Either in the interviews or applications, I often
stumbled with this question: "Describe a situation in which you
demonstrated your leadership skills to solve a serious problem in professional life”.
From my point of view, it is a very important question requiring clarity,
precision and concision. The following is my answer.
It had been only three months into my being
hired at the Finance Department at Paltel (Palestinian Telecommunications) as
an accountant, when the HQ Finance Department assigned me a task for the first
time. This task was to be the head of two sales centers’ stock-taking
committee; and one of the centers is the largest sales center in the company.
By the way, this was my first job after having done three internships. Here are
the steps I took:
1. Read the guidelines of stock-taking and the
responsibilities of the committee leader and understood them clearly.
2. Researched the profile of the team members.
3. Looked for any documentation related to the
task that I had to perform.
4. Had an informal meeting with the key
members to go through an overview regarding the activities of the task.
5. Consulted my colleague who has tremendous
experience in this area.
After that I discovered the actual challenge:
I was leading a team of 3 members, each one of which had at least 5 years of
experience in the sales centers, one of them having been the head of a sales
center stock-taking committee before. The simple fact was, I was the youngest
in age with no previous experience in this job. In addition, the time was
limited and I had only one day to finish work at the two centers and send the
reports to the HQ finance Department. Moreover, there was pressure on me since
the department had assigned me the job, even though there were other skillful
employees. Also, I didn't want to let them down, I need to take this chance to prove
that they can trust me.
Here is what I did: breaking the ice, as a
team leader, was my first action. I am responsible for making everyone feel
that he/she is part of the team and is not excluded. I already had a defined
plan in my head. However, I asked them about their experiences over the past
year, asked them for any suggestions, and asked them what roles they wanted to
perform in the plan. By doing that, I made them feel that my plan is their plan
and gained their trust. Then, I delegated the tasks to the team as per each one’s
experience and skill.
At the stage of execution, I introduced myself to the employees since I was new in the company; I found that the employees were very nervous, since the report I was making would affect them either positively or negatively. So, even though I didn't want to be the bad guy, at the same time I had to fulfill my duties. For that reason, whenever I found drawbacks and deficiencies, I encouraged them to be open about it; I convinced them that this process is only for evaluation purposes rather than scrutiny.
At the stage of execution, I introduced myself to the employees since I was new in the company; I found that the employees were very nervous, since the report I was making would affect them either positively or negatively. So, even though I didn't want to be the bad guy, at the same time I had to fulfill my duties. For that reason, whenever I found drawbacks and deficiencies, I encouraged them to be open about it; I convinced them that this process is only for evaluation purposes rather than scrutiny.
All in all, I
accomplished the mission successfully: I had demonstrated my leadership skills,
along with my delegation and communication skills, my ability to work under
pressure, leading a team with differing levels of experience, reporting and
social intelligence skills.
Now, what about you, have you ever been in a
similar situation? How did you overcome it?
