Career Diversity

By: GottaMentor.com





QUESTION
Can you give me an example of a time when you failed?

Weak Answer
During my internship last summer, my manager asked me to analyze the attractiveness of launching a new sales channel for our product line that would complement our existing sales efforts, and then present it to the functional heads of our group. I gathered all the data I could internally and externally as quickly as I could to meet an aggressive timeline my manager gave me. I did a thorough analysis of the profitability of our current sales channels and the potential incremental revenues, costs and implementation issues associated with the new venture. When I presented what was a really rigorous analysis and set of recommendations, the sales director (who was not my manager) challenged every assumption I made, hammered me for not understanding the people issues well enough, and turned what should have been a big win for me into an unexpected setback. I kept hoping that my manager would come to my defense in the meeting, especially after she gave me such a short timeframe to finish the work, but she never did.

Strong Answer

I should have foreseen that presenting data showing that the sales director could be managing his existing channels more profitably could create problems that even my boss might not be able to solve during the meeting. I should have found the time to pre-wire the sales director and position my recommendations in a way that would have gotten his support in the meeting. I learned that no matter how sound your analysis may be, what is often as important are the qualitative people issues that are critical to getting support for your recommendations.

Commentary
There are four keys to answering questions about failures, setbacks or weaknesses:

1. Provide legitimate examples of failures, rather than veiled attempts at communicating how good you are (e.g. The classic “I am a perfectionist” answer to the question “what are your weaknesses?”) The examples you use should clearly communicate that you did something that contributed directly to the failure and were accountable for it, rather than leave doubt as to whose fault it was.

2. Communicate what you learned from the situation and how you will handle it differently going forward

3. Communicate why it is relevant - how learning that lesson has made you a better person/ professional.

4. Include just the right level of detail about the example so the audience understands the situation clearly but does not get distracted by too many details. Do not waste time sharing all the details about what happened, as what really matters is what you learned from it.