By Dinte
July 9, 2012

At Dinte Global Executive search, we believe a candidate’s problem solving skills and ability to overcome challenges can be a great indicator of their future success at a new organization.  We know that the best leaders see challenge as an opportunity for growth and innovation.

In a recent blog post,  Your Greatest Success Lies Directly Behind Your Greatest Challenges by Marissa Levin, CEO of Information Experts in Washington, DC, Levin discusses how many people give up even when they are within reach of success. “We often come face to face with situations that seem impossible to overcome, when in reality, every situation has a solution. Our thoughts of failure grow when we have difficulty believing that the outcome we pursue will actually come to fruition. However, if we open our minds, and consider all possibilities for solutions, we quickly learn that every situation has a wealth of potential outcomes.”

We want to ensure that the candidates we present to our clients approach challenges with an optimistic view and open mind.  We ask our candidates a number of questions about overcoming challenges and persevering through tough times.  Candidates with a strong track record for perseverance are much less likely to get cold feet with the going gets tough.  The following is a list of sample questions we ask our candidates:

  • What was your greatest failure? What did you learn from it?
  • What are the approaches you have taken to reconcile differing/opposed factions?
  • What was the most difficult environment of conflicting factions that you have encountered? How did you resolve it?
  • Give me an example of a situation that was a great challenge to your leadership? How did you resolve it? What was the outcome?
  • How do you go about resolving a dispute?
  • Give me an example of where you turned a failure into a positive.
  • Describe a situation where your ethical foundation was challenged.  How did you react, handle it?
  • Would people who work with you describe you as a problem solver/troubleshooter? Why?
  • What about problem solving do you enjoy? Why?
  • Give me an example of a particularly sticky problem that was hindering your business. How did you resolve it? What was the outcome?


What types of questions do you consider asking candidates about overcoming challenges?

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