Tell me about a time you made a bold and difficult decision.

This question is asking you to provide a specific example from your past where you had to take a bold step and make a tough decision. Hiring managers ask this to assess your decision-making skills, boldness and risk-taking abilities. They are looking for answers that display your ability to take calculated risks, your thought process when dealing with difficult situations, leadership abilities, resilience, and problem-solving skills.

In your response, make sure to concentrate on these points:

1. Describe the challenging situation.
2. Explain what led to this difficult decision.
3. Explain the pros and cons you considered.
4. Discuss how you managed the situation.
5. Describe the outcome of the decision.
6. Reflect on what you learned from this experience.

Stick to the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) while constructing your answer to clearly articulate your point.

In my previous job as a project manager, I was responsible for a project that started experiencing several technical issues midway. Our team had to decide whether we should proceed with a risky solution that could potentially solve the issue but might also lead to the failure of the whole project if not successful.

Explaining the situation to the stakeholder seemed challenging as they were expecting a smooth run. However, after weighing the pros and cons and discussing with the team, I decided to inform the stakeholder about the issue and our proposed solution. My team and I believed honesty was the best approach in this situation and it would build trust with the stakeholder.

Surprisingly, the stakeholder appreciated our transparency and gave us their full support, allowing us to implement the risky solution. Consequently, we were able to resolve the issue and save the project. This experience taught me that transparency can yield trust and better outcomes even in difficult situations.

When I was the team lead at my former company, there were budget cuts that resulted in resource reallocation. I was faced with a difficult decision of either laying off a team member to reduce cost or to find other alternative ways like increasing working hours for the team.

Even though it was tough, I made the bold decision to propose increased working hours and a comprehensive work-plan to the management instead of laying off a valuable team member. I understood that it would put an extra burden but believed that it would be temporary and better than hurting team morale.

I discussed the situation with my team and asked for their opinion as they were the ones going to be affected. The team agreed with the proposal and we enacted it. Not only were we able to weather the budget cuts without layoffs, we completed our project successfully in time. This instance taught me the value of teamwork and communication during difficult times.