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Sample Behavioral Interview Questions : Planning And Organization

Planning And Organization

Sample behavioral interview questions on planning and organization help assess if a job seeker has the skills for it. The answers are ideal examples to show that the applicant have the trait of planning and organization. However, the questions on planning and organization are different from sample behavioral interview questions on initiative and sample behavioral interview questions on decision making.

1. What is your planning process?

   Ans: Planning is done for a purpose or to achieve a goal. Everybody has short-term, mid-term and long-term goals and plans are made accordingly. Even I go about planning in the same way as per the goals I have set for myself as per the term.

   I review my plans after a specific period to check whether I am on track or not. If I find myself falling short of any goal in a given period of time, I make the required changes and the process goes on, till my goals are achieved.

2. Are you a habitual planner or are you doing it rarely? Why?

   Ans: Experience has taught me that regular planning is essential to be successful in anything. When I started out I use to seldom plan. But some things backfired and I found the lack of planning as one of the primary reasons for it. I learned it the hard way that planning ahead is necessary. Since then I have made it a habit to plan all my activities.

3. Describe your planning process in an orderly manner?

   Ans: The answer should elaborate what your goal is and how you plan to achieve it in a step-by-step manner. It should be parallel to your position, job profile and career goals.

   If you want to give an example make sure that it states the exact time period to achieve certain goal at your work place. For example, if you want to tell that you plan to reduce cost of a certain project, it should include the percentage of cost reduction and the time required for it. Then include the step proposed to attain the goal and the progress or changes till date.

   Be brief, but make the point clear as it shows your clarity of thought in planning and execution of the same.

4. According to you, how does planning affect organizational success?

   Ans: This is a great chance to emphasize the importance you give to planning.

   An ideal answer would be, "Planning and success, be it individual or organizational, go hand-in hand. Without planning there is no sense of direction and your work seems like an activity rather than a result-oriented task. A plan brings out an arrangement and regulates the actions you are taking. It gets you focused on attaining the goals set personally as well as for the organization. It differentiates between highly effective and organized employees and those lacking focus to the organizations goals. I don't think anybody who lacks the ability to plan ahead can be consistently successful at anything.”

5. What procedure do you follow to schedule your actions to meet your goals? Give an example.

   Ans: The interviewer is checking how you plan and prioritize your actions to achieve what you have set out for. Your answer should explain how you set up step-by-step actions, manage resources and plan the task according to the objective.

   To start with, brief about the situation or task you have. For example, you have to prepare a certain monthly report. It requires collection of lots of data from various departments involved. Elaborate how you make a to-do list to collect the data required and how you communicate the departments involved about the data requirement and fix a deadline to receive the same. Then explain how you set aside time to assemble the information and cross verify the same before making the final report and then make the final draft as per the deadline set. Finally, state that how this planning has helped you in meeting the deadline to prepare and submit the report consistently.

6. What are the elements of a team project plan according to you?

   Ans: Everyone has different ways to plan for a project, but the overall outcome is the same. There are many elements to be considered in planning for a project. I make sure that all the members are on the same page.

   An example of the answer is, "Then there are various aspects to be thought of. I believe that a project plan starts with set out a definite goal and describing the final outcome. Then allocate the necessary resources and set out the quality standards. Next step is to define the responsibilities of all the team members. Then there has to be a review plan to track the developments. Make sure that you have a backup plan for risk management and the final part is scheduling and getting started."

   This is a model answer which you can change as per your style and requirement, but it should show clarity of thought that you have in planning for a project.

Given above are questions to judge the planning and organizational ability of an applicant. There are no perfect answers to prove this skill; however, the answers are a guideline for job seekers. Keep checking back to find sample behavioral interview questions on flexibility.