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Behavior-based interviewing forms the fundamental theoretical base for the questions in this book. Behavior-based interviewing examines past behavior and how that behavior contributes to a person’s success. Behavior-based interviewing in a structured format has the highest validity of all interviewing tools, according to a study by Ryan and Tippins from Michigan State University.7 Unfortunately, some managers rely solely on the tools of gut instinct and chemistry to predict a person’s effectiveness. We recommend behavior-based interviewing, following a defined structure, and noting and rating answers based on a Likert scale as the most useful methods for interviewing candidates. We believe that these methods give the interviewer important data to quantify gut instincts and overall impressions. To gain an understanding of emotional intelligence, the interviewer will examine the very nature of the behaviors that led to successful results. We believe it is possible for a candidate to have very successful results while at the same time wreaking havoc on peers or others within the organization. The questions in this book examine the behavioral consequences or impact of the successful results, not just the results. For example, a line manager may have a great production record in his unit, but may have accomplished this goal by ignoring the needs of peers and may in fact be blind to the goals of the organization. Alternatively, long-term goals and results may be sacrificed for short-term numbers. It is also possible for certain behaviors to create a successful outcome, yet not take into consideration the motives or intentions of the candidate. Therefore, on many of the questions, the effective interviewer or hiring manager will listen for the thought patterns that preceded and those that followed a particular behavior. This gives the interviewer insights into the intentions behind the behavior as expressed by the candidate. The interviewer won’t be in the position of making judgments about the candidate’s intentions, but instead will be directed to listen to the facts about the candidate’s intentions as reported in reflection by the candidate herself. Candidates will also be directed to reflect on times when their outcomes or results didn’t meet their intentions. By asking candidates to reflect on their results, interviewers encourage candidates to reveal behavior patterns that can dramatically affect teamwork, service orientation, helpfulness, respectfulness, persistence, reaction to failure, 4 THE EQ INTERVIEW resilience, and other important EQ competencies. This helps the interviewer and hiring manager understand how candidates use past experiences and integrate them into their current behavior. Endnotes 1. “Leadership IQ Study: Why New Hires Fail,” PR Newswire, September 20, 2005, 1. 2. Ellen Galinsky, “The Changing Landscape of Work,” Generations (Spring 2007): 7. 3. Chi-Sum Wong and Kenneth S. Law, “The Effects of Leader and Follower Emotional Intelligence on Performance and Attitude: An Exploratory Study,” Leadership Quarterly (June 2002): 243. 4. “Job Performance Linked to Personality,” Industrial Engineer 39, 7 (July 2007): 11. 5. V.U. Druskat, F. Sala, and G. Mount, eds., Linking Emotional Intelligence and Performance at Work (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2006). 6. Nancy Gardner, “Should I Stay or Should I Go? What Makes Employees Voluntarily Leave or Keep Their Jobs,” University of Washington Office of News and Information, July 26, 2007, http://uwnews.washington .edu/ni/article.asp?articleID=31234. 7. Ann Marie Ryan and Nancy T. Tippins, “Attracting and Selecting: What Psychological Research Tells Us,” Human Resource Management 43, 4 (Winter 2004): 305. INTRODUCTION 5 This page intentionally left blank CHAPTER 2 The Five Areas of Emotional Intelligence and the EQ Job Competencies Self-Awareness and Self-Control Empathy Social Expertness Personal Influence Mastery of Purpose and Vision Inward Inward Outward E motional intelligence is defined as a person’s ability to manage herself as well as her relationships with others so that she can live her intentions. Very often, emotional intelligence is misunderstood. In fact, many people think that emotional intelligence is equivalent to social skills. Thinking that emotional intelligence is social skills, however, is like thinking that a car is a steering wheel. This viewpoint 7 simply misses a huge part of the picture. Social skills are about our relationship with the external world—how we interact with others. Of course, those skills make up a part of the EQ competencies, but so much of emotional intelligence is about our internal world. And it is our internal world that will drive how we interact with and respond to the external world. Emotional intelligence, therefore, includes skills that drive our internal world, as well as our response to the external world. Our model for emotional intelligence contains five areas: selfawareness and control, empathy for others, social expertness, personal influence, and mastery of purpose.1 Within the five areas, several specific competencies emerge. See Figure 2.1 and Appendix 1 for the Table of Competencies. Definitions and competency descriptions of the five areas are as follows: 1. Self-awareness and self-control comprise one’s ability to fully under- stand oneself and to use that information to manage emotions productively. This area includes the competencies of accurate understanding of one’s emotions and the impact emotions have on performance, accurate assessment of strengths and weaknesses, understanding one’s impact on others, and self-management or self-control, including managing anger, disappointment, or failure (resulting in resilience) and managing fear (resulting in courage). 2. Empathy is the ability to understand the perspective of others. This area includes the competencies of listening to others, understanding others’ points of view, understanding how one’s words and actions affect others, and wanting to be of service to others. 3. Social expertness is the ability to build genuine relationships and bonds and express caring, concern, and conflict in healthy ways. This area includes the competencies of building relationships, organizational savvy, collaboration, and conflict resolution. 4. Personal influence is the ability to positively lead and inspire oth- ers as well as oneself. This area includes the competencies of leading others, creating a positive work climate, and getting results from others. It also includes self-confidence, initiative and motivation, optimism, and flexibility. 