Best-In-Class Questions

Instructions: These questions to be used when short listing and interviewing, they are aligned to
HPs Leadership Standards
Leadership Standards
Business Acumen
Accelerating Change

1.

Which external factors, beyond competitors, could

impact success of the organization, and why?
2. Which internal factors could impact success of the
organization, and why?
3. In a supervisory or group leader role, have you ever had
to discipline or counsel an employee or group member?
What was the nature of the discipline? What steps did
you take? How did that make you feel? How did you
prepare yourself?

Strategic Thinking & Planning

1. What are the different issues that a Leader should

consider when the organization is evaluating whether to
open a new location?
2. As a Leader, describe a project youve completed that
required creativity to accomplish to your and others'
satisfaction. What was different or unique about your
ideas or processes?
3. Discuss the decisions you have made that have led you
to seek a job at this company. How have your work and
education experiences affected your decisions?
4. Recall a time when you were involved or led a
brainstorming session.
a) How receptive were you to the ideas of
others?
b) Was the brainstorming session successful
and did you accomplish your objectives?

Analyzing & Diagnosing

1. How can different decisions by a Leader impact

business results (e.g., high turnover of a particular
group, low engagement, etc.)?
2. What steps do you follow in studying an issue / project
before making a decision on how to approach that
project? Do you apply this process to all issues
/projects, or does it vary from task to task?

Risk Taking

1. Give an example of a time you introduced or applied a

2.
3.

4.
5.

new concept or development in a related field of study

to a work project?
What were the main challenges, and how did you
overcome those challenges?
Give me an example of an assignment that involved
learning a new technical skill or development. Did you
attempt to learn it yourself, or did you reach out to a
teaching source?
Describe a decision you made while in a leadership
position that was unpopular and how you handled
implementing it. How did your team react?
As a Leader, have you had to convince a team to work
on a project they weren't enthusiastic about? How did
you do it?

Financial Acumen

1. Tell me about a time when it was necessary for you to

communicate financial to an audience. How did you
develop your presentation?

Decisiveness

1. Describe a crisis and how you managed it as a leader?

2. Describe a time as a leader when you were faced with a
challenging situation that involved balancing competing
interest in your personal life with workplace issues?

Team Leadership
Collaboration

1. Describe a situation when you worked on a team and

the team had a particularly good outcome.
a) What was the situation?
b) What role did you have on the team?
c) What challenges did you face with the
personalities and styles of the other team
members?
2. Describe a situation where you and a co-worker did not
get along, but you had to build an alliance with that
person to get your work accomplished.
a) How did the situation occur initially?
b) What things in particular did you do to build
rapport?
c) What was the outcome?
d) Have you ever been in a group with an
unproductive person?
e) How did you handle this situation?
3. Tell me about a time when you were able to get
someone from outside your team/unit/group to
cooperate with you on an important
project/task/assignment. Describe the steps you took to
achieve this.
4. Tell me about one of the toughest teams/groups you
have had to work with:
a) What made it difficult?
b) What did you do?
5. Please describe the time you were most effective in
coordinating multiple groups of people or resources to
accomplish an organizational goal:

a) What were you trying to accomplish?

b) What methods did you use to coordinate all
the details?
c) How did you gain everyone's commitment?
d) What impact did your coordination have on
the project?
e) What was the outcome?
6. Describe your most recent example of working
collaboratively with a cross-functional team.
a) What was the situation and/or initiative?
b) What specifically did you do to establish a
collaborative relationship?
c) What was your level of involvement
throughout the initiative?
d) What obstacles did you encounter and how
did you overcome them?
e) What was the outcome of the initiative?
7. Tell me about a time when you had to champion a
solution to get the pricing, collaboration or business
resources you needed.
Listening & Receptivity

