Did you ever have to correct one of your superiors when they were wrong?

It can be difficult to tell someone that they're wrong. A lot of people are scared of confrontation.

But it's essential for a healthy working environment. You can't work in an office without being able to express yourself. And you certainly can't get anything done when someone's constantly getting in your way and undermining your efforts.

What's the best way to approach a conversation like this? How do you frame it so that the other person doesn't feel threatened or offended? The answer is using the STAR technique. Here are the answers to the STAR interview question.

My manager was making a mistake with some of our company's finances

S - I remember a time when my manager was making a mistake with some of our company's finances, and I knew that I had to step in.

T - He had been in charge of the numbers for years and knew them well, so it was difficult for me to bring up the issue with him.

A - I approached him at lunch one day and told him that I could see something wasn't right with the numbers. He said that he knew something was off too, but he didn't know what it was. So we sat down together and went through each line item in detail until we finally figured out what the problem was.

R - We were able to fix this problem before anyone noticed it was happening, but if we hadn't stepped in when we did, it could have caused some major issues down the road.

I was working as a junior project manager and I was asked to work on a new project with the marketing team

S - I was working as a junior project manager for [company name] and I was asked to work on a new project with the marketing team. The marketing team lead was my boss, so I had to work under him.

T - The project was supposed to be simple: create a new logo for the company's brand refresh. However, when we got into the details of what we needed to do and how much time it would take, it turned out that there were many more tasks than expected.

A - I had to approach my boss and explain the situation: we didn't have enough people on our team and not enough time for everything needed for this project. My boss told me he would talk about it with other managers so we could get some more people and extend our deadlines.

R - After these conversations happened, we were able to start working on the new project successfully and finished it within two weeks instead of three months as originally planned.

My manager was not aware of the fact that there was a new type of material that we could use in order to make our uniforms more comfortable and durable

S - I was working as a sales representative for a company that sold sports uniforms.

T - My manager was not aware of the fact that there was a new type of material that we could use in order to make our uniforms more comfortable and durable, so I took it upon myself to inform him about it.

A - I went into his office and explained to him that one of my colleagues had informed me about this new material and how it could be used.

R - He was very skeptical at first, but after I presented some data on how much money the company would save by switching to this new material, he believed me and allowed us to start using it immediately.

My superior was not familiar with the company's policies and procedures

S - My superior was not familiar with the company's policies and procedures and was unaware of how they should be followed.

T - As a new employee, it was my duty to ensure that everyone followed the rules and procedures in place.

A - I informed my superior of all policies and procedures and asked them to follow them.

R - The situation was solved successfully, as my superior was able to understand the policies and procedures and follow them properly.

I was working for a small company, I had to correct my boss

S - When I was working for a small company, I had to correct my boss when he made a mistake.

T - The situation was that we were doing an internal review of our product and the way it was being marketed. The task was to come up with ideas on how we could improve these things based on what we found out through our research and interviews with customers.

A - My action was to suggest that we change our advertising strategy by targeting specific demographics instead of just trying to reach everyone at once. This would allow us to be more targeted and therefore more effective at reaching our target audience.

R - The result was that this suggestion was implemented and helped increase sales by 20%.

I remember one instance when I was working as a data analyst, and my boss asked me to run some numbers for him

S - I remember one instance when I was working as a data analyst, and my boss asked me to run some numbers for him. It was pretty straightforward—I just had to check the numbers against a few other databases, then make sure that everything added up.

T - When I finished running the numbers, however, I noticed something strange: there were several missing values in one of the columns. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary—it happens sometimes—but this time, the missing values were in a section that was crucial to our company's success.

A - I went up to my boss and told him about it. He wasn't happy at all—he said that he'd been planning on using those numbers in his presentation later that day and now he'd have to go back and redo everything. But instead of getting upset or angry at me (which is what he usually did when something went wrong), he just thanked me and told me that we needed to fix this ASAP so no one would find out about it before his presentation.

R - We ended up finding an easy solution: we just used an algorithm that filled in all of those missing values with asterisks so no one would know what they were looking at anyway! And since it happened so fast, nobody even noticed there were

My boss had told me to do something that I knew would take up too much of my time

S - In a situation where my boss was wrong, I approached the problem by explaining why she was wrong and then suggesting what she could do to correct her mistake.

T - My boss had told me to do something that I knew would take up too much of my time.  

A - I explained to her that it would take too long and that there were other things that needed to be done instead. She agreed with me and we did not do what she had originally suggested.

R - The result was that we got more work done than expected because we didn't waste time on things that weren't necessary at the time.