Tell me about a problem that landed while your manager was unreachable. What did you decide yourself, and what did you hold for their return?
Why this works
With the escalation path gone, defaults show: freeze, overreach, or act within sensible limits. The second clause makes knowing what not to decide alone part of the score, which pure hero framings miss.
Follow-up probes
- How did you judge that it couldn't wait?
- Whose input did you get, with the manager away?
- What did your manager say once they were back?
What good looks like
Quick triage of urgent versus deferrable, action scoped to what they could genuinely own, someone consulted along the way, and a prompt, complete account when the manager returned.
Red flags
Everything waited — or nothing did; decisions taken far beyond their knowledge with nobody consulted; or the manager heard about it later, secondhand.
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