An especially important question
for those interviewing for a
supervisory role - begin with a specific situation and explain how
you communicated effectively to each individual. For example,
did you introduce a compromise?
Did you make an executive
decision? Or, did you perform as a mediator and encourage the
employees to reach a conclusion on their own?
As an example:
I had many instances as shop supervisor when I acted as a
mediator in a dispute between two employees. There was not
one go-to solution that would work for every situation since each
employee was different and each situation or dispute was
different. I would carefully reflect upon the dispute and make a
determination for what needed to be done based off of the facts
that I was aware of and the personalities of the involved parties.
Most often, having both employees sit down together to discuss
with me acting as a witness and mediator was very effective. I
made sure to allow each the opportunity to present what
happened, their perspective, and then how it made them feel or
what they thought the best outcome would be. I was sure to
always point out that both could have handled the situation
differently to avoid the dispute escalating and pointed out the
positive traits about each that I felt would allow them to move
forward and work together better. I was always sure to follow up
to make sure things were still going smoothly and I always had
an open door policy if they ran into issues again.