1. Tell me about your last conversation with a customer.

a) Who initiated the call and why?
b) Would you do anything differently? Why?
2. Some situations require us to express ideas/opinions in
a very tactful and careful way. Please tell me about a
time when you were successful with this particular skill
3. Tell me about a time that you presented in front of a
group of people.
a) What went well? What didnt?
4. What would you consider as the most effective group
size for formal presentations? Give me a real life
example.
a) Why? If you had an audience of a different
size, how would you modify your
presentation?
b) When have your communication skills directly
impacted the accomplishments of your work
team?
c) Would you do anything differently?
5. What is your experience in giving formal, verbal
presentations or reports to large groups?
a) What do you consider a large group?
6. Describe a time when stating your view might have
compromised your situation, yet you did so anyway.
a) What happened?
b) Would you do anything differently?
7. Tell me about a time where you needed to communicate
a solution design to two types of audiences: technical
and executive/business.
a) How if at all -- did your approach differ in
terms of the language or the graphics you
used?

Relationship Building

1.

Tell me about a time when it was critical, but very

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.
7.

Influencing:

1.

Motivating

1.

difficult for you to build a relationship with an individual

or a group.
a) What was the situation?
b) Why was it critical to build the relationship?
c) What made it difficult?
d) How did you go about building the
relationship?
e) How did they react?
f) What was the outcome?
Building rapport is sometimes a very challenging thing
to do. Describe a time when you were able to build
rapport with someone at work, even if the first
impression you had of this person was not a good one.
Change is often guided by relationships, which can
influence how things happen. Tell me about a time when
you have used your interpersonal skills to build a
network of contacts to reach your goals.
Tell me about your most effective strategy you have
implemented for building effective relationships with
your customers.
a) What did you do to anticipate their needs?
b) How did you know you were effective in
addressing their needs?
c) How did you seek and respond to their
feedback?
d) How well has the strategy worked?
e) What made you feel that this strategy was
effective?
How have you have gained your customers trust and
respect? Tell me about a time you blew it with a
customer.
a) What did you learn from that experience?
What are some of the things you do to develop a solid
lead information network and set of relationships within
the customers business or your account?
What do you consider an effective relationship with
your customers? Why? Give me examples of how you
have put this philosophy into practice.

This position requires the ability to influence a team

of individuals who may not directly report to you.
a) What would your approach be to gain buy in,
have you had any experience in the past
managing indirectly
2. This position would call upon providing the business
rationale and risk assessment to HPS management for
developing new business. Give me an example when
you were called upon to win the support of other senior
executives in your company.
3. What approach have you used in getting others to
accept your ideas and goals? Give examples.
Tell me about a time when you felt you actively needed
to communicate a customer perspective within your
company to influence decisions that would impact your

2.

3.

4.

5.
6.

7.

8.

Developing Talent

accounts.
Tell me about a time you had to gain consensus around
an idea of yours.
a) What did you do to sell the idea?
b) How did you sway those that were not in
agreement?
Describe the most frustrating time you have ever had
trying to influence a client or team member.
a) What did you do?
b) How was the situation resolved?
Not everyone we encounter is as cooperative as we
would like. Tell me about a time someone refused to do
something you needed to have done.
a) How did you respond?
Think of an experience in building consensus in teams
made up of persons from the widest variety of
disciplines or functions.
What was the purpose or task for the team?
a) Who were the team members?
b) What was your role in helping to build
consensus?
c) How did you participate on the team?
d) What was the outcome?
Describe a recent idea or proposal you suggested
where you needed to gain the support of multiple
stakeholders with competing interests.
a) What was the idea or proposal?
b) Whose support did you need for this (e.g.,
which stakeholders were affected)?
c) What were the competing interests among
the stakeholders? How did you position your
ideas to address these competing interests
and concerns?
d) How did you go about building the necessary
base of support?
e) What was the outcome?
Describe the last time you had a great idea that you
needed to sell and get others to support.
a) What was the situation?
b) What was the idea?
c) Whose buy-in and support did you need?
d) How did you sell the idea?
e) What were their needs and concerns?
f) What did you do to convince them of the
benefits/value of your idea and gain their
support?
g) What was the outcome?

1. Tell me about a time when you actively educated sales

teams on a solution to increase their understanding and
ability to pursue related sales
2. Tell me about a time when you actively educated either
direct or channel sales reps about HPs or another
companys solutions.
a) What were some of the strategies you used?

b) How successful were you? Why?

