…When Preparing for Behavioural Competency Interviews

Behavioural competency interviews are the gateway to leadership roles, especially in global organisations, Fortune 500 companies, and regulated industries. They are intentionally designed to assess more than technical skill. Employers want to understand how you think, respond under pressure, collaborate, adapt, and lead through complex challenges.

Despite being skilled at their work, many candidates underestimate behavioural interviews. They assume experience alone will communicate capability, and as a result, they enter interviews unprepared and unknowingly reduce their chances of receiving an offer. Below are the most common and costly mistakes candidates make when preparing for and practising behavioural competency interviews, and what to do instead.

1. Sharing the Summary Instead of the Real Story

This first mistake is incredibly common among high performers, subject-matter experts, and individuals for whom the job comes naturally. Because they are unconsciously competent, meaning they instinctively know how to solve problems, build relationships, and get on and do their jobs, they unintentionally skip critical details when responding to interview questions.  These critical details to interviewers are called evidence.  This evidence is needed for the interviewers to feel confident that this candidate is competent to do this role.

If the interviewers don’t feel confident, then the decision is likely to end with an undesirable outcome for the candidate. There is a reason you’ve been invited to interview.  You have the necessary experience, knowledge, and qualifications to do the job.  But it is now your job to ensure the interviewers are confident you can do the job, and can do this in often complex situations and environments.

What this sounds like:

“We had a system issue, so I got the team aligned, and we resolved it ahead of schedule.” On the surface, that sounds impressive. But from an evaluation standpoint, it communicates almost nothing.

Interviewers need to explicitly hear:

• How complex was the issue?
• What was the risk or consequence?
• How did you influence others?
• What analysis did you personally do?
• How did your leadership change the outcome?

Candidates often omit these details because, to them, the steps were logical or obvious.  When something comes naturally to you, you assume it is universally obvious but it rarely is. Why this hurts your credibility…

Without meaningful detail:

• Your leadership impact remains unclear
• The interviewer cannot differentiate you from other candidates
• You appear passive rather than strategic

What to do instead: Describe your story using observable evidence.

Instead of:

“I resolved a conflict with a client.”

Instead say:

“The client threatened to escalate the issue to senior leadership, which would have delayed the delivery timeline by two weeks. I initiated a structured reset conversation, clarified expectations, and presented an alternative implementation path that allowed the project to continue without escalation.” In behavioural competency interviewing, details are not embellishment; they are proof.

2. Being Too Comfortable and Sharing Flippant Comments

Another common mistake occurs when professionals are friendly, socially comfortable, or naturally expressive.  Understandably, experienced professionals are confident by nature.  They have earned that.  Therefore, they enter the room relaxed, but being too familiar and relaxed can lead to casual body language, gestures, and throw-away comments, and this could be unintentionally chipping away at their credibility later during the interview.

What this sounds like:

• “Honestly, that project was a nightmare.”
• “I probably shouldn’t say this, but…”
• “At that point, I just told myself, whatever, let’s just try something.”
• “I guess leadership finally decided to get involved.”

Even when said jokingly, comments like these imply:

• Emotional immaturity
• Lack of accountability
• Poor judgment
• Cynicism toward leadership
• Resistance to structure

Being personable is an advantage, but personality must be balanced with professionalism. The risk is subtle but significant…

Interviewers interpret loose language as:

• Cultural misalignment
• Lack of discretion
• Poor communication discipline

And leaders, especially HR directors or hiring panellists, are listening beyond the surface content.

They’re asking:

Will this person represent us well? Are they politically aware? Can they influence stakeholders without damaging relationships? Overly casual candidates forget that senior leaders are evaluating whether they can be trusted with existing employees, stakeholders, clients, and teams, not just tasks.

What to do instead

Replace casual language with intentional framing.

Instead of:

“That team just didn’t know what they were doing.”

Instead say:

“There were differing levels of experience across the group, so I focused on clarifying responsibilities and ensuring support where needed.” Same truth. Different implication.

3. Practising Answers Incorrectly

Many candidates rehearse, but do it in the wrong way.  In fact, my experience demonstrates that professionals feel they don’t need to do much preparation at all.  They certainly don’t see the benefits of writing up their examples, and this can lead to several issues during the interview. Not writing up your examples can lead to information rattling around their heads, in no order or detail.  This is risky, and during the interview can lead to waffling. 

People tend not to think through the details or think logically through the evidence, and again, this type of unstructured thinking can lead to an example that doesn’t necessarily make sense to the hiring managers or interviewers. Not taking time to talk through your examples is also a missed opportunity.  Thinking about your examples is very different to talking them through.  If you were asked to prepare a presentation, you would most certainly take the time to practise before the big day!  So, why do you think it is less important to practise your examples for an important interview?

