These are two commonly sought after competencies.

Competency questions that focus on any positions of responsibility you have held will often help employers identify how you work within a team or lead others. As competency questions, Teamwork and Leadership are often split into two separate questions, however some of the qualities required do overlap.

Applicants sometimes worry that they may not have enough experience to demonstrate Leadership. But often, Leadership requires a particular set of attributes in order to be successful in this role.

Leadership is competency that employers look when they require candidates to develop, lead or motivate other people. Have you ever:

• Led a group or supported another individual to achieve an objective or goal?
• Motivated or supported another person or group?
• Persuaded or negotiated with others?
• Inspired others?
• Generated new ideas and put them into action?

There are all sorts of ways you may develop or acquire the skills necessary for effective leadership: at work, in sports, clubs and societies, charity events, project work, supporting your peers and much more.

Teamwork is the ability to work well with others. For the vast majority of employers it will be an essential skill they require from their employees. Several questions during the recruitment process may expect you to demonstrate team working so it is best to prepare a number of examples. Try and think about the different aspects of what team working may involve. In order to achieving a successful outcome within a team setting, you are likely to experience on or more of the following:

• Overcoming a barrier or challenges
• Conflict – difficult situations or different opinions
• Adapting behaviour – conflicting personalities
• Giving feedback – was this constructive and helpful to others?
• Receiving feedback – did you learn anything from this?
• Not achieving objectives – what did you learn?
• Achieving success – what, how?
• Supporting others?

Thinking about these aspects will be useful to help you formulate your examples to ensure that during the recruitment process you can clearly show what you did, what you learned, what the outcome was and how you may approach such situations in the future.

In both cases, you will have to outline YOUR role and responsibility.