Strengths

At some point in any interview there will be a line of questioning that is designed to elicit your strengths.  The question will come in many forms, but it all boils down to a discussion about your capabilities.
The “question” I use most often to uncover strengths is “Tell me what you bring to the table”.   I’ve asked the question hundreds (if not thousands) of times.  99% of the time I get short answers with absolute no substance.  It’s gotten to a point that it’s so predictable it’s comical.

“I love to interact with / am good with people.”

“I’m very organized / detail oriented.”

“I’m driven / will go above and beyond.”

“I’m a problem solver.”

“I’m a good listener / have great communication skills.”

“I’m a good team player.”

Those answers tell me nothing about your strengths.  Using a generic answer that nearly 100% of the population would reach for when asked the same question is not going to impress anyone. As a matter of fact, if your answer consists of nothing but a recitation of a combination of the above statements you’re not going to make many short lists.

Employers definitely need you to be good with people.  That means you need to be thoughtful when dealing with their employees and customers, including the interviewer.   Perhaps you should give them a thoughtful answer.  Here’s an example of how I could answer a question about my strengths.

My entire career has been spent convincing people to take action.  I’ve built enough trust in the first exchange with people to persuade them to purchase products that cost tens of thousands of dollars.  I am sincere about working with others to uncover what they’re seeking and help them find it.  I can sympathize with people who might be agitated and will do my best to work with them to resolve the issue.  Throughout my career I’ve been given leadership opportunities and have built and developed successful teams of salespeople and recruiters.  Frankly, one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of my career has been working with people, and I’m very good at it.

A thoughtful answer defines characteristics an employer seeks and demonstrates those attributes.  Make sure you understand how your talent aligns with what the employer needs and articulate that alignment in the interview when asked about your strengths.

You may note the above answer doesn’t follow the “Situation / Action / Result” formula.  The reason I would not go too deep into a specific “story” is if you take much more than 30-45 seconds to answer the question you’re going to start losing them.  In my example they may want to dig deeper so I certainly would be ready to talk about specific situations where I closed a five figure deal in one-call or built and managed a team.

Starting your answer with the generic “I’m good with people” is what everyone else is doing.  Take a half a minute or so to unpack the reasoning and finish with the strength.  The likely follow up question will be to speak to other strengths so be ready to follow the formula again.

What is going to give the employer a better understanding of your capabilities?  Taking 15 seconds to say “I’m detail oriented, good with people, uh… organized, and a hard worker” or 20 minute discussion on what you bring to the table?

With all this being said, there will be times where you get interviewers asking you what I consider to be “lazy” interview questions.  Hopefully you won’t be asked to “Describe Yourself in Four Words”, but that’s a strength question so have four words ready to unpack.

PS.  If I was a tree I would be the tree in my backyard so I could be close to my family.