Something just isn’t going right: Show
You’re trying to make dinner at a residential program and the stove won’t light… You’ve gotten in the agency vehicle to take a client to a medical appointment and the vehicle won’t start… You’re supposed to work in a particular office that is usually open and the door is locked… So, what do you do? You’re probably not the official stove lighter, or mechanic, or key-holder. What you don’t want to do is go to your boss and just say, “The stove won’t light” or “The car won’t start.” That’s just dumping the problem on someone else. This is not the way you want to present yourself in the workplace. You probably looked to see if the stove’s pilot light was on. You probably at least checked that the lights worked in the car even if it wouldn’t start. Since you’ve done these things, you can go to your boss and say, “I’m trying to make dinner and the stove won’t light. It looks like the pilot light is off. I’m not sure how to light it. If someone can tell me I’ll be happy to do it. If we need to call someone, I’ll go see what I can do for dinner that we can heat in the microwave so we won’t need the stove.” Now you’re a problem-solverYou didn’t just dump the problem in your supervisor’s lap. She may or may not know how to light the pilot light. Even if you didn’t solve the problem of the stove not lighting, you’re taking on making dinner without the need for the stove. You’ve made yourself an active part of the solution and have shown yourself in a very good light. This is the way you should report any problem at work. Report it, but proactively be part of the solution. You’ll want to have given the situation some thought first. Maybe you’ve already solved it. Then you can just report the problem and the solution. (Or, depending on the scenario, you might not need to report it at all.) I recently got an email from a staff member who supervises several other employees. She mentioned that certain staff weren’t doing what they were supposed to do. She just left it at that. Just dumped it in my lap. She is the supervisor of the people she is complaining about. I will be happy to help her think about how to handle the problem. But her making it my problem without any effort on her part makes me more concerned about her performance than that of the staff she is complaining about. Being an active part of the solution is important in all aspects of your work lifeFor example, suppose your home situation has changed and you need a different schedule in order to get to work on time. You’ve been late for the past couple of days and you realize it’s becoming a problem for your workplace. Be proactive. Don’t wait for your boss to bring up your lateness. Instead, ask to speak with him. Apologize for your tardiness and explain what steps you are taking to solve the issue. If a schedule change is really the only way to solve the problem, then say so. But be sure you have thought this through and are not creating different problems for yourself and your employer. This is not a conversation you want to have twice. If you are always a proactive problem solver, you will be more likely to get the new schedule that you need. Being unable to accommodate a requested schedule change is an easy and legitimate way to get rid of an employee who is not perceived as doing a good job. If, however, you demonstrate these proactive problem-solving skills on a regular basis, your employer will want to keep you and will be more likely to work with you to make it possible for you to stay. Stay out of the dramaIt doesn’t matter where you work. There is always someone creating unnecessary drama by constantly complaining, not doing their job, picking arguments with colleagues, and other foolishness. (To see if you have a problem with your attitude at work, read this post.) You’re much better off just staying away from these people. They’re only wasting your time and energy and their negativity will affect you sooner or later. If you get sucked in to this nonsense, you won’t be the proactive problem-solver that you need to be if you want to get ahead at work. If you ever feel that the way to solve a problem at work is to get loud, storm out, or write an email accusing someone of anything at all, STOP. This is a clear sign that you need to take a break. Right now. I had a staff member approach me to say she needed to change sites because she had just come back from a vacation trip with another staff member and they had gotten into a fight while on vacation. She didn’t think they could work together safely. The other staff member approached me with a similar request. I did give them separate assignments that evening, but they lost all credibility. If your personal life is such that you can’t work with someone because you are afraid that you or they are going to get violent, on the job, then you need to hang out with different people. That was completely inappropriate to bring up at work. Get into problem-solving modeWhen we’re nervous or upset, our problem-solving skills suffer. If you are faced with a problem at work (or anywhere else) that you don’t know how to handle: It’s natural to feel nervous when faced with something we don’t know how to handle. Just breathe for a minute. What actually has to be taken care of right now? In the scenario at the beginning of this post, the stove wouldn’t light. That is the problem. But why is it a problem? Because you need to make dinner. So, you either need the stove to work or you need another way to provide dinner. Instead of saying, “The stove won’t light,” which you may or may not be able to fix right away, say something like, “I need to figure out how to serve dinner without using the stove.” Now you have options. If you’ve just defined the problem as the stove not working, then you’ve limited your problem-solving abilities to either learning stove-repair or finding someone who can fix it. If it’s dinner time, you might not be able to find someone until the next day. If you’ve defined the problem as needing to provide dinner, now you have some options:
Now you’re probably not as stressed and begin to solve the problem (i.e. providing dinner) Don’t worry about your solution being wrongMaybe the supervisor knows all about lighting the pilot light on the stove and you didn’t need to have come up with ways to provide dinner without the stove. You still did a great job. I would much rather work with, and promote, someone who is willing to take a proactive approach to solving problems. Your solution will be the best one next time.
