Interviewing for Emotional Intelligence

Interviewing a candidate for technical skills is pretty easy – they either have the skills and experience or they don’t. However, to make sure your next employee is a good cultural fit, you want to make sure that he or she has high emotional intelligence. Speaker and author Adele B. Lynn defines emotional intelligence in her book, The EQ Interview: Finding Employees with High Emotional Intelligence (AMACOM/Society for Human Resource Management, 2008) as "a person’s ability to manage herself as well as her relationships with others so she can live her intentions." For example, is this person able to accept feedback graciously? Can he or she get along with most people? Does the person have drive and motivation? These questions can’t be answered simply.

To find out what lies beneath the outer shell of a candidate, you have to dig deeper and look for the following five areas of emotional intelligence.

1. Self-awareness and self-control: Lynn defines this area as "one’s ability to fully understand oneself and to use that information to manage emotions productively." Competencies: To have an accurate understanding of your emotions and the impact these emotions have on behaviors. To also understand how your behavior and words can affect others and to be able to accurately self-assess your strengths and weaknesses. Self-control involves the ability to manage anger, stress, excitement, frustration, fear, failure, and disappointment.
2. Empathy: The capability to fully understand other people’s perspectives. Competencies: Lynn says that empathy encompasses the following competencies – respectful listening, feeling the impact on others, and the desire to help others.
3. Social Expertise: Lynn defines this as the "ability to build genuine relationships and bonds and express caring, concern and conflict in healthy ways." Competencies: Candidates should be able to build relationships, have organizational savvy, and conflict resolution skills.
4. Personal Influence: This is the ability to lead positively and inspire others as well as yourself. Competencies: There are many competencies for this area including leading others, creating a positive work climate, and the ability to get results through others. In influencing yourself, the competencies are self-confidence, initiative, accountability, goal orientation, optimism, and flexibility.
5. Mastery of Purpose and Vision: Lynn defines this as the "ability to bring authenticity to one’s life and live out one’s intentions and values." Competencies: Understanding your purpose and values and then taking action to advance your purpose.

In the book, Lynn provides questions about these areas and competencies to ask candidates.