Instead of practising articulation, clarity, and structure, they memorise scripted responses, which causes:

• Robotic delivery
• Answers that don’t match follow-up questions
• Inability to pivot when asked for specificity
• Anxiety when the interviewer interrupts

Behavioural interviews are adaptive conversations – not memorised monologues.

Candidates often rehearse like this:

• Listing bullet points
• Reciting STAR mechanically
• Memorising key phrases

But here’s the truth:

S.T.A.R. is only effective when the story has substance.  In my experience, candidates tend to start well with the S.T.A.R. process but in the situation and do not share much about what they did and how they achieved it.  Candidates do not share adequate results or outcomes.  This leaves the interviewers asking additional probing questions or not.

The structure is not the differentiator. The depth is.

Practice should focus on:

• Framing the problem contextually
• Highlighting personal ownership
• Articulating decision-making logic
• Naming measurable or visible outcomes

Interviewers want to know what YOU did – not what “the team” did.

4. Relying on Generic or Recycled Examples

Candidates often reuse examples that worked in previous interviews, even when those examples are not aligned to the specific role.

Signs you are relying on ineffective material:

• The story could apply to any job
• The outcome is implied, not measured
• You were not the decision-maker
• Your involvement was only partial

Behavioral evaluation is evidence-based.

If the story does not:

• Show risk,
• Demonstrate complexity,
• Or reveal leadership intention,

…it will not differentiate you. How to recognize strong examples

A strong interview story should involve:

• A clear consequence if you failed…
• Stakeholder complexity
• A judgment call or decision point
• An obstacle you actively resolved
• A measurable or observed outcome

If your example does not contain these elements, it will not score highly, no matter how confidently you say it.

5. Forgetting to Demonstrate Leadership Intention

Even strong candidates sometimes talk about tasks instead of strategic thinking.

For example:

“I organized weekly project updates.” vs. “I introduced weekly milestone checkpoints to increase cross-functional transparency because the lack of alignment was creating timeline risk.”

Leadership intention matters because it shows:

• Initiative
• Awareness
• Ownership
• Strategic reasoning

Senior hiring leaders want people who act deliberately not reactively.

6. Not Practising Emotional Regulation

One overlooked element in behavioural interviews is emotional discipline.  You are good at building rapport and relationships quickly, and that is necessary to do during an interview.  The interviewers may be friendly, approachable, and personable, but be clear that they are not your friends. 

The interviewers have a clear task – assessing and evaluating information and data gathered to make a decision if this is the right person, with the right skills, to do the job.  Neither are interviewers career coaches, nor interview coaches – they are not gathering information to create a development plan for you to learn how to interview! That’s my role!

When discussing past challenges, some candidates:

• Sound frustrated – you can be honest and maintain your integrity and professionalism.
• Display lingering resentment – this happens a lot during the interview process, especially when individuals get too comfortable.
• Speak negatively about former leaders – this is never a good idea, and this is where good practice can help with presenting professionally.
• Reflect defensiveness – if you want to be known as a leader or demonstrate leadership characteristics, then being defensive is not helping build credibility.

This does not indicate strength.  It may signal a lack of maturity and lack of responsibility, and that’s not something you want during an interview.

Your emotional tone communicates:

• Readiness for leadership
• Stability under pressure
• Resilience

If you want to be promoted into positions of influence, emotional neutrality matters.

How to Prepare the Right Way

Here’s what strong behavioural preparation looks like: Identify meaningful examples These examples should demonstrate: Decision-making Influence Ownership Conflict resolution Cross-functional leadership Build your narrative intentionally Use:

• Situation (context)
• Risks (what was at stake)
• Actions (specific leadership behaviours)
• Outcomes (measurable impact)
• Reflection (what you learned)

Practice aloud Record yourself. Listen for:

• Clarity
• Redundancy
• Precision

Ask yourself: “If someone else told this story, could they pass as me?” If yes, it’s not specific enough.

Final Thoughts: Competency Interviews Reward Clarity, Credibility, and Ownership

Most candidates at this level of experience fail behavioural interviews, not because they lack experience, but because they fail to communicate it adequately.  It is no bad thing to be and feel confident but your role is to ensure the interviewers feel just as confident that they are making the right decision.

They:

• Skip critical details
• Assume outcomes speak for themselves
• Lean into familiarity and become overly casual
• Recite scripted answers instead of demonstrating real thinking

To succeed, you must speak like someone leading consciously—not merely performing instinctively. Your job is not simply to share what happened.  Your job is to make the interviewer trust that, when complexity occurs again, you will navigate it intentionally, strategically, and maturely.  When you do that, you don’t just pass a competency interview—you earn confidence.  And confidence is what hiring decisions are ultimately based on.