Interview Question: How do you handle disagreements within your team?

Question forms part of

Civil Service Question Bank
The MOST Common Interview Questions

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

This is a leadership style question. If you are going for any sort of managerial based role you should expect some variation of this question, it is an extremely popular question.

And popular for good reason. One of the main responsibilities of a manager is to resolve any issues that their team members face and this could mean resolving issues between team members.

The interviewer is asking this question for 2 reasons. Firstly to understand how well you handle conflict and how successful you are in mediating issues between colleagues and coming up with the best solution for the business.

Secondly the interviewer is looking to hear what experience you have in conflict resolution. It is all well and good describing what you would do in a theoretical example, but the interviewer wants to know how you have reacted in a similar situation in the past.

Past behaviour is a better predictor of future behaviour after all

The best approach to answering this question

The best way to answer this question is to provide an example of when two of your direct reports were at odds over a business decision.

It is best if your example remains strictly professional – I’m sure we’ve all seen personal issues spill over into the workplace and as a manager you need to be able to handle those situations but unless specifically asked about a personal conflict keep it about business matters.

The example you provide should have both colleagues taking opposing views on the matter where it is your job to make a final decision. The most simple example to show what I mean is: colleague A wants to go with supplier A while colleague B wants to go with supplier B.

John wants to use Microsoft Excel, Jane wants to use Google Sheets

Obviously there are a multitude of other conflict types that you could talk about, but this hard and fast, either option A or option B. Putting the situation in black and white like this is a lot easier to explain in an interview. You want the interviewer to be crystal clear on what the disagreement was, what each side’s position was and you want to be able to show how your resolution was clearly the best for the business.

Talk about how you came in and used a calm, reasoned and deliberate approach when deciding which option to go with and talk about how you considered the feelings and effort input from your team members when communicating your decision.

Ultimately you need to talk about how you resolved the conflict and make sure you highlight that both parties were ultimately content with how things played out.

How NOT to answer this question

“My team has always worked well together and as such we do not have any conflicts”

Terrible answer. Every one who has managed a team will at some point have faced a conflict between team members.

The person who answers the question like this might think that they are showing the interviewer their great management skills; “my team never disagrees because I lead them so well”, but in actuality the interviewer will come away thinking that the interviewee has little or no experience with management.

Conflict happens in all businesses and it will not behoove you to pretend it doesn’t when being interviewed.

“When my team members have disagreements I leave them to sort it out amongst themselves, everyone is a grown adult and should be able to handle their own affars”

Another example of a poor answer. The whole idea of being a leader is to help your team through struggles. While sometimes it is best to allow team members the opportunity to collaborate it is not a good example to use when being interviewed.

How do you handle disagreements within your team? – Example answer

Example 1

“As Product Owner at X company it was my responsibility to prioritise the backlog of tasks. The way things worked in our organisation was that any stakeholder could raise an item to add to the backlog, then as a team we would discuss in which order it would be best that they were worked and deployed.

Ultimately however the final decision on priority lay with myself.

As you can imagine with so many different areas of the business raises items, each with their own agendas and goals the backlog meetings would often end with a lot of disagreement

One such occasion we had two business areas both asking us to deploy a change to our product and both were asking for the change to be deployed in the next sprint. Unfortunately we only had the dev resource to implement the one change in this cycle.

The backlog call became heated between the two representing colleagues and I was forced to cut the meeting short to let cooler heads prevail.

After the meeting I sat with both colleagues to further understand the urgency behind both changes. Asking them to describe the benefits of the change and also the drawbacks of waiting until the next cycle.

Once I had this information in hand it was clear to me which change would be most beneficial to the business. I invited both colleagues into a meeting where I had compiled the information into a presentation deck with a few charts showing the resources available within the product team and the relative benefits of each change.

Explaining it this way allowed both colleagues to fully appreciate the restrictions that were on my team and also the comparative benefits of each change.

Both colleagues left the meeting happy with the outcome and both changes were pushed into production in the next 2 sprints”

Example 2

“As a Team Lead at Y company, I encountered a significant disagreement among two team members regarding the implementation of a new project management tool. One team member strongly advocated for using a popular tool that had gained traction in the industry, while the other team member believed that a lesser-known tool would better suit our specific needs.

To address this disagreement, I initiated a meeting with both team members to understand their perspectives in more detail. I encouraged an open and constructive discussion where each team member had the opportunity to express their views and provide supporting arguments for their preferred tool.

