Have you received any difficult feedback and how have you handled it?

Question Analysis

This question is designed to assess your ability to handle criticism and feedback, which is a crucial skill in any professional environment. The interviewer wants to understand how you perceive feedback, your emotional response to it, and the steps you take to improve based on the feedback. It's important to show that you can remain professional, learn from the experience, and apply those learnings to future situations.

Answer

Situation: In my previous role as a project manager, I received feedback from my supervisor that the team meetings I led were often too lengthy and sometimes veered off-topic, which was impacting productivity.

Task: I needed to address this feedback by making our meetings more efficient while ensuring all necessary topics were covered and team engagement remained high.

Action: I decided to implement a structured agenda for each meeting. Before each meeting, I would circulate the agenda to the team, highlighting key discussion points and time allocations for each topic. During the meetings, I was diligent about keeping discussions on track and encouraged team members to bring up any off-topic issues separately after the meeting.

Result: As a result, our meetings became more focused and productive, with time saved that could be redirected to other tasks. My supervisor and team appreciated the improvements, and it enhanced my reputation as an effective leader who can adapt and improve based on feedback.