Speaker 1: In this video, I'm going to share how to answer questions related to resolving conflict. I'll share what to avoid, and I'm also going to share an example answer, and I'll break down the strongest parts so that you can use something similar in your own interview. I'm Amri Celeste, an interview coach and HR recruitment specialist with over 10 years hiring experience, and I make videos to help you get hired, so if you're job hunting or interviewing, do like and subscribe. Now, whenever I discuss conflict, I find that people think of an argument or disagreement of some kind, which is fairly accurate, but in order to really nail this answer, it's important to really understand the meaning of the word. So conflict is defined as a serious disagreement, typically a protracted one, and protracted means something that went on for an extended or very long period of time. So if you're asked about this, your interviewer wants to know how you were able to solve a serious problem or an argument that went on for some time, not just a petty squabble. It's also important to be ready to answer this question in any variation or format that it's asked in, so let's look at the different ways that your interviewer could ask you about resolving conflict, so that you don't get caught out in your interview. They may not even mention conflict directly in their question. It could be something like, tell me about a time when you had a long-standing disagreement with a client, a colleague, a customer, or your manager. Or it could be, tell me about a time when you were incompatible with a colleague, or you just had a personality clash with someone at work. And those were some of the meanings that we saw under conflict on Google. But it could be something as simple as, how do you handle conflict? Give me an example of a time you had a conflict at work. Give me an example of a time when you had to resolve a serious conflict. Or for a management or leadership role, it could be something like, give me an example of a time when you had to resolve a conflict between colleagues or team members. It might be something direct, like how do you handle conflict resolution and share examples. So they might ask you for examples in the question. Now those questions were slightly different, but all centered around resolving conflict. And even in the ones where they don't ask you about conflict directly, I can tell you that they don't just want to hear about your argument and all the juicy details. They want to know what was the situation, what was the outcome. And if you were the one to resolve it, then you absolutely want to include this in your answer. If you use an intermediary like HR or another manager, then you can mention that too. Why do interviewers ask? I always look at why interviewers ask, because it helps you to think about what you would include in your answer before I even give you the example. And that's what this channel is about, is getting you to a point where you can form your own answers yourself. So what they want to know can vary depending on the job, but the most simple answer is they want to know if you can resolve a conflict or a dispute. Now this could be to test something like your communication skills, because communication is a huge part of effectively resolving conflict, which we'll look at in the answer. But it could also be a behavioural question, where they want to see how you deal with challenges at work, or how you handle relationships with difficult people. Generally, I would say that questions relating to conflict fall under the behavioural interview question category. If you're going for a role in a team where you would regularly be involved in resolving conflicts like complaints handling or HR, where you might be dealing with grievances, then this could be related to that. But if you are going to manage a team, or as I mentioned earlier, going into a leadership position, then they may be assessing for that. Because if you are managing a team, then at some point you will be dealing with conflict. And it could be low-level conflict, or something more serious in your team or department, or possibly your division. What not to do? When you're answering this question, I would recommend not making the conflict too light. Like, I had a very rude colleague who never said good morning, or I had a colleague that was always late to meetings. Unless their lateness caused a significant inconvenience, or a negative impact that then led to a long-term conflict. How to answer? An example answer to tell me about a time you had conflict at work is, a colleague at work gained a reputation for being lazy. Multiple team members felt they created more work for the rest of the team by not completing tasks efficiently. This went on for months and stirred up resentment and ongoing conflict with various team members. Eventually, this person became isolated from the rest of the team, and several team members told me they were planning to report this person to management. Before we spoke to management, I sat down with affected team members. I explained that although the actions of this person are frustrating, things seem to have escalated over the months, and the working environment was now very toxic. I thought we should communicate with this person to see if we could resolve this conflict before flagging to management. I asked if they could imagine how it might feel to be approached by management in this way, knowing that many of your colleagues had an issue, but have not spoken to you. The majority agreed to wait until I'd spoken to this colleague. I volunteered to speak to this person one-on-one, as opposed to an intimidating group conversation. When I sat down with this colleague, they were completely aware that the mood at work had changed towards them, but they had no idea why. They wanted to have a happier working environment. I explained that multiple situations have caused frustration, and they explained that they were going through a very volatile divorce, which had caused a lack of concentration and focus at work. But they were glad I had spoken to them, as they were not aware of what the problem was, and felt very isolated. I spoke to the team members that had an issue, without disclosing specifics of my colleague's divorce. I simply explained that there were serious personal issues, and we agreed to find a way to be more supportive of this person through their difficult time. They appreciated the support, and over a short time, their quality of work improved, along with their relationship with other team members. This experience encouraged the team to communicate more, when they were experiencing frustration in future. I do have another example answer to this question, in my top 10 situational interview questions and answers video. So I will link that in the description below this video. Sometimes it can be helpful to look at alternative answers, to give yourself a wider variety to build your own answer from. So there's a lot of strong points in this answer, that could be transferred to your own answer. So let's take a look. First of all, there is the frustration with the colleague not pulling their weight. To be clear, what makes this a conflict, is that