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dent action the candidate was able to exercise. For example, in some companies, it would not be possible for a frontline employee to change a procedure independently. But don’t underestimate the actions that a determined person without positional power could take to influence changes. The interviewer should be evaluating whether the person takes actions, as well as how the person takes actions. Both features are important. A person who organizes a union is demonstrating initiative. But it may not be in the best interest or fit for the hiring company. The interviewer should be certain to ask “how” questions to determine what form the candidate’s initiative takes. Also important to keep in mind when asking a candidate about initiative is to ask how the candidate felt about the situation. Sometimes people take initiative, but then feel resentful that they had to perform the burden of the work. A question such as “Describe a time when you did more than was required on your job. How did you feel about that?” allows the interviewer to determine the candidate’s feelings about going above and beyond. Sometimes candidates will take the initiative, but they will not do so because of a service orientation. Asking about the candidate’s feelings will give the interviewer a new dimension of information. Some people take initiative and then play the hero. Still others play the martyr. Both of these roles can be destructive in the workplace. Similarly, determining how the candidate reacts when he has taken initiative and it doesn’t work out gives the interviewer important data. Does the candidate stop trying? Does he regroup and find another strategy? Or does he decide on another initiative as the focus for his energy? All of these details will give the interviewer useful insight. When asked about an initiative that didn’t work out, one candidate said, “I figured, I wasn’t going to waste my time and energy, so I decided to leave.” With some probing, the interviewer discovered that this was a pattern of behavior that the candidate had displayed with a string of other employers. Some employees place blame if their actions don’t work out. Here again, probing offers insight into how employees respond to initiatives that don’t work out. Competency 3: Goal Orientation Does the candidate have clear goals in mind? Is the candidate driven by internal and external goals? Is the candidate able to set goals for 94 THE EQ INTERVIEW himself? Setting and working toward goals distinguishes high-performing candidates. Goal orientation is different from initiative. Initiative is about taking action; goal orientation sets the direction for the action. Someone can take initiative but not necessarily be clearly focused in terms of direction or goals. If a job demands setting and achieving goals, considering a person’s internal mechanism for goal orientation leads the interviewer to some fruitful information. Many companies’ performance-management systems require candidates to set goals. Goal setting is hardly a new science for most people. However, these questions concern the candidate’s internal goal-setting drive, not a company-driven process. In management and leadership positions, an individual’s goal orientation must be extended to setting goals for others. When setting up a team, the manager must make the goals clear to all members.7 However, according to a survey by Hay Group, a key reason people leave organizations is because they believe their companies lack direction; only 27 percent said their organizations have a clear sense of direction. Therefore, when assessing managers and leaders, you are looking for not only individual goal orientation, but also the candidate’s ability to set goals with others and to give others a clear sense of direction. Consider these examples. Hector is the top salesman in a national drug company. When asked about how he continues his performance year after year, Hector quickly stated, “It’s all about setting goals. You won’t perform unless you have clear goals that you are working toward. Every day I create a goal of so many contacts. I don’t give up until I’ve met my goal. Period.” There is no doubt that Hector is also highly skilled in his craft, but many highly skilled people do not achieve great results. Hector’s ability to set goals and stick to them clearly sets him apart. Another example of successful goal orientation comes from James. James is a counselor at a state penitentiary. This can be a difficult and draining profession because of the rate of recidivism. James meets the mandatory goals and measures such as client contact hours, number of clients, mandatory drug tests, and so on. However, in addition, James decided that he wanted to institute his own types of goals to keep himself motivated. He decided that for each client, he would establish some type of breakthrough behavior as the goal. For example, PERSONAL INFLUENCE: INFLUENCING SELF 95 a breakthrough behavior might be when an inmate decides to voluntarily join a help group or read a book. James works with each inmate to help the inmate achieve the breakthrough behavior. Each time, James says it keeps him motivated and it also helps to put the inmate on a path to success. Questions