Building Trust as a Program Manager: Key Insights from a Challenging Team Dynamic
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Complete interview transcript & analysis below
Enhanced transcript with interviewer insights
INTERVIEWER
Key, I would say, uh, role for a program manager other than being, uh, excuse the turn of phrase, the asshole with the clip the clipboard, um, is to build trust with different teams over which you have no direct managerial control, uh, to achieve goals, right? Uh, and that building of that trust can be very difficult to do at times. So, um, Talk to me about how you ensure that you are effectively building trusting working relationships with other people on your team.
CANDIDATE
Um, I agree with kind of the joke that you made that, uh, I think a PM coming from another team and basically telling other people how to do the role or doing something, adding more work on their plates, uh, it's challenging. Um, and I think what usually helps me is To first building a relationship with them, um, and also what usually helps, um, I think in general, is to be able to show the value that you're adding and remind people of the a bigger picture or the goal that why, why is it that I'm asking for, um, just as simple as like a progress update, um, who is it going to, uh, and the impact it would have, um, kind of like the bigger picture, um, I think just going to somebody and saying give me A is, is not as um effective or they wouldn't be as willing to do that as opposed to why I'm asking for it. Uh, and why is it important? So kind of focusing on the reasoning.
Interviewer Insight
At this point of the interview, candidate is mapping to L5 at best. There is a lack of polish and experience depth which is creating the impression of a junior employee who cannot manage large a complex tasks. This is raised here because coming into the interview the leveling of the candidate was unclear based on resume, provided JD, and an effective change of industry.
INTERVIEWER
And so Separate from uh the situation you stepped into at the at J&J, um, are there any times where you can give me examples where you had, actually let's let's contain this to people within your company, uh, where you had particularly challenging time building trust with a group inside of your own organization.
CANDIDATE
Hm. Inside of organization. Right Challenging time-building trust. I can't think of anything. Let me think of that.
Interviewer Insight
candidate struggled to come up with a time. This is another example where the candidate is presenting as having not prepared.
INTERVIEWER
You're, you're extremely likable and everybody loves you. I can buy that. But there's always someone that you don't get along with or some team that you don't get along with.
CANDIDATE
Um, I think Maybe, maybe it makes it more challenging just because uh of how EY is structured and it's like consulting, but um I think I can even think of an example. Oh. I, I think there was times that uh Priorities varied uh between the teams and uh it was uh I think the challenging was part was mm. Uh, for example, for the audit team, priorities varied because uh they had to focus on their own goals and deliveries and we go in as the um IT auditor teams, um, and Which the partnership was necessary. And I, I remember times that um it was hard to kind of come up with an agreement of um whose uh priorities are more important or how we can make this work, the, the both of us, that kind of like the both of the teams, um. But yeah, so I, I have to think of that one more for specifics, but, uh
INTERVIEWER
let's pick on one where you, where you were having trouble with the audit team and, and your, your priorities were out of whack, right? How did you, or how would you address overcoming that challenge?
CANDIDATE
Um, I think the way I would uh I, I typically look Yeah get a more clear picture of what all everybody's priorities are, both theirs and ours, um, and usually try to come up with um a solution, one or two solutions that makes the most sense to me. Uh, in terms of whether it's adjusting schedule or um adding resources to, to kind of meet, um, somewhere in the middle, um, and presenting that, I think typically people um are, are a lot more willing to work with you if you, um, kind of like show some sort of a, uh. Uh, work that you've done thinking through it, uh, and, and middle ground, and also, uh, and then hearing feedback and see uh what they, what they think about kind of like the. What I presented.
INTERVIEWER
So I agree with you that people are more willing to work with you if they think that that you have spent time on on kind of thinking through uh possible solutions that don't feel like you're trying to cram them down with work. But let's go back to the disagreement, right, between these two teams. Uh, it happens a lot all the time with their organizations, but, but. What do you generally ascribe the root cause for those sorts of disagreements too?
CANDIDATE
Mm Root cause. I think it, it goes back to um the different priorities for different teams and individuals. Um. I think I think people in different roles have a You know, their own kind of um uh Mm You know, concerns and uh deliver the deliverables and um. I think um It's easy to kind of get that. Um, not aligned.
Interviewer Insight
this is meant to see if candidate can discern between organizational issues vs personality issues.
Interviewer Insight
these answers are very content light. They are presenting as hand wave-y and lacking in directional intent. Candidate will need to address depth of field.
INTERVIEWER
OK. Oh, I misspelled that word. OK, um, OK, how about we shift gears here? I'm, you know, as I, as I progress through kind of what I think is important for this role at this company, I, I make a special note not to mention the companies you're interviewing with, um. I it felt very process oriented, and it was very broad reaching the note that I made to myself was uh. Uh, it was, uh.
CANDIDATE
You're talking about the role
INTERVIEWER
itself. The role specifically, yeah, that, that it was very kind of, it was a bit all over the place if I'm being honest, that what they were looking for was something of a product manager, a project manager, and
CANDIDATE
I actually have 4 or 5 questions specifically on the role. Because I, I also got based on what I've researched, uh, I've got multiple contradicting, um, information on what exactly is this role. So I agree with that.
INTERVIEWER
Yeah, so it's a bit all over the place, but that's fine. But, but in that, it felt like there was a lot of process orientation. So this, this question set is around processes. So, um.
Expert Assessment
Interviewer assessment - would be used in a hiring meeting
There were basic strategies on display from the candidate as to how they would work with teams to Earn Trust, but what did not come through was a set of examples in dealing with incredibly complex or nuanced issues in cross-team management. In addition, there were no examples of more than 3 teams being a part of an issue or negotiation requiring candidate to display Earns Trust.