3. Tell me about some of the things you do in your area of
specialization to transfer knowledge accurately,
continuously and effectively to sales teams or partners?
(Look for creative methods and willingness to act as
SME in educating partners/direct sales).
4. Give an example of how you have led complex account
teams in setting strategy and guiding sales activities.
5. Tell me how you provide technical consulting to
account teams what kind of information do you
6. What have you done to effectively share information
and best practices in your organization?
a) What was the situation?
b) What kind of information/best practices did
you share?
c) How did you ensure the ongoing sharing of
information/best practices in your
organization?
d) How did the information sharing benefit other
parts of the organization?
7. Have you ever oriented delivery teams to a solution you
designed? Explained its rationale or ensured that they
understood some specific caveats around client
expectations?
8. Tell me how you have developed or contributed to the
development of a community of practice in your area of
specialization. (Look for a sense of ownership and
evangelizing, and concrete evidence of building a
shared inventory best practice).
9. Tell me about a time you were most successful in
maintaining a positive and optimistic outlook as you led
a team in the face of negative circumstances.
a) What was happening?
b) What made things negative?
c) What did you do to remain upbeat and
positive?
d) What impact did your attitude have on the
situation?
e) How did the situation turn out?
10. Tell me about the last situation where you had to
coordinate several people to achieve a goal?
a) What prompted you to take the lead?
b) How did you go about coordinating the
group?
c) How did they respond?
d) What tools did you use to measure progress?
e) What was the outcome?
11. Provide an example (in your career) on your ability to
lead/manage teams in the absence of formal authority.
12. Describe the last time you had to motivate one or more
persons (co-workers, peers) to perform a difficult task.
a) What was the task?
b) What did you do?
c) How did the person respond?
d) What was the outcome?
13. Describe the project in which you were most effective at

encouraging and motivating your team to stretch

beyond what they thought they could do and exceed all
expectations?
a) What was the project?
b) What standards did you set for their
performance?
c) How did you encourage and motivate them to
excel?
d) How did your team respond to your
encouragement?
e) What was the outcome of the project?
Self-Development

1. How do you choose what technical courses to take?

Tell me about the last time you volunteered for a task or
project because you saw it as an opportunity to
develop.
a) What was the task or project?
b) What made you volunteer?
c) What did you have to do?
d) What knowledge or skills did you gain from it?
e) How did you make sure you learned from the
experience?
f) How have you applied the knowledge and
skills?
2. Describe what you do to continually learn and build
your knowledge.
3. Tell me about the last time you asked someone for
feedback even though you knew the feedback might be
negative.
a) What was the situation?
b) What was your motivation for seeking the
feedback?
c) What did you learn?
d) What did you do with the feedback you
received?
e) What behaviors have you changed
successfully?
4. Tell me how you educate yourself about the companies
you sell into their core processes, concepts and
challenges.
5. Tell me about the last time you updated your
knowledge of the organizations latest direction and/or
latest industry developments.
a) How did you update your knowledge?
b) What did you learn about your organization or
the industry?
c) What did you do with the information you
learned?
d) How did you incorporate the information into
your daily practices?

Customer Centric
Responsiveness & Follow
Through

1.

How do you ensure that internal/external customers

keep you informed of issues / concerns / satisfaction in
a timely fashion? Give me a recent example.

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

External Perspective

1.

Give an example of a time when you provided

immediate and thorough action in response to an
internal/external customers request or problem
Describe a time when it was particularly important to
establish a strong relationship with an external
customer. How did you accomplish this?
Tell me about your most challenging client. Describe
a specific interaction you had with this customer.
What is the most effective way to assess the quality
of your customer service? Give me an example.
Tell me what you have done to obtain information to
better understand a customers needs and
expectations. How did the information help you?
Tell me about the most recent time you anticipated a
change in a customers needs/expectations that was not
seen by others.
a) What was the situation?
b) What did you see that others did not?
c) What led you to anticipate the change?
d) What aspects of the change did you not
anticipate accurately?
e) What recommendations did you offer the
customer?
Can you tell me about a time when you did
something outside of the routine activities assigned to
you for the benefit of the customer? What was their
reaction? Did they appreciate your efforts?

