You will have some difficult characters in your new team. How will you handle them?

We cannot choose the people we work with so we have to find ways to get along with them. Team work is vital in any job and a good team player will always be attractive to employers. You need to draw on your past experiences whether from the work environment or outside work, to say how you would handle these new team mates who are difficult. They could be any type of people and just because they have been troublesome in the past, they could get on with you much better than they did with your predecessor. If you arrive in this organisation determined to be a productive and settled team player, that in itself could have a beneficial effect through your own behaviour helping to set a new standard for other people. You may be applying for a job where part of your role is to solve problems such as this, in which case looking at the way the individuals in the team perform in their jobs and trying to iron out any difficulties they are encountering would be a good place to start.

It may just be that you would be employed as a member of this team. Most of us respond positively to those who treat us fairly and involve us where possible so both those points should feature in your answer. How were you treated in the job you liked best from the past? Are there pointers there for the way that your new team should be managed? If there are insurmountable difficulties in a team in a large organisation, it might be possible to split up the team and reform the group differently. Sometimes bringing in an outside mediator to bring people together to sort out their differences can be helpful. All of these ideas are constructive and will help reassure the interviewer that you will be part of the solution to this long-running issue, not adding to the problem.

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