how to answer tell me about a time you persuaded someone

by Wistkey · 17 august 2026 · 6 min read

this question is not asking whether you can win an argument. it is asking whether you can understand another person's position, make a useful case and move towards agreement without forcing it. the strongest answers show what changed in your approach as well as what changed in theirs.

what the interviewer is really testing

persuasion at work is rarely about delivering one brilliant speech. it is usually about earning enough trust for somebody to consider a different route. the interviewer wants evidence that you can listen, judge what matters to the other person, explain your reasoning clearly and respond constructively when they are not immediately convinced.

the civil service behaviours guidance describes communicating and influencing as putting forward views clearly and considerately, choosing a suitable method, listening and checking understanding. that is a useful picture of persuasion in almost any role: clear purpose, respect for the audience and evidence that the message landed.

choose an example with genuine resistance

pick a moment when someone had a reasonable reason not to agree at first. perhaps a colleague was worried about extra work, a manager questioned the risk in your proposal, a customer preferred another option or a group wanted to keep an established process.

avoid examples where everybody accepted your suggestion straight away. they show initiative, but not persuasion. also avoid stories where you kept pushing until the other person gave in. a useful example has four ingredients:

• a shared outcome — what were you both trying to protect or achieve?
• a real concern — why did the other person hesitate?
• an adjustment — what did you change after listening?
• genuine agreement — what did the person decide or do afterwards?

your example can come from paid work, study, volunteering or a community responsibility. choose one where your own communication made a visible difference, even if the outcome was modest.

structure the answer as aim, concern, adapt, agreement

the national careers service star guidance recommends using situation, task, action and result to keep interview examples short and conversational. for a persuasion question, make the action section more precise with these four beats:

• aim — explain the decision you needed and why it mattered.
• concern — name the other person's objection without dismissing it.
• adapt — show how you changed the evidence, wording, channel or proposal to address that concern.
• agreement — state what they agreed to, what happened next and how you knew their support was real.

keep the setting brief. most of your answer should sit in concern and adapt, because that is where your influencing skill becomes visible. a line such as i realised the issue was not the idea itself but the extra work in the first week gives the listener a reason for what you did next.

show that you listened before you reframed

do not present the other person as stubborn or uninformed. explain how you found the reason behind their response. you might have asked an open question, repeated the concern in your own words or checked which constraint mattered most.

then connect your proposal to something they already cared about. if they were concerned about time, simplify the first step. if they needed evidence, bring a small test or a relevant comparison. if the proposal affected other people, invite those views and adjust the plan. persuasion sounds stronger when the final route improves because of the conversation.

the university of cambridge careers service advises candidates to listen carefully, answer the question asked and use a context, action, results structure for competency examples. for this question, your action should include the listening and adjustment, not just the final request.

make the evidence specific without inventing numbers

name the evidence you actually used: customer comments, a trial, costs, timing, previous results or feedback from the people affected. explain why that evidence suited this person and this decision. saying i showed the manager the three repeated handover errors and proposed a one-week trial is clearer than saying i used data to convince them.

you do not need a dramatic statistic. use a number only when it is true and you can explain where it came from. agreement can be demonstrated through a decision, a trial that went ahead, a process that was adopted or a stakeholder who actively supported the next step.

an adaptable example answer

use this as a shape for a real experience, not as a script to copy.

"while organising a volunteer event, i suggested moving the briefing earlier so people could raise access and equipment issues before the day. the coordinator was concerned that another meeting would take up too much time. i asked which part felt most burdensome and learnt that a full team call was the problem, not the earlier check itself. i changed the proposal to a short written checklist followed by a brief call only for unresolved points. i shared two examples of issues that the check would have caught at our previous event. the coordinator agreed to trial it. the team raised an access need in advance, the equipment plan was adjusted before the event and the coordinator kept the checklist for the next session. i learnt that gaining support was easier once i addressed the cost of the change, not just its benefit."

notice that the speaker does not win by repeating the same argument more firmly. they discover the objection, reduce the burden, use relevant evidence and suggest a low-risk next step.

prepare for the likely follow-up questions

an interviewer may ask what you would have done if the person still disagreed, whether you changed your own view or how you checked that the agreement lasted. prepare one honest sentence for each. good influence includes knowing when to compromise, when to gather more evidence and when somebody else has the authority to decide.

it is fine if the final answer was not exactly your original idea. say what you changed and why. that can show stronger judgement than a story where you treat any compromise as failure.

practise sounding collaborative, not triumphant

say the answer aloud using only the four headings as prompts. listen for loaded phrases such as they finally saw i was right or i made them agree. replace them with the concern you understood, the choice they made and the shared result.

aim for a calm pace and leave a small pause before you explain how you adapted. that pause separates the objection from your response and makes the logic easier to follow. the current LSE careers question guide includes persuading someone among its competency examples, alongside questions about adapting your approach. your delivery should make both abilities easy to hear.