{"id":895,"date":"2017-07-11T18:21:45","date_gmt":"2017-07-11T22:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/?p=895"},"modified":"2017-07-11T18:27:16","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T22:27:16","slug":"5-pitfalls-of-terrible-leadership-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/5-pitfalls-of-terrible-leadership-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"5 pitfalls of terrible leadership stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Jack Pelzer<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo by Eric Santillian, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Can you give an example of an instance in which you demonstrated outstanding leadership? You better, because every behavioral interview is bound to include some form of this question. Employers LOVE leadership experience (even if they are filling jobs that require blind obedience to a tyrannical middle manager).<\/p>\n

So how can you improve your answer to this inevitable prompt? Unfortunately, there aren’t any short cuts. Crafting a compelling leadership narrative is both time-consuming and difficult, but the good news is that it\u2019s pretty easy to avoid telling terrible leadership stories. Just avoid doing these things:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a01.\u00a0<\/strong>Discussing events that happened in the distant past<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a reason that resumes flow in reverse chronological order. Companies are much more interested in what you\u2019ve done lately as opposed to what you did back when Rob Thomas still featured Santana. If possible, try to focus on your most recent employment.<\/p>\n

Bad Example:<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter we initiated my radical s\u2019mores restructuring plan, Cub Scout Troop 174 saved almost $7 per Jamboree in graham cracker acquisition costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Stories that people can\u2019t understand unless they worked at your old company for 15 years<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Every industry has its own language, and every company has its distinct dialect. Have you ever been the odd-person-out at a gathering of people who work together? Interviewers don\u2019t enjoy that feeling either.<\/p>\n

    Bad Example:<\/p>\n

    \u201cMy XVR calculations, which of course were backwards quantum compatible, decreased auto-spreader latency by 3 milliseconds and allowed risk management to launch Protocol Alpha. Because of this, we made 400 Bitcoins.\u201d<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Examples of leadership that resulted in highly negative outcomes<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Companies value leadership experience because strong leadership is highly correlated with positive outcomes. They are not looking for leadership in the abstract. Cult leaders and despots are strong leaders\u2014this doesn’t mean that they should be managing accounts receivable. You may have compelling tales of ingenuity and leadership that ended in complete disaster. Save them for your memoirs.<\/p>\n

      Bad Example:<\/p>\n

      \u201cI combined two struggling sales teams into a single unit that resulted in the single largest milk recall in U.S. history!\u201d<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Stories that lack structure<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        For thousands of years, humans have enjoyed stories that feature a distinct beginning, middle, and end. You should probably try to follow this example. Create a leadership story that reads like a tight, Hollywood screenplay \u2014but not Memento.<\/em><\/p>\n

        Bad Example:<\/p>\n

        \u201cI went straight to my supervisor and told her that we were wasting millions on office supplies\u2026 Did I mention that this was a problem? Oh yeah. It was. I was working for Office Max.\u201d<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Buffet of business buzzwords<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Please do not speak as though you are the uptight boss in a romantic comedy.<\/p>\n

          Bad Example:<\/p>\n

          \u201cThe low hanging fruit was gone, so I leveraged my core competencies to ideate a gamified deliverable that increased cross-functional synergy by 600%. Then I went home to my one-room apartment, stared in the mirror, and cried.\u201d<\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n

          About Jack<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

          \"\"Jack is the editor-in-chief of the MBA Irish Echoes.<\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          By: Jack Pelzer Can you give an example of an instance in which you demonstrated outstanding leadership? You better, because every behavioral interview is bound to include some form of this question. Employers LOVE leadership experience (even if they are filling jobs that require blind obedience to a tyrannical middle manager). So how can you … Continue reading “5 pitfalls of terrible leadership stories”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[213238,171158,170015],"tags":[213242,213235],"class_list":["post-895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-life","category-career-services","category-editorials","tag-interviews","tag-jack-pelzer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":909,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895\/revisions\/909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/mba-irish-echoes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}