it went on for some months, and created resentment and a difficult working environment. In your own answer, you can use any example with a client, customer, colleague, or a manager. For example, a client or customer with a long history of complaints that you resolved. Maybe a colleague that you clashed with, or a manager that did something that irritated you on a consistent basis, that ended up damaging your working relationship with them, and you took steps to resolve and repair it. So there are five key skills represented in this answer, and you can focus your answer on any one of them, or multiple to strengthen your answer, and I'll show you how. Number one is behavioural logic. In this answer, it's very clear what this person's motivations were, and why they took each action. Whether or not you agree with them, there were clear behaviours demonstrated in relation to resolving the conflict. One thing to bear in mind is that when it comes to resolving conflict, there's no one way or right way to go about it. People have different behaviours and personalities, and when you're resolving conflict, they can and do respond in different ways. But when you're answering this question, you can show a clear behavioural logic behind your actions, which basically means explain why you took each step. This shows what your behaviours are in relation to conflict resolution. Two is emotional maturity. In this answer, this person doesn't give in to mob mentality, and go along with other colleagues, which could have been the easy option. It takes a lot of emotional maturity to go against the crowd, especially when that crowd is irritable. So this person took active steps to resolve the conflict, and showed emotional intelligence and caution with their approach. In your answer, it's important to show that you took a balanced approach, and that you're emotionally mature enough to step outside of any anger or frustration you or others were feeling, to try to understand the other person with an open mind. If this has given you any value so far, do leave a comment below and let me know. I would highly appreciate any key takeaways, so I know what's been most useful for you. Three is open communication. Communication should always heavily underpin your approach when you're talking about conflict, upset or disagreement, and should basically be the theme of your answer. This is especially important if your answer involves an example where multiple people, as well as yourself, were involved in the conflict. In this answer, this person sat down with the team and communicated their feelings about how this person seemed to have spiraled, affecting the working atmosphere. And that was before they even communicated directly with the colleague. They explored all direct communication before making this person feel uncomfortable by reporting them. They also volunteered to speak to this person separately one-on-one, as people tend to clam up when they're approached by a group. It's a little more intimidating. And due to this approach, the colleague opened up and revealed a very personal and deeply stressful situation that they were going through. Skill four is empathy. This is such a powerful skill when handling conflict, because it's very difficult, if not impossible, to resolve a conflict if you're only thinking about yourself and the outcome you want, as opposed to what the other person might be experiencing. So this person not only showed empathy, but encouraged empathy by asking the team members to put themselves in the shoes of this person to imagine how it would feel. And once you're doing this, you're visualizing yourself in a situation where you feel people ganging up on you, and it's easier to feel empathy. Being able to invoke empathy in others is an incredibly powerful skill when it comes to resolving conflict. In your own answer, you can do this by showing how you asked the person that you had conflict with to imagine a scenario that was affecting you negatively, or how you asked others to do the same, like in this answer. They also demonstrated showing support for this person while they were struggling. Skill five is discretion. Now, it doesn't mention in this answer that this person asked the colleague to keep the disclosure of the divorce a secret, but it's a highly personal situation, and this person showed measured judgment and discretion by not disclosing specifics to the team, but still giving them enough information that it affected change to the way that they treated that colleague. If discretion is required in the job that you're going for, then I would say that it's paramount that you demonstrate the skill of discretion in your interview. If it's not required in the job, then it's still a useful skill because discretion actually shows initiative. It shows that you have the good sense to understand that disclosing certain information can affect other people negatively, but if it's not required, then it's just a bonus skill, not essential. Six is patience. I know I said there were five, but I realised that patience is also a skill that's demonstrated in this answer. In this answer, this person encourages patience from the wider team while they speak to this person, then again, while they offer support and give this person time to improve. Patience is really a bonus skill that is incredibly helpful when showing how you approach conflict resolution. If you're getting value from this, I would really appreciate a like. It is incredibly impactful and ensures that this video will be shown to more people looking for interview answers on conflict resolution. Now, as you can see on the right of this answer are the words situation, task, action, result, and this is because I used the STAR method, also known as the STAR technique, to answer this question. Situation, task, action, result is what STAR stands for and it's a brilliant framework to use if you're interviewing. It helps you to form well-structured, well-thought-out answers that are also concise. So if you're job hunting or interviewing, you do need to know how to use it. In this example, the situation and task was the ongoing conflict, the colleague not completing tasks properly and stirring up resentment among the team. The actions were approaching the team and the colleague, and the ultimate result was that the team members decided not to go to management and the colleagues' work and relationships improved. You can check out one of these two videos to get a clearer understanding of the STAR method. Both include example answers, but this one is more focused on an in-depth understanding of the method itself, and this one is more focused on forming interview answers using the STAR method. So I'll link both of those videos in the description below this video. Now, if you liked that interview answer, you'll probably like my top 20 interview answers guide. It covers answers to really tough questions like what is your greatest weakness? And give me an example of a time when you thought outside the box. It's completely free, and you can get yours by clicking the link in the description below this video. Thank you so much for watching. If you haven't, do like and subscribe, and I will see you in the next video.