Handle conflict and motivate engineering teams

You are interviewing for a Senior Software Engineer / Tech Lead role.

The interviewer asks two related leadership questions:

1. Handling conflict
   Describe a specific time when you had to handle a serious conflict on your team (for example, two engineers strongly disagreeing about a technical approach, ownership boundaries, or timelines). In your answer, cover:
   • The context and what the conflict was about.
   • How you became aware of the conflict.
   • The concrete steps you took to address it (e.g., conversations, decision-making process, involving stakeholders).
   • How you balanced technical quality, timelines, and team relationships.
   • The final outcome and what you learned.
2. Motivating the team as a leader
   As an engineering leader, what do you do to keep your team motivated, especially during stressful periods such as tight deadlines, production incidents, or major refactors? In your answer, describe:
   • Specific practices or rituals you use (1:1s, recognition, goal-setting, delegation, etc.).
   • How you adapt your approach to different personalities or seniority levels.
   • One or two concrete examples of actions you took that noticeably improved team morale or performance.

Answer both parts as you would in a real interview, using concrete past examples where possible.