After carefully listening to both sides, it became evident that the disagreement stemmed from a difference in understanding the project requirements and how each tool aligned with those requirements. To facilitate a resolution, I proposed a compromise. I suggested conducting a thorough evaluation of both tools, including their features, scalability, integration capabilities, and user feedback. This evaluation process would involve representatives from different departments, such as IT, operations, and finance, to gather a well-rounded perspective.

By involving a diverse group of stakeholders in the evaluation process, we aimed to ensure that the final decision aligned with the needs and objectives of the entire organization. I assigned a neutral team member to lead the evaluation, gathering feedback from each department and conducting hands-on testing of both tools.

Once the evaluation was complete, I organized a follow-up meeting to present the findings and recommendations to the team members who initially had differing opinions. This presentation included a detailed comparison of the two tools, highlighting their strengths, weaknesses, and alignment with our specific project requirements.

During the meeting, I emphasized the importance of considering not only individual preferences but also the overall benefit to the team and the organization. I encouraged an open dialogue and asked both team members to share their thoughts on the evaluation results and their potential impact on our project success.

Ultimately, the team members agreed to adopt the tool that had received the highest ratings and demonstrated the greatest compatibility with our project requirements. This decision was reached through a collaborative process that considered objective data and the input of various stakeholders.

By effectively managing the disagreement and involving the team in the decision-making process, we not only resolved the conflict but also strengthened the team’s cohesion and commitment to the project’s success.”

More examples…

The examples provided below can serve as a foundation for creating your unique answers. For additional inspiration, our new guide includes five sample responses to this question and over 100 answers to all of the most common interview queries.

Check out “INTERVIEW SUCCESS: How to answer 20 of the Most Popular Interview Questions (with over 100 sample answers

Alternative Example Answers: Conflict Within a Team

Example Answer 1

Absolutely, I can recall a particular instance when I was working as a team lead at a digital marketing firm. We were assigned to create a comprehensive marketing strategy for a new client, and there was a significant disagreement within our team about the approach we should take. Some members favored a more aggressive strategy with a heavy focus on social media, while others advocated for a balanced approach with equal emphasis on all digital platforms.

The disagreement started as a minor difference of opinion, but as the deadline approached, it escalated to the point where it was impeding our productivity and progress. As the team lead, it was my responsibility to ensure that the work environment remained conducive to productive discussion and collaboration, and I recognized that I needed to step in and mediate the situation.

Firstly, I organized a team meeting to allow everyone to openly discuss their viewpoints. I made sure that each person was given a chance to express their ideas and concerns without interruption, fostering an environment of respect and understanding. It was important to me that every team member felt heard and valued, and I believe this helped to defuse some of the tension.

Next, I guided the conversation towards the shared goal we all had – to create an effective marketing strategy that would meet the client’s needs. I emphasized the strengths of both proposed strategies and suggested that perhaps a hybrid approach could incorporate the best of both worlds.

I then facilitated a collaborative decision-making process, where we outlined a new strategy, incorporating elements from both the initial proposals. We assigned roles and responsibilities based on each team member’s expertise, ensuring everyone felt involved and valued.

This resolution allowed us to move forward as a united team and meet our deadline. The end result was a comprehensive and effective marketing strategy that was praised by the client. It was a challenging situation, but it taught me a valuable lesson about the importance of effective communication, respect for diverse opinions, and flexible problem-solving in managing team conflict.

Example answer 2

“Honestly, I hate conflict. I suppose everyone does really now I think about it. But because I hate conflict I always try to keep one step ahead of it by being aware of those around me and what they are working on and what their targets are, this way I have been able to resolve many issues before they even come up.

Obviously that is not possible all of the time, one such occasion was when our departmental budget was cut at the very last minute causing quite the stir with all of the management.

I was tasked with revising our costs based on the new allocation we would receive. This meant that certain areas would need to reduce (or eliminate) their funding. The conflict started almost immediately as each manager wanted to keep his or her own allocation and were convinced that their area was special and needed the full allocation as previously sought.

The first thing I did was meet with each manager individually to understand exactly what the impacts of cutting their budget would be, and ask them if they knew of any area that could be cut without impacting our operational effectiveness.

Once I collated all of the feedback I found that there were a number of items that could be cut that a majority of the management team were in agreement on.

My final budget proposal was to remove these non-essential items and for each area to absorb the remaining cuts equally according to size.

Obviously no-one was happy with receiving less funding but everyone was content with how the decision process had played out and there was no more inter-departmental squabbling about who should get what, so overall a positive result out of a negative situation.”

Interview Question: How do you handle disagreements within your team? – Answer Tips