Tell Me About a Time When You Showed Leadership? Q&A

did you know that questions about leadership skills are some of the most common behavioral questions asked at all companies globally and it's just really

important to remember leadership questions are not designed just for managers team leads Executives Etc these

questions are designed for people at all levels and so how do you best demonstrate leadership when answering behavioral questions well you got to go through the steps that any leader would

take so it's that initial research planning and conversations definitely the testing and execution phases and then launching if applicable and then presenting and

documenting as well so let's dive in as always our fake interviewer Sue is going to ask me the question and then I'm going to provide a sample example answer so sue asked me the question hey Jeff

tell me about a time when you showed leadership Sue this is an example from my time as a customer engineer at Cloud Solutions Inc a midsize tech company

that was really focused on cloud-based Transformations and our new client a large Manufacturing Company needed to migrate from an outdated on Prem system

to a scalable Cloud architecture multiple internal teams at the client were definitely skeptical of this change which made buyin and Alignment especially challenging so I was tasked

with leading this complex project and guiding both our internal teams and the client's technical staff to complete the migration within two months so the first

step I needed to take was I needed to lead a small task force to Gather Comprehensive data on the client's Legacy systems usage patterns and their Tex stack and so I assigned specific

research roles making sure each team member understood their responsibilities and deadlines I had regular check-ins to motivate them remove roadblocks and

acknowledge quick wins which helped maintain a high level of morale and then I Consolidated everyone's findings into a single report ensuring that each

contributor's insights were recognized and credited next we needed to craft a migration road map that outlined clear objectives success metrics and ownership

for each workstream so I convened a leadership huddle to discuss the potential risks and gather input from each functional lead that helped Foster a little bit more of a collaborative

atmosphere and then I just made sure everybody's expertise was incorporated into the plan by encouraging and opening open dialogue and really challenging

assumptions then we needed to present this final road map to the client Senior Team gaining their confidence by showcasing a well structured and inclusive strategy then I started by

facilitating those kickoff meetings with all the stakeholders to align on a vision set expectations and Define accountability I started each meeting by reiterating the Project's overall goal

focusing on the benefits to both end users and the company I definitely wanted to provide a forum where team members could voice concerns and propose Solutions showing empathy and validating

their perspectives and by clarifying roles and responsibilities early on I ensured no overlap in tasks that every individual felt empowered in their

specific domain then of course we needed to test so I assem build a cross functional test Squad to validate critical migration steps in a controlled

sandbox balancing technical rigor with Team empowerment I appointed a team lead tester and encouraged the developers and QA Engineers to collaborate directly

breaking down silos through daily standups and when uncertainties arose I definitely stepped in to mediate discussions helping the team come to

Swift resolutions that hopefully really benefited all parties I also recognize standout contributions during this phase like Innovative testing scripts to

foster a culture of learning and recognition then I led the live implementation process continuously Gathering feedback adjusting the plan on

the Fly and keeping the team morale High I use daily syncs to just maintain that transparency calling out any risks and ensuring each team member had a chance

to share progress and challenges and when a critical deployment issue surfaced I facilitated a focused War Room session steering the conversation

toward construction constructive problem solving rather than blaming people and throughout I tried to keep an open line of communication with leadership on both sides reinforcing trust and

demonstrating that accountability piece so after executing I orchestrated the formal go live event carefully coordinating schedules and ensuring mechanisms were in place for success I

delate I delegated pass like the final system checks and user acceptance confirmations to specific leads empowering them to take ownership and then I organized a command center for

rapid response reassuring the clients Executives that we were fully prepared for anything that was going to come up and hopefully I maintained a calm and decisive demeanor throughout this launch

window because it was stressful and we set a reassuring tone for the entire team followed up that launch by presenting a project de brief demonstrating the outcomes and

highlighting the team's Collective achievements the datadriven presentation had metrics illustrating improved performance and cost optimization post migration and then I publicly

acknowledged each of the group's contributions celebrating their teamwork and resilience which definitely boosted our overall morale I compiled the detailed project documentation that

served as our road map for ongoing optimization and future initiatives and I delegated the documentation sections to respective experts from Dev

to QA and security so each part reflected their firsthand knowledge and then I just reviewed everything to make sure it was totally clear and ensuring the handoff would be easy for anyone

revisiting the project later and the results by Leading this initiative I demonstrated how effective leadership through Clear Vision empowered teams and

consistent communication can drive a complex migration to success and this to dis decreased infrastructure cost by 15%

and improved response Times by 20% after the transition this success elevated our clients's operational efficiency strengthened trust between our organizations and earn my team

recognition for amazing collaboration and the biggest win is that we were able to repeat the agile processes and thorough documentation for

our future Cloud migrations ensuring faster and smoother m ations across the board I know that's a lot that is a

longer answer than I would typically want you to give in a job interview but I really wanted to show you the depth how are we talking about depth from

every stage from the planning those initial conversations to the testing and execution to the launching presenting and documenting we want to tell our

interviewer from a leadership perspective what we did supported by how we did it the ideal behavioral answer in my mind is going to be about 3 to four minutes this one was probably more like

five to six minutes again in all these videos these answers are going to be incredibly robust but I hope you now see

how to really discuss leadership and how you can talk through it with everyday team interactions and talk about the specific steps that you took it's all

about making sure your communication is very clear that you've empowered others and showing leadership through taking initiative as always thank you so much

for watching if you found this video to be helpful please like subscribe and make sure to comment for any questions or anything you want to share and until

next time continue to lead by example thank you