It’s common interview advice you’ve likely heard before: provide specific examples of your past accomplishments. Need some help narrowing down just which accomplishment you should share during an interview? Try referencing a time when you provided a solution to a tricky business-oriented problem. This is sure to impress any interviewer, but don’t take our word for it. Here are 10 recruiters weighing in with examples they’d love to hear when interviewing candidates.
Sold Reluctant Team Members on a New ProcessA good example of problem-solving is when a candidate I was interviewing for a position told me about the situation in which he was working with a team, and he wanted to implement a new process, but the whole team was against it. The candidate was able to go around and talk to each person on the team individually, work out their concerns and then present that information in a way that everyone could understand and agree with. This allowed the team to progress on the project, which helped them meet deadlines and ultimately implement the new process. This is a great example, and especially so with how he described it in an engaging and convincing storytelling fashion. It shows that the candidate can work with people from all different backgrounds and personalities. It also shows that he has the ability to listen, understand, and communicate effectively in order to get a problem solved while working in a team. Shaun Connell, Connell Media Rescued the Team from a Website CrashDiscuss an unexpected challenge that you handled without managerial input. For example, maybe the website crashed or some site assets were delayed for a new product launch. How did you come to the rescue for your team and use your problem-solving skills to find a resolution? This shows that you can take initiative and don’t panic at the sight of conflict. Natália Sadowski, Nourishing Biologicals Got Creative with a Limited, Tight BudgetOne great example of problem-solving a candidate can reference in a job interview is a time they worked through a limited budget. Finding creative solutions to money problems is always a desired characteristic, even outside accounting. It shows a candidate knows how to make use of what they have. Specific examples of resourcefulness will also go a long way in an interview. Sasha Ramani, MPOWER Financing Discovered & Corrected Their Own MistakeProblem-solving requires multiple reasoning stages—from recognizing the problem, analyzing it, looking for a solution, and finding the winning one. Sharing how you fixed your own mistake is probably the best way to include all of those elements. If you talk about your own experience, you can describe how you discovered your error and your step-by-step journey to finding the appropriate solution. This story is double-beneficial. Besides showing your problem-solving skills, it shows that you are an ambitious, independent employee. Karolina Zajac, PhotoAiD Delivered on a Time-Crunch Deadline with Limited ResourcesA job candidate can reference an instance where they resolved a time-management problem. While this is specific to each applicant, it can be a situation where a deadline was crucial and resources were lacking. Describe how you resolved the resource issue to meet the product or service deadline along with the results afterward. Your answer should describe the steps you took to resolve the problem as well as how you came up with the solution to meet the need. Tanya Klien, Anta Plumbing A Comeback from a Lagging Project to On-Time DeliveryThe interviewer likes to hear a story that demonstrates you can face obstacles under pressure while working well with others. Speak briefly to a project and what proved challenging. For example, you can talk about a specific social media campaign that required involvement from many different departments. You realized that some of the departments were behind the deadline, so you arranged one-on-one meetings with them. You heard these workers out on how you can help them get the job done on time and scheduled follow-up meetings to check their progress. The project was delivered on time. Monte Deere, Kizik Didn’t Let Conflict Indefinitely Stall a ProjectA fantastic problem-solving example to use in a job interview is conflict resolution. Tackling disagreements between others whether they include you or not can show off valuable skills that an employer would be interested in. It shows that you are adaptable and have excellent negotiation skills, making yourself that much more attractive as a candidate. Think of any kind of disagreement that could have stalled the progress of work and explain how you went about efficiently addressing everyone’s grievances and how the conflict was ultimately resolved. Adrien Dissous, Babo Botanicals Thought Outside of the Box for an Innovative SolutionRefer to a situation where, thanks to thinking out of the box, you were able to come up with a new, innovative solution never used before. Be specific about the problem in question and explain why solving it mattered. Don’t forget to mention how proud you felt once your idea turned out to be successful. The given example covers a wide range of aspects worth noting by potential employers. Actually, you indirectly show that you are determined, creative, and willing to improve your work environment. An action-driven approach, not standing still, and willingness to find the “ways out” are precious. Therefore, they should be valued and appreciated in all workplaces as the benefits they may bring are universal. Agata Szczepanek, Resume Now Used a Competitor’s Mistake as a Learning OpportunityYou don’t have to be an expert to give a generic problem-solving example. Such as, you might explain your approach to a problem by pointing out a mistake made by a competitor and how you would have handled the situation differently. If the same situation occurs at your new company, mention what you learned from the mistake and how you plan to handle it. Jon Torres, Jon Torres Sought External Partnership to Address a Budget CrunchTo showcase your problem-solving skills, the best example is about saving money for the organization. You can think of a situation where the lack of funds could drop or decrease the company’s profits. You can start by giving the background about how the lack of funds occurred and how you solved the issue. A typical example can be as simple as a department facing a money crunch due to previous delayed payments. This is an especially difficult time as new projects often need new and costly pieces of equipment. But the lack of funds resulted in you digging up and finding a collaborative partner for an organization that helped complete the work with minimum investments. A situation like this will make the current recruiter aware of your management skills and dedication to saving money, allowing the organization to prosper. Nathan Hughes, Art Ignition |