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gence. Functional or technical competence will always be important, but as we compete in different markets, interact with culturally different clients and customers, manage foreign workforces, and interact with people of all types, those most skilled in managing themselves and their interactions with others will prove to be invaluable. When you hire people who demonstrate emotional intelligence, you build an organization that can function, not just today, but also tomorrow. Emotionally intelligent people possess the skill of reading different environments and then adjusting or adapting their behavior to deliver the best results. People without this skill rely solely on past successful behavior. However, if the environment changes, and it surely will, their past behavior may not fit future situations. An example of this occurs when a successful manager is promoted to a cross-functional director-level position. Perhaps part of the manager’s past success was grounded in his hands-on approach. At a cross-functional director level, that hands-on approach may prove detrimental. Emotional intelligence enables that new director to understand that his past approach was suited to his past position, but not to his new position. The new director’s ability to read the different environment his new title demands saves him the pain of performing at a level that was once appropriate but no longer delivers results. In fact, if the director continued to function at that past level, he may even fail because his relationships with peers require a different set of behaviors. A similar situation occurs when a manager transitions to a new team, an international assignment, or a new company. Is that manager able to read the environment and understand the set of behaviors that will produce results in this new assignment? Can he read the environment in the moment and behave in a manner that will produce the best results? As you craft interview questions aimed at the emotional intelligence competencies required for each position, you’ll be able to predict with greater accuracy whether or not a candidate will succeed, and you’ll build an organization equipped for the future. Hiring emotionally intelligent employees gives organizations another huge advantage. Great organizational cultures consist of highly emotionally intelligent people. As you hire emotionally intelligent people to work in your company or organization, you change the essence of the interactions within the culture. Emotionally intelligent people don’t scream and yell; they don’t belittle peers. Instead, they 154 THE EQ INTERVIEW build solid, genuine relationships, they resolve conflict in a healthy manner, they listen, and they have the courage to speak the truth in a constructive way. These qualities serve as a magnet for recruiting new hires. Who wouldn’t want to work for a company whose people demonstrate these types of behaviors? As the market for talent grows tighter, by adjusting your hiring practices to screen for emotional intelligence, you build a solid foundation on which recruiting new hires becomes easier due to the culture of excellence you create. Not only does recruitment become easier, but retention improves. Numerous studies link job satisfaction, retention, and organizational culture. Today’s talent isn’t willing to stay in a company that doesn’t deliver job satisfaction. The competitive talent market allows candidates the luxury of picking and choosing not only where they want to work, but whether or not they want to remain there. We’ve already established the high cost of turnover, so by changing your hiring practices, you create a culture where people are not only attracted to your organization, but also choose to remain. If your organization purports to have an organizational culture that values people or declares workplace values such as respect or teamwork or trust or customer satisfaction, then the best way to ensure that these qualities are met is to hire technically functional people who behave in a manner that is consistent with these intentions. Interviewing for emotional intelligence gives the hiring manager or interviewer a much closer look at whether or not a candidate’s behaviors will deliver these results. A FINAL WORD 155 This page intentionally left blank APPENDIX 1 Emotional Intelligence Table of Competencies AREA OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE Self-Awareness and Self-Control DEFINITION The ability to fully understand oneself and one’s impact on others and to use that information to manage oneself productively COMPETENCIES Self-Awareness • Impact on others: An accurate understanding of how one’s behavior or words affect others • Emotional and inner awareness: An accurate understanding of how one’s emotions and thoughts affect behaviors • Accurate selfassessment: An honest assessment of strengths and weaknesses Self-Control • Emotional expression: The ability to manage anger, stress, excitement, and frustration 157 AREA OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE DEFINITION COMPETENCIES • Courage: The ability to manage fear • Resilience: The ability to manage disappointment or failure Empathy Ability to understand the perspective of others • Respectful listening: Listening respectfully to others to develop a deep understanding of others’ points of view • Feeling the impact on others: The ability to assess and determine how situations as well as one’s words and actions affect others • Service orientation: The desire to help others Social Expertness Ability to build genuine relationships and bonds and express caring, concern, and conflict in healthy ways • Building relationships: The ability to build social bonds • Collaboration: The