2.

Tell me about a time when you studied to obtain

information and knowledge to better understand a
customer.
a) What did you do?
b) How did this knowledge improve your service
or relationship with the customer?
3.
What steps have you taken to understand a
customers point of view about a situation or problem?
Give an example
4.
Tell me about one procedure youve put in place
to monitor the quality of customer focus within your
department/organization
5.
Tell me about the time you most successfully
provided support to your customer on an issue that had
broad implications for the customer's business situation
and future strategies.
a) What was the issue or the customers need?
b) How did you come to recognize this need?
c)
What were the implications of this need or
issue on the business?
d) What was your recommended solution?
e) What was the resulting impact of this solution
on the business?
Develop Innovative Solutions

1.

Give an example of a time you initiated contact with a

customer you had no previous contact with? What
methods did you find effective or ineffective?

2.

3.
4.
5.

6.

7.

Give me an example of a time you had to turn down a

request from a valued client. What were the reasons
you had to turn down the request? How did you attempt
to resolve the situation?
Tell me about a recent situation in which you had to
deal with a very upset customer or client. Were you able
to retain their business?
What have you done to educate customers about your
HPs/product/service offerings?
Tell me about your most effective strategy you have
implemented for building effective relationships with
your customers.
a) What did you do to anticipate their needs?
b) How did you know you were effective in
addressing their needs?
c) How did you seek and respond to their
feedback?
d) How well has the strategy worked? What
made you feel that this strategy was
effective?
Tell me about the time you provided the most effective
intervention to a problem that a customer was facing?
a) What was the situation?
b) How did you become aware of the situation?
c) Describe the steps that you took to better
understand the situation, needs and desired
outcomes.
d) How did you choose the particular
intervention?
e) What did you do?
f) What was the outcome for the customer?
g) What was your customer's response to your
approach/efforts?
Tell me about the project that best exemplifies your
ability to partner with an external group (or vendor) to
provide an integrated solution for customers.
a) What was the project?
b) How did you partner with the external
group/vendor?
c) What did you do to help provide this
integrated solution?
d) How did you ensure that the integrated
solution looked seamless to the customer?
e) How did your customers respond to the
solution or service?

Results & Performance Driven

Self Starter

1.

Tell me about the most recent process improvement

effort you championed in order to meet changing market
needs.
a) What was the markets need?
b) Why was it necessary to improve your
process?
c) How did you come up with the idea?
d) What specifically did you do to champion

and implement the improved process?

e) How did you make sure it was well
integrated into your existing systems?
f) What results did you accomplish?
2. Tell me about the last time you volunteered for a task
or project because you saw it as an opportunity to
develop.
a) What was the task or project?
b) What made you volunteer?
c) What did you have to do?
d) What knowledge or skills did you gain from
it?
e) How did you make sure you learned from the
experience?
f) How have you applied the knowledge and
skills?
3. Tell me about the most innovative idea that you have
ever come up with.
a) What was the situation and what led you to
come up with the idea?
b) What was the innovative idea?
c) What did you do about your idea?
d) What impact and benefits did the idea have?
e) What steps did you take to implement the
idea?
f) What was the outcome?
g) What are his/her needs today?
Assertiveness

1. Describe the greatest challenge you have faced

helping the people in your group adjust to a significant
change.
a) What was the change?
b) How did it impact the people of your group?
c) How did you help the people adjust and
adapt to the change?
d) What processes did you put in place to help
manage the change?
e) What was the outcome?
2.

Tell me about a time when you had to lead a business

through a significant change, while at the same time
ensure results would be achieved.
a) What was the business situation?
b) What needed to be changed?
c) What was your role in bringing about the
change?
d) How did you plan for the change, and how
did you monitor results?
e) How did you ensure results were achieved,
even if people were struggling through
change?
f) What was the end result?
3. Tell me about the project that best exemplifies your
ability to partner with an external group (or vendor) to
provide an integrated solution for customers.
a) What was the project?

b) How did you partner with the external

group/vendor?
c) What did you do to help provide this
integrated solution?
d) How did you ensure that the integrated
solution looked seamless to the customer?
e) How did your customers respond to the
solution or service?
Goal Accountability

1.

