Tell me about a time where you dealt with a difficult member in your team!

PrepLounge: Personal Fit
New answer on Mar 20, 2023
10 Answers
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Anonymous A asked on Sep 21, 2019

How would you answer this question in your Personal Fit interview? Receive feedback on your answer and browse through the Q&As to review the approaches of other applicants and experts.

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Daniel
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Mar 24, 2020
McKinsey / ex-Interviewer at McKinsey / I will coach you to rock those interviews

This question is a part of McKinsey personal fit Leadership dimension. Here it’s important to focus on a few things while telling your story:

  • Highlight your interpersonal skills, i.e. focus on how you felt, what you thought about how other people felt, and why you thought other people acted some way or the other (vs focusing on content of the problem);
  • Show that you are able to take initiative, also in a difficult situation like this one;
  • Demonstrate that you can efficiently work with all kinds of people, no matter how difficult they are.

Best,
Daniel

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Clara
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Mar 25, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

This relates to "Personal impact" dimension, where stories relate to stakeholder management, by handling disagreement or conflict situations.

  • Pick a professional disagreement
  • Explain carefully the arguments you used to convince this difficult stakeholder
  • Underline your learnings in the situation

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

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Anonymous F replied on Mar 20, 2023

Have a one on one to figure out root cause and to see how to change it

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Jakob replied on Mar 18, 2023

At the beginning of 2022, a new employee joined the sales team, i was responsible for. We decided to hire him because of his great experience within the market, his large network and the fact, that he worked for a long time for one of our competitors. Due to the fact, that he wanted to relocate his centre of life because of his own family, we accepted a hybrid employment including specific week, when he would join the team onsite at one of our locations. We wanted him to systematically develop a key account management from scratch.

I therefore arranged several personal meeting days with him right at the beginning to make shure, that he would better unterstand our current customer situation, the way we treat them and how we contact them within our customer relationship management tool. He always seemed to to be highly motivated and full of ideas how to create a new strategy. In the following we defined regular meetings where he should give updates to his strategy and the development of the implementation. In the following things changed and it turned out, that our expectation did not match with his results. He was not only overwhelmed with the task itself but also having several topics with his own family. The obvious pressure to succeed was hard on him and also the age gap led to a tense relationship that seemed to hover between us. I therefore decided to respectfully confront him with my observations and to give him the change to also explain his point of view. Even though, his results did not convice us 100 % and led to a restructuring of his work, the honest debate helped both sides, to better handle with the expectations.

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alban replied on Mar 12, 2022

n,

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James replied on Oct 30, 2021

I was worried about this peer who was not making their objectives. I asked if there was any problems in their life that would have an impact on their health and performance. I also advised them I would be there for any support or issues that they may face currently and in the future. I also asked if they needed additional time to adjust to any issues and I would be there to support and motivate them during this difficult period. I will ensure they get back to there same level of success as before. 

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Anonymous E replied on Oct 10, 2021

I am the Manager of a community. A team member came and yelled at me stating she did not want to help the rest of the team deliver letters. I advised her to please note that we work as a team and we all have to contribute. as She became more angry I advised her to go home and relax. She proceeded to throw her keys on my desk and walk out. 

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Anonymous D replied on Oct 10, 2021

one I had a very bad colleague, cheating on me all the time. I took her apart and talked to her, trying to understand her problems. also, I spoke to our bosses to make the situation clear and have the help of the whole team in solving it 

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Anonymous C replied on Aug 19, 2021

When I worked as graduate Researcher, one of my superiors would delay in giving feedback to the point that we could miss deadlines. I addressed this by sending numerous reminders for him to give feedback.

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Anonymous B replied on Apr 17, 2020

.

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Daniel gave the best answer

Daniel

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McKinsey / ex-Interviewer at McKinsey / I will coach you to rock those interviews
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