“Have you ever had a conflict at work that you
couldn’t resolve? What did you do?”
■“It was when I was new at an accounting job. There was a
woman there who had been there for four years, and I
expected her to take the lead. We had a problem commu-
nicating because of a difference in expectations from each
other. I approached her and tried to talk to her to see if we
could find some common ground. Unfortunately it did not
work out. My boss got involved to see what he could do
and set the two of us down to see if we could work things
out. We just had different personalities and work standards,
and we finally agreed to disagree but to treat each other
with respect as professionals. We continued to work
together on projects, but as professionals and not friends.”
■“When I was a volunteer working with a group of scouts, I
had an encounter with a parent that didn’t get resolved
but eventually became a moot issue. One parent did not
agree with the way I was organizing things and was very
vocal about it. I tried to tell him that all the decisions I
make are in the best interest of the troop. But he thought
my ideas were holding his child back. We had several
exchanges that didn’t result in agreement. Eventually his
child moved on and graduated to a new level in the pro-
gram. I felt that I had reason to hold to my position and
protect the whole group.”
■“I was a student when this happened. I was assigned to
work on a group project with five other members of the
class. We all met, and each person took a share of the work.
After meeting a second time it became apparent that one
guy was not participating or doing his part of the project.
It began to be a big problem and was affecting team
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