to Assess Goal Orientation Q: Describe some goals for your present position. • How were these goals determined? • Do you meet these goals on a regular basis? Q: Have you ever thought that these goals were unrealistic? • Why? Q: Have you ever had a goal at work that you didn’t meet? • How did you feel about that? Q: Tell me about a goal that you imposed on yourself at work. • Why did you decide on that particular goal? Q: Tell me about a time when you didn’t achieve something that you set out to do. • What happened? • How did you feel about that? Q: What goals do you have right now? Q: What goals did you accomplish last year? Q: Tell me about a time when you didn’t feel like working. • What did you do? Q: Describe your process for setting goals for yourself. For the manager or leader: Q: 96 How do you set goals for those who report to you? THE EQ INTERVIEW • Describe the process you use to set goals within your unit or department. Q: How have you helped others set goals? Q: How do you ensure that the goals are aligned with the business strategy? Q: Tell me about a time when someone who reported to you did not reach an important goal. • What did you do? KEY POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN ASSESSING ANSWERS When evaluating goal orientation, keep in mind the position and the types of goals required. Some positions may require short-term goals —goals that can be achieved within the day or even within the hour. Setting goals can be as simple as writing five things to do on a piece of paper and deciding to get them done before lunch. Other positions will require the candidate to set long-term goals. In both cases, the interviewer should be listening for specific, clear goals set by the individual. To begin the discussion on goals, you can ask about the goals the candidate must achieve in order to successfully complete her work. Each job should have goals, and the candidate should recognize what those goals are. (If the candidate is working in a situation that does not have recognized or stated goals, then don’t punish the candidate for a poor work situation. Instead, shift the focus to what goals she has set for herself.) The initial discussion about goals in her present position will help the candidate focus on goals at work. Also, you’ll gain insight into the candidate’s opinions about working toward goals. Does she consider goals an imposition? Or does she consider them helpful? Next, shift the discussion to self-imposed goals, and seek evidence of them in the candidate. Look for times when the candidate decided on and met these goals at work. Although self-imposed goals related to outside activities (golf scores, exercise, dieting) are useful to determine if the candidate has the ability to set goals and follow though, it’s important to determine whether the candidate considers the work- PERSONAL INFLUENCE: INFLUENCING SELF 97 place a place where self-imposed goal setting is of value. After all, your purpose is to evaluate whether the person will set goals at work, not in her personal life. You’ll also want to determine whether the person is capable of reaching goals. Some people are great at setting goals, but reaching them is another thing. Evaluate the results the candidate achieved. Lastly, you’ll want to consider how the candidate reacts when she doesn’t meet a goal—imposed by either others or herself. Does she rationalize? Blame others? Give up in defeat? What happens to the candidate’s motivation in these instances? If you’re interviewing a manager, you’ll want to know about her goal setting as well as her ability to help others set and reach goals. Does she impose goals on others? Does she see goal setting as a collaborative effort? What technique does she apply if goals aren’t reached? How does she help others achieve their goals? Most people respond best to a collaborative goal-setting process. Also, does the leader see herself as a partner and resource for assisting people in reaching their goals? Competency 4: Optimism In Learned Optimism, author Martin Seligman said that optimism is associated with many desirable outcomes, including positive mood and good morale, perseverance and effective problem solving, occupational success, popularity, good health, and even long life and freedom from trauma.8 Therefore, in many positions, a candidate’s view of the world affects his ability to maneuver and gain success within his world. If a candidate views the world as overwhelming and negative, he may lack the energy or willingness to take on difficult tasks. This worldview affects performance as well as the attitudes of coworkers and others in the workplace.9 Therefore, depending on the position, the interviewer’s inquiry into a candidate’s optimism can prove telling. Does the candidate display positive energy and enthusiasm, or is the candidate filled with doom and gloom? Is the candidate willing to take risks and try new methods or procedures because he’s hopeful that he may find a better way, or is he paralyzed by the “it will never work” philosophy? Is he apt to give up when he’s down by ten runs in the last inning, or does he remain hopeful and give his best to the 98 THE EQ INTERVIEW last pitch? Research indicates that the best hires are the people who are likable in terms