction, not a script to memorise. Your answer has to come from your own experience or from the data the interviewer gives you.

• Describing a role instead of a situation: "I was responsible for twelve people and managed the budget". We still do not know what you did.
• Saying "we" from start to finish. The interviewer cannot tell your contribution from the group's, and will ask.
• Presenting the others as incompetents you rescued. A good leader explains why the team was struggling and does not put it down.