Initiating
“Tell me about a time when you initiated an action that brought results.”
- “I am a person who tries to plan ahead, and so I usually
have a planned schedule for every step of a project. There was
a time however when my plan started to fall apart because of
a systems crash. It was chaotic for a while until I called and
located office space that wasn’t being used for a few days.
I was able to bring my team into the space and utilize the equipment
needed to complete the job. We were back on schedule in no time
and met the deadline.”
- “As a project manager for my last company I could see a
need for a template to guide team members through projects while
allowing them to prioritize. I came up with a prototype and
presented it to my manager. She liked the idea and suggested
I follow through on the development. I did some refining based
on her suggestions and then presented it to my team. Members
were delighted to have a format to assist them in organizing
their tasks. After the template was put in place and used successfully,
my boss presented it to management and they okayed it to be
used companywide. I received an award for not only the idea
but for initiating a more efficient process that will save time
and ultimately money.”
- n “As an officer in the military I had many occasions to
initiate action. One time in particular there was a plan of
action that went bad, and I had to step in and take the initiative
and make a very quick decision. We were in a live fire exercise
that should have stopped when a signal was fired. I shot the
signal flare, but the firing didn’t stop. I had to make a decision
and had my troops hit the deck. I then signaled to the radioman
to call in a cease-fire. All fire stopped immediately, and all
troops were reported safe. I found out later that the platoon
firing the machine guns never got the message about the cease
fire signal and would have just continued firing. My initiative
and quick decision saved my troops from being seriously injured
or killed that day.”
阅读导航 Problem Solving skills