of attitude and optimism.10 Consider the following examples. The successful salesperson is the classic example of optimism in motion. If the salesperson constantly thought that the next prospect was going to reject his proposal, it wouldn’t take long for him to give up and find a new profession. Actually, he wouldn’t have to give up, because his performance would force the issue. One very successful salesperson said that he always believes that the next person he talks to will be “the big one.” If it turns out that he doesn’t make the sale, then he convinces himself that he’s one more rejection closer to “the big one.” Therefore, he thinks about every person, both before and after the encounter, as helping him reach his goals. How’s that for optimism at work? A less obvious example is provided by a call-center operator who is plagued all day by calls from customers who are having problems and who are often angry or upset. This optimistic operator says that she believes that in nearly every call, she is able to help the caller gain a resolution to the problem. She says that she focuses on what she can do to help and says that this conveys to customers that she is on their side. Another example, one that plays out in the IT department of a large financial institution, also demonstrates that the way one thinks about the work affects the work. One programmer gets so pessimistic about reaching the programming deadlines that the whole team begins to feel stressed. A teammate described it like this: “We’ll be humming along on a project and then Joe will start with his predictions . . . ‘We’ll be lucky if we get to phase two in six months rather than three months. Harry is already behind on his portion of the project; it will be impossible for us to get things done without Harry’s piece. Sue isn’t going to get the testing done. She’s always late.’” This kind of pessimism saps people’s energy. Questions to Assess Optimism Q: Tell me about a project that you knew was not going to deliver results. • How did you know? PERSONAL INFLUENCE: INFLUENCING SELF 99 Q: Describe a time when you tried something new at work. How did that work? • Would you do it again? • Why or why not? Q: Describe a situation at work when you were optimistic and it affected the outcome. Q: Describe a situation at work when others wanted to move forward on something and you didn’t think it was a good idea. • Why didn’t you think it would work? • What did you do? Q: Describe a time when you were more optimistic than others at work about a particular project. • What did you do? Q: Tell me about a time when you had misplaced optimism. • How did you proceed? Q: Tell me about a time when you didn’t believe that a project was going to turn out on time, on budget, or on track. • Why did you think it was going to be a problem? Q: Give me a situation where you believed that something was going to be successful and it was. • How did you know? Q: Tell me about a time when someone on your team was negative about an outcome. • How did it affect you? KEY POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN ASSESSING ANSWERS Optimism isn’t intended to compensate for poor project planning, poor sales skills, or poor customer service. When you’re evaluating the candidate’s answers to the above questions, you’re going to have to take into consideration and balance the data the candidate is giving you against the attitude the candidate has about the situation. If the 100 THE EQ INTERVIEW data clearly suggest that poor skills or poor planning is an issue, the candidate’s optimism won’t make a difference. However, the spirit of these questions is to try to determine what perspective the candidate brings to the team. Listen for positive statements and a hopeful perspective that the candidate brings when describing past situations. Find out about the candidate’s tolerance for others who are optimistic. Does the candidate have a positive regard for hopefulness or optimism, or does he view such thinking with contempt? Sure, facts and data are important, and certain candidates trained in certain disciplines will rely more than others on facts, but often underlying the facts is a person’s belief about a particular situation. In this situation, you’ll be listening for the underlying belief. Also, listen for how the candidate describes the causes of bad events. Those who explain bad events in a circumscribed way, with external, unstable, and specific causes, are described as optimistic. In the learned-helplessness model, people become helpless. This learned helplessness is represented as a generalized expectation that future outcomes will be unrelated to actions.11 Therefore, a candidate will sound like a victim—he will express that no matter what he had done, the outcome wouldn’t have improved. The victim voice says that “nothing is my fault.”12 Listen for this type of victim voice from the candidate. Here’s an example of what one candidate said when asked about a project that she didn’t think would work: “I just saw this as one more project that wouldn’t produce the result that management promised. I just get tired of their pie-in-the-sky promises.” Although the candidate may be right about management’s thinking, further probing is in order. When the interviewer asked