Avoid Asking Leading Behavioral Interview Questions

One of the biggest mistakes interviewers make when using behavioral questions is to give away the answer in the question. There are a few things to avoid, such as using loaded, and presumptuous language (adapt, successfully, balance, persuade etc) and instead using less presumptuous language. Here are a few questions to ask that will help identify job candidates that will solve instead of cause problems. To do this, stay away from leading questions, and ask more open ended questions that will compel candidates to reveal when they did not take action. For example the question “Tell me about a time when you were bored on the job and what you did to make the job more interesting” will lead a candidate to share with you a success story. Instead, asking “Could you tell me about a time when you were bored on the job”, will give you a better idea of what the candidate would do in that situation.

Here are 15 examples of open ended behavioral interview questions:

1. Tell me about a time when you had to work closely with someone who had a personality that was very different from yours.
2. Tell me about a time you needed to get information from someone who wasn’t very responsive.
3. Give me an example of when you were not able to meet a client’s expectation.
4. Can you tell me about a time when you failed?
5. Give me an example of a time when you managed numerous responsibilities?
6. Tell me about a time when managing all your responsibilities made you feel overwhelmed.
7. Could you tell me about a time when people didn’t see things your way?
8. Describe how you dealt with a problem you encountered at work.
9. Tell me about a time you were dissatisfied in your work.
10. Give an example of a goal you didn’t meet.
11. Can you give an example of when you had to prioritize between different projects?
12. Can you tell me about a time when you had a disagreement with a co-worker?
13. Describe a situation when you encountered an obstacle.
14. Tell me about a time when you were faced with making a quick and important decision.
15. Tell me about a time when your initiative caused change to occur.

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