As a manager, how do you answer the HR question; tell us about a time when you failed to meet a deadline?

Missing deadlines, is indeed a mistake and sign unprofessionalism as it can cost a lot of money to the organisation, but if i was asked that question., i would say: "i know i missed the deadline, i dont weep on my mistake, instead i reassemble my courage and motivation and focus on the next step and make sure to be better organised and disciplined to avoid committing the same mistake."

Well if i would be facing such kind of situation then first of all ,i will never hide my mistakes whether it happened knowingly or unknowingly.
if you accept your mistake then half of your problem will get over at the same time because you don't need to make any excuse before your HR & Management.
But one more crucial point that i really want to convey,after very committed mistakes we should learn to overcome on these so that repetition of mistakes should never work but despite this if you are making mistakes then it means that you getting accustom to make these all.
Whenever you exceed the timeline or deadline of assigned work then you need to be conscious enough and try to make strong strategy & planning to begin your assigned task or work by next time so that same mistakes should never take place.
Apart from this,one very effective sentence ,i would like to present that Sometimes you make good planning,strategies and have proper management for all stuffs but inspite of this your timeline or deadline may exceed so don't take a lot of hectic while thinking all.
Ultimately i would just say be Confident & proper about all factors(Strategy,Planning,Understanding of process and a dominating management)

Deadlines are like budgets, if there is an unforeseen risk or opportunity we need to be mature enough to make adjustments.
The outcome can be more important than the deadline.

To be honest, I have never worked with deadlines and therefore cannot tell anything about deadlines. in my career, I have worked within timeframes to deliver, but neither have I been given a deadline, or have I set deadlines. I have not set deadlines because as a manager because I realize how quality sometimes suffer with the pressure. Instead I encourage innovativeness and creativity among teams and team players to accomplish objectives.

Generally speaking, if I'm going to miss a deadline, I tellmy boss before hand. He then either extends the deadline orthrows more assets at the problem to meet the deadline.

If i am asked something like this, i will explain in the following way -1) i will explain about the nature of work.2) Resources available3) Other environmental conditions4) and the effects of above three on the schedule of work in this way i will explain and justify the delay.