Teamwork Motivation Interview Questions & Answers

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Teams create an environment of support, boosting the confidence of individuals, allowing people do their best. Teamwork can create talents and raise natural leaders.

Focus on clear, specific, reasonable and achievable goals. Give them reasons for the challenges and while discussing them you might even let them set the goals for themselves.
It is known that a stimulator for motivation is participation - they should be part of the decision-making process.

I worked as a project manager for XYZ company for three years during which time I managed various teams ranging from five to twenty team members. I was responsible for making sure team members were productive, projects remained within budget, and deadlines were met. As project manager I took on several leadership responsibilities. In several instances I had to resolve conflicts that arose among team members.

Team leaders must provide effective leadership, exemplify organizational values, and ensure projects are completed properly and on time. Additionally, team leaders are responsible for resolving problems and conflicts among team members, keeping management informed about progress, and motivating team members. When individual team members are under performing, it's the responsibility of the team leader to assist them. The following is an effective response to this question.

Don't focus on personal issues here. Talk more about the challenges associated with collaboration, keeping everyone on track, managing conflict and ensuring everyone has a clear idea of what their responsibilities are. Focus most of your time talking about how you overcome these challenges.

You might want to talk about things like the ability to share ideas among team members, get feedback from people with a broad array of experience, learn from team members, and share your skills with others.

Don't be overly negative with your answer. Provide a quick example then focus most of your time on what you learned. Don't 'blame' others, but rather focus on what you could have done differently to improve the outcome. If possible give an example of where you applied this learning.

Be a bit careful here, because quite often the interviewer will be trying to understand if you give credit where credit is due. If your situation was truly an individual effort that's fine, but if not make sure you talk about the contribution of your team members. Highlight what specifically your role was on the project and how you contributed to it's success.

Consider the job you are interviewing for. If it requires a lot of teamwork then you should probably highlight that in answering this question. Similarly if it's largely independent then you should highlight your ability to work independently.

The candidate should reveal a dedication and passion towards their work.

Teams can create better communication and respectful relationships among employees.

The more people work in an harmony together, create positive team environment, help and support each other and delegate tasks/duties the more they learn and step away to become better workers in their own jobs.

If one is weak, others can support or handle the work - So, it usually builds up power-resource for the organization.

If you offer no recognition for a job well done by your team members, the likely scenario is that the next time they will not do their jobs as expected. Why? Because if their good performance is not appreciated, they will think; Why bother? No one appreciates it anyway.
However, don't limit yourself to positive feedback's only. If they fail to achieve something, conduct a lesson learned procedure.
As for incentives, feeling that you belong is an incentive too. Remember that other employees and teams in the company watch your team performance and people would want to learn from/join the success.
You may present a clear result for high level of performance in order to drive team motivation.
Financial reward is not always the best answer for motivating a team. Bonuses are not necessarily motivators as you have to think of the next tasks - they would expect nothing less than these incentives. A simple thank you or a small reward is more than enough.

When you turn work over to some of your team members, you still maintain a certain degree of responsibility. Set clear expectations and responsibilities for each one of your team members. If things are not clearly understood, they may unknowingly miss the target, and then fail for not doing what they have never really understood.

You, as a team leader, have to delegate tasks to the right person. For instance - if you assign these hard or uninteresting activities to a leader (in nature) in your team, don't expect for the best. How do you expect him to see thus work leading him to any significant professional growth? In time, he begins to resist the task.

Find out what motivates team members. Brings each and every one of them to the highest level of performance.

Set achievable goals with them.
Share your vision with the team members in order to drive initial teamwork motivation.

Your ability to demonstrate you're a team player will also depend on how well you understand what "teamwork" means for the position you're seeking. Before the interview, carefully review the job description so you understand what "teamwork" means for the position and the company. For example, if you're apply for a position with a start-up, they may be looking for someone who has the ability to wear different hats and interact with employees and clients on many different levels. For managerial positions, team leadership may be the exclusive focus of interview questions. For an entry-level position, the interviewer may simply want to find out how well you get along with others.

Ask them on a regular basis and once you understand their professional needs and goals you are on the right track to know what can motivate them.
If you understand your employees, they will take more interest in understanding what you want from them.

Make note of - the leaders, the talents, the initiators, the hard-workers, the professionals, the creators, the individualists, those who are mature/responsible and those who really need directions to get the job done. Conduct your research and select the right mixture.
These insights of your team members will help you on deciding who needs extra motivation and how to start motivating these team members.

It goes without saying that selecting the right mix of talents, expertise and leaders for the team will ensure that the work they do leads to success.
And the right mix of people for any specific teamwork is the most important part of the process.

Don't skip answering these above questions. It would be wise to redefine and reshape your targets before any activity is launched.

One day when the project manager got in my face I decided to confront him. Initially, I want to knock his block off. Instead, I maintained my cool and simply explained how myself and the rest of the team was feeling. I then closed my mouth and just listened. I was surprized by his response. He proceeded to the explain that our project was months behind schedule. It was way over budget and that if it didn't get turned around quickly that he, along with the rest of us, would likely be let go--like the previous project manager. He apologized for having been difficult but wanting me to know that he also felt like he was in a difficult situation. He then surprised me again by asking if I had any ideas as to how we could turn things around and increase productivity.
Even though the new project manager's personality didn't change much, I gained a new appreciation for why he acted the way he did. I even came to agree that maybe he was the type of manager that was needed to head our project.

It's not uncommon for a team member to have had difficulty working with a manager, so if you an experience share it. Just make sure to use the experience to showcase your ability to deal with conflict in a productive mannner. The following is an example of an effective answer to this question.
I had a rocky start with a new project manager who was hired to replace our previous project manager. The new project manager had a very different personality than the previous project manager. He was gruff, unyielding, and it was his way or the high way. Many team members, including myself, felt like we were always walking on egg shells.