for an example of projects that didn’t produce a result as promised, the candidate said after some hesitation, “Well, they said that a program fix would eliminate errors by 17 percent. It didn’t.” Further probing about the results revealed the following: “It only produced a 15 percent improvement in errors.” Maybe management was a bit optimistic, but it seems like the results speak for themselves. Competency 5: Flexibility and Adaptability Change is routine in most workplaces. Rapid change is the norm in many. Without flexibility, we render ourselves victims of the constant PERSONAL INFLUENCE: INFLUENCING SELF 101 change that defines life. Our ability to meet the world where it stands today and where it heads tomorrow depends largely on our ability to be flexible or to adapt. Flexibility in our thinking, flexibility in our decision making, and flexibility in our behavior enable us to respond to ever-changing conditions, situations, people. Flexibility demands that we sometimes let go of the past so that we can prepare for the future. Are we able to see what’s on the horizon and adjust accordingly, or do we rigidly adhere to doing things the way they’ve been done in the past? Adapting to technology, new markets, global influences, mergers and acquisitions, new systems, new bosses, new building space, and even virtual space all exercise our flexibility muscle. One thing is certain: the rate of change will continue and accelerate. Change in organizations today is frequent and fast paced, creating what Bergquist calls a liquid state of existence characterized by “edges of shifting boundaries” and a turbulence that creates a sense of chaos and confusion.13 This competency is largely associated with change, but it also applies to the way we interact with others. For example, do we bend to other’s needs, or do we rigidly follow only our own demands? Are we able to rearrange our schedules to accommodate others, or must we maintain the timetable conceived in our minds? Do we engender a sense of meeting people on their terms? Or do we demand that everyone play on our turf? Give-and-take defines these flexible interactions with others. We’re not suggesting that people compromise important values; instead, we’re looking for candidates who know when to hold their ground and know when it doesn’t matter. Another critical factor is to know when to let go of successful behaviors. At first blush, that statement may sound absurd. Why would you want or need to let go of behaviors that garnered you success? Because the behaviors that earned you success in one position or with one set of people and experiences may cause failure with another set of people or in another experience. Emotional intelligence demands that we use the ability to read the environment and then adjust our behavior to obtain the desired result. One example is the frontline manager who gets promoted to a higher-level position. Maybe part of that frontline manager’s success rested on her ability to manage the small details. At a higher level of leadership, this may be the trait that causes failure. If she relates to peers by attempting to micromanage 102 THE EQ INTERVIEW them, she may fail to gain their respect or cooperation. Another common example is the technical expert who is promoted to supervisor and must let go of jumping in and solving problems and instead revert to a coaching role to assist others in solving problems. These people must let go of the very behaviors that created their success. But more important, they must have the awareness to understand that these behaviors will no longer produce the result they require in their new roles. Then they must be flexible by behaving in a manner suitable to their new positions. Consider these examples in the workplace. Connie’s twenty years of experience make her an ideal person to assist in developing a new system that will streamline the process of adjustments in the financial institution where she works. But Connie is stuck. She focuses on the past. She is unable or unwilling to take her experience and think about how the new technology can be helpful. Her lack of flexibility causes her to complain and resist change. Instead of being helpful, her experience proves to be a hindrance. In another example, Kiel is the first to volunteer in a small business. If you have a job that needs to be done, you can count on Kiel to take it on. Need someone to work on a customer complaint? No problem; Kiel will do it. Need someone to test a new process? No problem; Kiel will do it. Need someone to drive the owner to the airport? No problem; Kiel will do it. That kind of flexibility is very refreshing. But it’s also good for Kiel. He’s constantly learning new things, meeting new people, and contributing ideas. He is gaining an understanding of many different aspects of the business. Ten years later, he’s also the heir apparent as the successor in this successful small company. Questions to Assess Flexibility and Adaptability Q: Describe a time when you had to change your plans to accommodate someone else at work. • How did you feel about that? Q: Tell me about a time when something at work was changing. • How have you adapted to the change? • How did you feel about the change? PERSONAL INFLUENCE: INFLUENCING SELF 103