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Have You Ever Had Difficulty Working With a Manager?
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Watch what you say and be careful answering questions about previous managers.
You don't want to come across as difficult, and you want to cast any past experiences in the most positive light possible.
Even if your manager was awful, you don't need to say so. You don’t know if perhaps your interviewer knows your former boss personally, and you also don’t know when your paths might cross again. It is always smart to be as considerate as possible when describing your relationship with a difficult manager. You gain nothing by coming across as bitter.
Discuss the strengths your past supervisors had and how they helped you succeed in your positions.
Examples of the Best Answers
Hear are sample answers to the interview question "Have you ever had difficulty working with a manager?" Tailor your response to fit your personal circumstances.
- I have been very lucky to have had terrific managers during my career so far. I have respected each of them, and got along well with all of them.
- I once had a manager who brought her own problems into work with her on a daily basis. She was going through a difficult time in her personal life, which everyone tried to sympathize with, but it affected the atmosphere in the office. It didn't impact my work, but the situation was challenging.
- No, I am a hard worker, and my managers always seem to appreciate the job I'm doing. I've got along well with every manager I've had.
- I had a rocky start with a manager earlier in my career, because we had different expectations for the flow of the workday. Once we talked about it, we realized that our goals were very compatible, and we were able to work very successfully together for several years.
- I have found that if I take the time to talk with my manager at the beginning of a project, we can all get off to a great start on the same page.
- I did have an experience where I thought my new supervisor was unhappy with me. So I made a point to arrive early one day so I could talk to her in private. It turned out, she was not unhappy with me at all and she apologized if she came across that way.
- How do you feel about working on a team? - Best Answers
How to Answer: Use the STAR Technique
No matter how the question is phrased, you want to use examples from your past to show that you work well in a team environment. Questions that focus on examples from your past are called behavioral interview questions.
Behavioral interview questions are those in which interviewers are looking for a concrete example of your past work experiences. Examples of behavioral interview of questions include, "Tell me about a time you handled conflict" and "Give me an example of when you needed to solve a problem creatively.” Looking to your work history is a way for an employer to learn if you’ll be a good fit for the new job.
To answer questions about teamwork, choose an example of a time you worked in a team environment. If you don’t have much work history, you can use an example from school, a club, or a volunteer experience. Think of a specific time when you worked very well as a team player, or helped achieve a team goal.
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When answering the question, you should use the use the STAR interview response technique:
- Situation: Describe the context, or situation. Explain where and when you worked in this particular team setting.
- Task: Explain the mission of the team – describe the particular project you were working on, or what kind of teamwork you had to do. If there was a particular problem in the group, explain that problem or challenge.
- Action: Describe the actions you took to complete the teamwork, or solve the particular problem.
- Result: Finally, explain the result of the actions taken. Emphasize what your team accomplished, or what you learned.
How to Answer: Be Positive
Also make sure that your answer expresses your positive feelings about teamwork. Remember, the employer is asking this question because teamwork is probably necessary for the job. Be positive, but also honest.
Of course, if you really do not like to work as part of a team, and the employer asks lots of questions about teamwork, that might be a sign that this is not the right job for you.
Best Answers
Read below for sample answers to the interview question, “How Do You About Feel Working in a Team Environment?”
- I believe that I have a lot to contribute to a team environment; I love to help resolve group issues through research and communication. For example, during planning for a major event, our team struggled to decide how to set up the room. Rather than get in an argument about personal preferences, I did some research using event planning industry trade publications to find information on the best room setup for customer experience for our type of event. By sharing the research and the rationale, my coworkers and I agreed this was the best approach and we had a great event. Customer satisfaction was up several percentage points over last year's event.
- I enjoy working in a team environment, and I get along well with people. In my past work experience, I implemented a system to help organize the communication between my coworkers to enhance our productivity as a team. This helped us delegate tasks more easily, which led to earlier completion dates.
- I prefer teamwork. Different team members contribute different perspectives and the synergy between team members can produce creative and productive results. I love to help draw out the unique skill sets of different team members. For example, I recently worked on a large group project in which one or two introverted members were not sharing their opinions with the group. I suggested breaking our large group into smaller teams for a brainstorming session. In these smaller teams, the quieter members became more vocal, and shared some terrific ideas. These ideas became part of our strategy, and helped us successfully complete the project.
- How do you feel working in a team environment? - Best Answers
How to Answer: Use the STAR Technique
No matter how the question is phrased, you want to use examples from your past to show that you work well in a team environment. Questions that focus on examples from your past are called behavioral interview questions.
Behavioral interview questions are those in which interviewers are looking for a concrete example of your past work experiences. Examples of behavioral interview of questions include, "Tell me about a time you handled conflict" and "Give me an example of when you needed to solve a problem creatively.” Looking to your work history is a way for an employer to learn if you’ll be a good fit for the new job.
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To answer questions about teamwork, choose an example of a time you worked in a team environment. If you don’t have much work history, you can use an example from school, a club, or a volunteer experience. Think of a specific time when you worked very well as a team player, or helped achieve a team goal.
When answering the question, you should use the use the STAR interview response technique:
- Situation: Describe the context, or situation. Explain where and when you worked in this particular team setting.
- Task: Explain the mission of the team – describe the particular project you were working on, or what kind of teamwork you had to do. If there was a particular problem in the group, explain that problem or challenge.
- Action: Describe the actions you took to complete the teamwork, or solve the particular problem.
- Result: Finally, explain the result of the actions taken. Emphasize what your team accomplished, or what you learned.
How to Answer: Be Positive
Also make sure that your answer expresses your positive feelings about teamwork. Remember, the employer is asking this question because teamwork is probably necessary for the job. Be positive, but also honest.
Of course, if you really do not like to work as part of a team, and the employer asks lots of questions about teamwork, that might be a sign that this is not the right job for you.
Best Answers
Read below for sample answers to the interview question, “How Do You About Feel Working in a Team Environment?”
- I believe that I have a lot to contribute to a team environment; I love to help resolve group issues through research and communication. For example, during planning for a major event, our team struggled to decide how to set up the room. Rather than get in an argument about personal preferences, I did some research using event planning industry trade publications to find information on the best room setup for customer experience for our type of event. By sharing the research and the rationale, my coworkers and I agreed this was the best approach and we had a great event. Customer satisfaction was up several percentage points over last year's event.
- I enjoy working in a team environment, and I get along well with people. In my past work experience, I implemented a system to help organize the communication between my coworkers to enhance our productivity as a team. This helped us delegate tasks more easily, which led to earlier completion dates.
- I prefer teamwork. Different team members contribute different perspectives and the synergy between team members can produce creative and productive results. I love to help draw out the unique skill sets of different team members. For example, I recently worked on a large group project in which one or two introverted members were not sharing their opinions with the group. I suggested breaking our large group into smaller teams for a brainstorming session. In these smaller teams, the quieter members became more vocal, and shared some terrific ideas. These ideas became part of our strategy, and helped us successfully complete the project.
- Do you prefer teamwork or working independently? - Best Answers
Why Interviewers Want to Know
The interviewer or hiring manager wants to hear that you are comfortable working independently and are equally open to working and sharing responsibility with others.
A person is likely to slightly prefer one over the other, but highlighting the benefits of both approaches will make you a more dynamic, complex applicant.
Although there is no explicitly correct answer, different approaches may be more appropriate for different scenarios. Different situations in the workplace may require independence while others will need the efforts of an entire team.
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Take caution in exaggerating your abilities to work independently or in a group, as it may backfire. Showing too much independence may concern employers about your ability to work well with others, and likewise, leaning too heavily toward working in a group may indicate too much reliance on the group.
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