Your capability to communicate with persons is significant in any role, your capability to communicate with your employer even more so. You have to prove that you have what it takes not just to present data to a manager, but to do so successfully, because there are times in various different jobs when you require to influence your managers’ views.

Behavioral Interview Query: What barriers or difficulties have you ever confronted in showing new ideas to a manager and how did you overcome them?

Complaining is always the worst kind of answer, which means you are restricted in the “barriers” that you can confront without sounding like you have an issue with your old boss. Some you can use involve:

• Overcoming Principled Differences – If you have trust in 1 way of doing things when your manager believes in another, but finally both are fine ideas.
• Literally Finding the Time – If your greatest challenge is being capable to sit them down and lay out the data, so you have to find a way to do so effectively.
• New Technologies/Information – If there is a “way things are done” that the manager might not be aware of e.g. using Excel for spreadsheets rather than hand writing them.

Be very careful about how you go about this answer, do your best to give a comprehensive answer without complaining.

Sample Answer

“My manager and I had a good relationship, but of course there were various years of experience between us and, as my supervisor, he knows that he is responsible for the result of any project, so he needed to make certain that his ideas were used.

But there were surely times with which we disagreed. The ultimate decision would always be his, so in case to make certain I was heard, I would map out the advantages of my ideas in easy to digest bullet point format, pointing to reference links that proved others in the industry who had success with a similar concept. Sometimes he would sustain with his strategies, but sometimes he would also integrate mine, and in the end it assisted me to make certain I was doing everything I could for the company, while also maintaining an honorable relationship with him.”

For non-managerial posts, it is really significant that you show you have respect for the person and the procedure whilst still needing to do what’s best for the company. This type of answer assist you to show that you have a clear action plan for interacting with your manager and helps prove you are someone that will present well and take action.