ability to invite others in and value their thoughts related to ideas, projects, and work • Conflict resolution: The ability to resolve differences • Organizational savvy: The ability to understand and maneuver within organizations 158 THE EQ INTERVIEW AREA OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE Personal Influence DEFINITION Ability to positively lead and inspire others as well as oneself COMPETENCIES Influencing Others • Leading others: The ability to have others follow you • Creating a positive work climate: The ability to create an inspiring culture • Getting results through others: The ability to achieve goals through others Influencing Self • Self-confidence: An appropriate belief in one’s skills or abilities • Initiative and accountability: Being internally guided to take steps or actions and taking responsibility for those actions • Goal orientation: Setting goals for oneself and living and working toward goals • Optimism: Having a tendency to look at the bright side of things and to be hopeful for the best • Flexibility: The ability to adapt and bend to the needs of others or situations as appropriate EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE TABLE OF COMPETENCIES 159 AREA OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE DEFINITION Mastery of Purpose and Vision Ability to bring authenticity to one’s life and live out one’s intentions and values 160 THE EQ INTERVIEW COMPETENCIES • Understanding one’s purpose and values: Having a clearly defined purpose and values • Taking actions toward one’s purpose: Taking actions to advance one’s purpose • Authenticity: Alignment and transparency of one’s motives, actions, intentions, values, and purpose APPENDIX 2 Questions by Area and Competencies Self-Awareness Impact on Others • Tell me about a time when you did or said something and it had a positive impact on a coworker, a customer, or an employee. • Tell me about a time when you did or said something and it had a negative impact on a coworker, a customer, or an employee. • Tell me about a time when you were surprised about the positive impact your behavior or words had on a coworker, a customer, or an employee. How did you learn this information? What did you do when you learned this information? • Tell me about a time when you were surprised about the negative impact your behavior or words had on a coworker, a customer, or an employee. How did you learn this information? What did you do when you learned this information? • Describe a time when you knew you did or said something that caused a problem for a coworker, a customer, or an employee. How did you know it caused a problem? 161 • Can you think of a time when someone interpreted something you said or did in a negative way, even though you didn’t intend for it to be negative? Tell me about that. • How do you know if your words or behaviors have a positive impact on others? • How do you know if your words or behaviors have a negative impact on others? • Have you ever noticed that someone at work was having a bad day? How did you know? What did you do? • Have you ever decided to delay presenting an idea to someone at work because the timing wasn’t right? What did you base that decision on? What did you do? • Have you ever noticed that you were annoying someone at work? What did you base that on? What did you do? • Have you ever been in a situation where you thought you needed to adjust or modify your behavior? How did you know? Emotional and Inner Awareness • Tell me about a time when you were distracted or preoccupied about something. How did you know? What impact did that have on your performance? What impact did it have on others at work? • Tell me about a time when you were in a good mood at work. How did that affect your performance? What impact did your mood have on others at work? • Describe a time when you were angry about something at work. How did that affect your performance? What impact did it have on others at work? • Tell me about a time when the mood or attitude of your coworkers, employees, or others affected you. • Describe a time when you were aware that your mood was affecting how you were behaving at work. 162 THE EQ INTERVIEW • Tell me about some situations or people that annoy you in your present (or previous) position. Tell me what you do about these situations or people. • Tell me about a time when you were able to avoid a negative situation at work. How did you know it was going to be negative? Tell me what you did. • Describe some situations or circumstances that bring out your best at work. How do you behave during those times? • Describe some situations or circumstances that bring out your worst at work. How do you behave during those times? What do you do about those times? • Tell me about a time when you purposely prepared yourself to deal with a situation that you knew would be negative. What did you do? How did it work out? • Tell me about a time when something that you had responsibility for at work didn’t go well. Who’s fault was it? (This is a leading question—it’s assuming blame. The candidate should consider his or her own role in the problem.) • Tell me about a time at work when others didn’t cooperate with you. How would you analyze that situation? • Tell me about a conflict you had at work. How would you analyze that conflict? • Have you ever unintentionally insulted or offended someone at work? How did you handle that? • Tell me about a time when you reacted to something or someone in the workplace in a way that was not aligned with your intentions. What did you do after this situation? Accurate • Describe a time when you received feedback about Self-Assessment your performance and were in agreement. What did you agree with? QUESTIONS BY AREA AND COMPETENCIES 163