Welcome to Module 9 which will cover everything you need to know about challenges! If you are just joining us, we recommend you start by completing Module 1: How to Write an Application 101, Module 2: Value Proposition, Module 3: Customers, Module 4: Target Market & Market Size, Module 5: Business Model; Module 6: Goal Setting, Module 7: Revenue & Profit, and Module 8: Capital

Overview

Ah, the dreaded question that comes up on almost every application and in every job interview - tell us about the biggest challenges you’ve faced, or about a time that you’ve failed at something. We’ve all faced this question at some point in our professional lives, and whether you have a go-to response or prefer to think of your answer on the spot, there’s a good chance that you can strengthen your response and show yourself in a better light by focusing your story on what the application or interviewer really wants to know (hint: it’s not about the actual challenge . . .)

You may be wondering why applications and interviewers ask about challenges, especially when the goal of these processes is to showcase the best things about you and your business. The beauty of these questions is that they actually DO provide an opportunity to showcase some of your best qualities . . . qualities that are often easier to articulate via a situational example. While your business growth, participation in prestigious programs, and list of awards and accolades showcase your success, they gloss over many of the important parts of your journey that it took to achieve said success. By talking about a challenge you’ve overcome, you provide insight into your resiliency, how you deal with adversity, and your ability to reflect on the situation and use your learnings to move forward. Think of each challenge as an opportunity to showcase your grit, grace, and tenacity.

When sharing a challenge or failure, keep in mind that the objective of the question is not to hear about your struggles, but rather, to see examples of your ability to overcome these struggles. Therefore, your description of your challenge should be clear and succinct, followed by a brief explanation of how you addressed the challenge and the lesson(s) you learned in the process. It’s tempting to provide a long, detailed story to really illustrate the struggle you went through; however, this leaves your reviewer or interviewer with a lasting impression of your problem, not your problem solving abilities. Instead, think about your story arc - the description of the challenge serves as an introduction to set the stage for the real story, the story of how you overcame adversity, persevered, and grew as a result of the experience.

This also applies to how you share challenges with your stakeholders - whether it’s your teammates, clients, investors, or partners, stakeholders expect transparency, but only to a certain degree. As the leader of your organization, you’re expected to be open about the challenges you’re addressing, but in a way that conveys confidence and competence. Stakeholders want to know that you have the situation under control. A long monologue about a problem or challenge you’re facing causes people to question your leadership; whereas a well-articulated story that states the challenge and emphasizes how you addressed it positions you as an honest, trustworthy, and inspiring leader.

A simple story formula to use is as follows: 

• 1-2 sentence description of the challenge

• 1-2 sentence description of how you addressed or overcame the challenges

• 1-2 sentence description of the lesson you learned or what you will do differently in the future

This is also not the place to speak in generalities - the more specific and personal the story, the more it will resonate with your reviewer or interviewer. In both application review processes and interviews, the reviewer/interviewer is likely reading many, many applications or speaking with lots of applicants. The more specific you make your example, the more memorable your application will be.

Now perhaps you’re still in the midst of addressing your challenge (a likely scenario, given that recency bias makes it easier to reflect on a current situation than something that’s happened months or years in the past) - how do you create a compelling story focused on how you addressed the challenge when you’re still in it?

At AWEC, we love to use reverse brainstorming as a problem-solving exercise. While it can be used to generate ideas around any topic, it’s especially useful when you are stuck in the middle of a problem and struggling to think of a solution. It may seem counterintuitive, but reverse brainstorming begins by encouraging you to get all of your worries and concerns about the problem out of the way by coming up with ideas to make the problem worse before you have to start thinking about solutions. The act of voicing your concerns is very liberating, and it frees up space in your mind to start thinking creatively about solutions.

1. Define the problem/challenge

• Example: Our sales were low last month.

2. Reverse the problem/challenge

• Example: We need to lower our sales.

3. Collect ideas to make the problem worse

• Examples: 

• We could stop advertising

• We could increase our prices

• We could stop introducing new products

• We could fire our sales team

4. Reverse the ideas

• Examples: 

• We could stop advertising → We could increase our advertising and use new channels (i.e. social media)

• We could increase our prices → We could lower our prices or offer discounts for purchasing multiple products or for repeat customers

• We could stop introducing new products → We could introduce a new product to get our customers excited

• We could fire our sales team → We could retrain our sales team and/or hire more sales associates

5. Evaluate the ideas and identify solutions

• Once you have your list, spend some time evaluating the pros and cons of each idea with your team to determine which idea (or ideas) is the most viable. You may need to try multiple solutions before finding something that works!

AWEC is an experiential, applied learning program, which means we promote business growth by having fellows immediately apply what they learn to their own business. We have created the following tools to help you apply the knowledge from this module to your business. We encourage you to download the tools below to strengthen your application AND your business!

Well done to you for completing your ninth module. You can now move on to Module 10: Risk Mitigation