Decisiveness
“Tell me about a time when you were required to
make a decision that could have had potential nega-
tive outcomes. How did you make this decision?”
■“I had to decide what members of the team we could do
without. They were to be laid off as a result of my decision.
I struggled with the names, but in the end I chose the
stronger members of the team to stay.”
■“Part of leading a team is making decisions that could
have an impact on the outcome of a project. I knew that
the costs of a certain project we were working on were
going to exceed budget, but I made the decision to move
forward anyway. In the end the project was completed,
but the rewards promised were not fulfilled. It was a nega-
tive experience that I have tried to avoid in all my jobs
since that one.”
■“I had to make a decision whether to give information
to my boss that would change the nature of our project
before we even got started. I could have held the informa-
tion back, and we would have all had several months’
work. But in the end I had to share my information with the
head of the department. The information had a negative
effect on the morale of the group for some time. I feel I did
the right thing even though it was a tough decision at the
time.”
“You may be required to make key decisions when
I’m out of the office. How do you feel about that?”
■“I was acting supervisor at my last position a great deal of
the time. I had to make decisions about money expendi-
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