Nearly every interviewer need someone that can work independently and as part of a team. They also need someone that can make decisions. You might find that they inquire you interview queries that combine these two needs in some way. This may be about how you work with teams or how you integrate decision making as a team into your procedures.

Interview Query: When you’re making decisions, how much weight do you give to the opinions, thoughts and feelings of other team members?

There are 2 components to answering this kind of interview question.

First, you need to indicate that you acknowledge the views of others and take them into account.

Second, you need to make certain you still show that you’ve trust in something other than the thoughts and feelings of others. You don’t want to sound like someone that entirely depends on others, nor do you need to sound like someone that ignores them.

How to Answer

“I give extensive weight to the opinions of others in the decision making procedure. I combine their input with facts and data to come to evidence based decision. For instance, in the early stages of a project I prefer the concept of consulting and brainstorming with a team, and listening to their input. What I’m searching for most is to be surprised. When an idea comes up that I had not considered, or a team member feels passionately about an opinion or feeling that tells me it is something worth exploring further. From there I like to look at the data to see what decisions are best.”

Try to balance your capability to make decisions on your own with your ability to work as a team. The last thing you need to do is seem too needy, or too independent. As long as you integrate some sort of happy medium, you will give yourself a better chance of impressing interviewers.