Handling Crises
“Tell me about a time when you had to react quickly
to a situation.”
■“We often have rush orders, which means that we have to
drop everything and run. We had a situation like that last
month where the customer wanted a delivery in the
evening mail. Fortunately, I know a post office that is open
until midnight. I had to work until almost that time to meet
this deadline, but I was able to do it. I am known for doing
whatever it takes to get the job done.”
■“When I was an officer in the military, I had a crew of eight
men under me. We were on our way home to a much-
needed leave when we received orders to return to the
country we had just left. There was a national emergency
at the time, and we had no recourse. I had to do some sym-
pathetic talking to try to get morale back up, pointing out
that we were doing something that was going to make a
difference. Outside we all accepted the assignment and did
our job. Inside we were all really feeling down. In the end
we did the job we signed on to do.”
■“On my way out of the office one night I received a ‘panic’
call from a key customer. He needed a document sent to
him by 8:00 A.M.the next day. There was nothing to do but
to back track and start my day over instead of ending it. I
worked two extra hours and then drove to a post office to
send the document by next day express. I got the job
done. The customer was grateful, and that’s what matters
to me.”
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