Tell me about the last time you successfully managed

your work units financial results against stated goals.
a) How were the goals established?
b) How did you monitor your units performance
against the goals?
c) What specific steps did you take to achieve
the desired results?
d) What challenges or obstacles did you
encounter?
e) How did you handle them?
f) What did you have to sacrifice in order to
achieve your results?
2. Tell me about the results you have achieved that you
are most proud of.
a) What was the situation?
b) What kind of process did you use to achieve
results?
c) What makes you proud of achieving these
particular results?
3. Tell me about the last time you asked someone for
feedback even though you knew the feedback might be
negative.
a) What was the situation?
b) What was your motivation for seeking the
feedback?
c) What did you learn?
d) What did you do with the feedback you
received?
e) What behaviors have you changed
successfully?

Tactical Planning & Tracking

1. What was the most difficult project that you have had to
complete within a short timeframe?
a) What was the project and timeline involved?
b) What steps were involved in completing the
project?
c) What other areas of the organization did you
need to involve?
d) How did you leverage the resources
available in the organization?
e) What challenges or obstacles did you need
to overcome? How did you overcome them?
f) What was the outcome of the project?
2. Tell me about the last time you had to make a difficult
decision fast, based on a lot of information in a short
amount of time.

a) What was the situation?

b) How much time did you have to make your
decision?
c) What information did you have to gather and
from where?
d) What stuck out as the most critical
information?
e) Which people did you have to involve?
f) How did you ensure you correctly analyzed
the problem?
g) What solutions did you consider? Which one
did you choose?
h) What was the outcome?
3. Tell me about the most recent situation where you had
to skip a step in your documented work process in order
to meet a short turnaround.
a) What was the situation? What caused the
short turnaround time?
b) What did you do?
c) How did you make sure the standards were
still met despite the omission?
d) What steps did you take to prevent future
occurrences?
e) What was the outcome?
4. Think about a recent global initiative (e.g., new
program, product, operations) that you led. What steps
did you take to ensure that the initiative would be
effective in all of the regions that it would impact?
a) What was the initiative?
b) What was your role?
c) How did you make sure you understood the
unique business dynamics and practices of
the different countries/regions?
d) How did you build your team?
e) What steps did you take to ensure that this
was a global initiative?
f) How successful was this initiative?
Line of Sight

1. Tell me about the most recent time you anticipated a

change in a customers needs/expectations that was not
seen by others.
a) What was the situation?
b) What did you see that others did not?
c) What led you to anticipate the change?
d) What aspects of the change did you not
anticipate accurately?
e) What recommendations did you offer the
customer?
2. Tell me about the time you most successfully provided
support to your customer on an issue that had broad
implications for the customer's business situation and
future strategies.
a) What was the issue or the customers need?
b) How did you come to recognize this need?
c) What were the implications of this need or

issue on the business?

d) What was your recommended solution?
e) What was the resulting impact of this
solution on the business?
3. Describe the most effective strategy you have
developed to enhance the competitive position of your
organization.
a) What prompted you to develop the strategy?
b) What factors did you consider in developing
the strategy?
c) What was the organizations competitive
position prior to your strategy?
d) How did this add value to customer service?
e) How did you implement this strategy?
f) How did you involve others to implement this
strategy?
g) Which parts of your strategy were most
successful? Which were least successful?
4. Tell me about the last time you identified the impact of
external trends and developments on the organization.
a) What were the trends and developments that
related to your business?
b) How did you identify those trends and
developments?
c) What changes did you make to address
those external trends and developments?
d) What impact did those changes have on
your strategy and business performance?
5. Describe the last time you successfully anticipated the
markets needs and came up with a fresh, new
approach to address those needs.
a) What needs did the market have? How did
you identify those needs?
b) How did you come up with the new approach
to address these needs?
c) What steps did you take to implement the
idea?
d) What was the outcome?
e) How will you measure the effectiveness of
meeting the markets needs?