RBS Work Style and Personality Assessment 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: When working on a long-term project at RBS, which approach best reflects effective work habits?
- Breaking the project into milestones, setting interim deadlines, and reviewing progress regularly (Correct answer)
- Working intensively at the end to meet the final deadline
- Delegating the entire project to junior team members
- Waiting for full information before beginning any aspect of the project
Correct answer: Breaking the project into milestones, setting interim deadlines, and reviewing progress regularly
Breaking work into milestones with regular reviews is the most structured and effective approach to managing long-term projects.
Question 2: Which statement best reflects a growth mindset in a banking environment like RBS?
- Treating feedback from a failed client pitch as a learning opportunity to improve future presentations (Correct answer)
- Avoiding new product areas where you lack experience to protect your performance metrics
- Believing your core strengths are fixed and cannot be significantly developed
- Prioritizing tasks where success is guaranteed to maintain a strong track record
Correct answer: Treating feedback from a failed client pitch as a learning opportunity to improve future presentations
A growth mindset involves embracing challenges and feedback as opportunities to develop, even when outcomes are negative.
Question 3: A colleague at RBS has a very different working style from you, which sometimes causes tension on shared tasks. What is the most constructive approach?
- Initiate an open conversation about how you can both adapt your approaches to collaborate more effectively (Correct answer)
- Avoid working with that colleague whenever possible
- Report the tension to your manager and ask to be reassigned
- Assume your working style is correct and that the colleague should change
Correct answer: Initiate an open conversation about how you can both adapt your approaches to collaborate more effectively
Proactive communication about differences enables mutual adaptation and is the hallmark of effective collaboration.
Question 4: How do you typically respond when you are given more work than you can complete to a high standard by the deadline?
- Raise the issue proactively with your manager, explain the capacity constraint, and collaboratively prioritize the most critical tasks (Correct answer)
- Work extra hours without telling anyone to get everything done
- Complete all tasks but to a lower standard to meet the deadline
- Simply decline additional work without explanation
Correct answer: Raise the issue proactively with your manager, explain the capacity constraint, and collaboratively prioritize the most critical tasks
Proactively communicating capacity constraints and prioritizing with management ensures quality and transparency without burnout.
Question 5: Which of the following best describes how you prefer to receive feedback on your work?
- Specific, honest feedback with examples and suggestions for improvement, even if it highlights weaknesses (Correct answer)
- Only positive feedback to maintain motivation
- Vague general comments that do not focus on specific issues
- No feedback — you prefer to evaluate your own performance
Correct answer: Specific, honest feedback with examples and suggestions for improvement, even if it highlights weaknesses
Specific, constructive feedback with actionable suggestions is the most valuable for professional development.
Question 6: You are given the opportunity to take on a challenging new responsibility at RBS that is outside your current experience. What is your likely response?
- Accept the challenge, ask for appropriate support and resources, and commit to developing the required skills (Correct answer)
- Decline because you prefer to stay within your area of expertise
- Accept but secretly plan to delegate the most difficult parts to others
- Ask to observe someone else do it first for an extended period before committing
Correct answer: Accept the challenge, ask for appropriate support and resources, and commit to developing the required skills
Embracing stretch assignments while seeking appropriate support is the most growth-oriented and professionally beneficial response.
When working on a long-term project at RBS, which approach best reflects effective work habits?