8 THE EQ INTERVIEW 5. Mastery of purpose and vision is the ability to bring authenticity to one’s life and to live out one’s intentions and values. This area includes the competencies of understanding one’s purpose, taking actions toward one’s purpose, and being authentic. As you can see in the model depicted in Figure 2.1, three of the components relate to our internal world (self-awareness and selfcontrol, empathy, and mastery of purpose and vision). The other two form our relations to the external world (social expertness and personal influence). However, it is important to recognize that all are interrelated, and one component builds on the next. Without selfawareness and self-control, it is difficult, if not impossible, to improve one’s relationship with the outside world. For example, if I am not aware of my actions, thoughts, and words, I have no basis for self-understanding. If I have some awareness and self-understanding, then I can ask, What is my impact on others, in my current state? If I find that impact to be negative—if I find that it detracts from my life goals —I may choose to change my actions, thoughts, or words. However, some people look at themselves, understand that their actions, words, or thoughts have a negative impact on others or detract from their life goals, yet still either choose not to change or find change too difficult to enact. In emotional intelligence, this change is what we call selfcontrol. It is about knowing ourselves, and then deciding the appropriate volume level and expression of our emotions. How do these emotions enhance our relationships with others and our life goals, and how do they detract from them? Self-awareness and self-control are intertwined, as self-awareness alone is of little service without selfcontrol. Leaders, teammates, and others in the workplace are interdependent, so it behooves everyone to improve self-understanding and then to act upon this knowledge. Beyond self-awareness and self-control is empathy, which is also listed as an internal function on our model. Empathy must be felt inside before it can be reflected somehow in our relationships with people in our external world. Therefore, empathy is a turning point or transition in our emotional intelligence as it plays out in the outside world. Also, without empathy, we are incapable of comprehending the impact of our actions or words on others. We may have been told THE FIVE AREAS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 9 that a particular behavior or word affects others in a negative way, but empathy enables us to experience it. It also drives us to want to be helpful or of service to others. Next in our model is social expertness. Few of us can work or live in isolation. People are generally a part of the equation. Social expertness allows us to build genuine social bonds with others. It allows us to know people in a way that is beyond knowing name, rank, and serial number. It allows us to connect with them in an honorable way. The best analogy I can offer is that it’s not about the number of people in your Rolodex, but rather about the reaction those people have when you’re on the other end of the phone. Are they delighted that you called, or would they rather be talking to the long-distance carrier trying to sell phone services? Beyond honorable social bonds, social expertness calls on us to invite those within our social bonds to collaborate in achieving our intentions. How well are we able to collaborate with others and blend thoughts and ideas to achieve goals or live intentions? But once we have invited people to collaborate, conflict is inevitable, as different ideas will emerge. How will we resolve those differences? Social expertness demands high levels of conflict-resolution skills, which work to preserve social bonds and trust. Social expertness also requires us to have organizational savvy in order to move ideas and goals forward while maintaining positive relationships. Personal influence is the next area of our model for emotional intelligence. It also reflects our interactions with others. Personal influence is where true leadership emerges. Before this relationship stage, we are peer to peer; it is here that we intend to influence others toward goals or missions. However, we cannot influence others if we have not created strong bonds or invited others to collaborate, or if we lack the ability to resolve conflict in healthy ways. Leadership is not reserved for positional leaders, however; all people are leaders. Even if we think about leadership in terms of influencing our children, this area of emotional intelligence is essential for a rich life and calls on us to influence others. Equally important is our ability to influence ourselves. It is within the walls of our own souls that the most work must be done. As we influence ourselves to change, we can be an instrument of influence to others. Influencing ourselves requires our ability to take initiative, stay motivated, display confidence and optimism, and be flexible. 10 THE EQ INTERVIEW Finally, the model includes mastery of purpose and vision. It is the most internally seated of all the aspects of emotional intelligence, and it serves as a foundation on which to build a more emotionally intelligent life. It is, in essence, both the reason we strive for emotional intelligence and the foundation that keeps us anchored. If we know what our purpose is, it is much easier to determine what types of emotional reactions will serve our purpose and what types will defeat it. Therefore, understanding and managing emotions helps us to live our life purpose. We place it last because it is sometimes the most difficult to know and conceptualize. Although it is certainly possible to excel in all other areas of emotional intelligence without yet discovering true purpose, once true purpose is discovered, emotional intelligence will be easier to improve. FIGURE 2.1 Emotional Intelligence Table of Competencies AREA OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE Self-Awareness and Self-Control DEFINITION COMPETENCIES The ability to fully understand oneself and one’s impact on others and to use that information to manage oneself productively 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 (continued) THE FIVE AREAS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 11 FIGURE 2.1 Continued AREA OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE DEFINITION COMPETENCIES Self-Control • Emotional expression: The ability to manage anger, stress, excitement, and frustration • 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 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 (continued) 12 THE EQ INTERVIEW FIGURE 2.1 Continued AREA OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE DEFINITION COMPETENCIES 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 Personal Influence Ability to positively lead and inspire others as well as oneself 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 (continued) THE FIVE AREAS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 13