Emotional intelligence (EQ) is no longer just a “nice to have” for today’s leaders in business. It is absolutely essential for effective leadership in the world where we live and work. Traditional and classic leadership traits like charisma, determination, accountability, empowerment, innovation and an ability to inspire others are still important, but those traits won’t get leaders very far in today’s business landscape without emotional intelligence.

Emotionally intelligent leaders are simply better at inspiring others, dealing with stress, overcoming adversity and building strong teams. They don’t shy away when they have to deal with conflict, and they are usually much happier with their jobs than leaders who lack emotional intelligence.

The good news is that organizations are starting to take emotional intelligence seriously when it comes to the way they groom, train and select their leaders. People in leadership roles also understand the critical nature of emotional intelligence, which has transformed organizational culture in several positive ways.

The hard part is that while organizations may have some emotionally intelligent leaders, not all their hiring and recruiting practices make this a critical skill or competency when bringing in new blood for the company.‍

The Way Things Are Now

I love the fact that our culture has shifted in a way that values emotional intelligence as a crucial leadership quality. But I recognize that there is a disconnect happening within organizations — they recognize the value of having mindful, self-aware, compassionate leaders with highly developed soft skills. And yet, they fail to see how those qualities should also exist among members of the workforce at large.

Organizations are still using hiring practices that largely ignore emotional intelligence. They continue to look at factors like the university a person graduated from, test scores, certifications and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) skills. I can’t deny that these things are important, but they need to be balanced out with emotional intelligence as a necessary must-have when recruiting new talent.

When organizations hire in this manner, they build teams with individual members who may have awesome resumes, but those teams don’t always operate well in reality. The problem is that people have been hired for their intellect and their pedigree, and not necessarily for their ability to get along with others and collaborate effectively on real solutions.

In a previous article, I wrote about how Google attempted to optimize its workforce by focusing on hiring STEM superstars. They hired the absolute best of the best in their respective technical fields. But the company did not experience the results they expected. Instead, they noticed that the people who were most effective were not the individuals with fancy educations or mind-blowing technical skills; they were the ones who possessed qualities like empathy, vulnerability and emotional intelligence.

Presently, Google still hires the people with the most outstanding technical minds, but they also prioritize their hiring practices with soft skills and emotional intelligence in mind. Your organization should do the same thing if you want to start hiring the right talent to elevate your company’s results and performance. The fact of the matter is that high EQs are just as important as high IQs, and some may argue that EQ is much more valuable and necessary.

So, how do you hire to prioritize emotional intelligence for your organization?‍

How to Hire for Emotional Intelligence: 5 Tips

First, let’s review the core qualities that make someone emotionally intelligent:

• Empathy
• Motivation
• Self-awareness
• Self-regulation
• Social skills

If you do nothing else to change your hiring practices, you should at least keep these core qualities in mind as you review resumes and interview candidates.

If you’re ready to go further and truly transform the way you hire people for your team, the following five tips may help make a huge difference.

#1 — Check Resumes and Application Materials for Signs of High EQ
It can be difficult to detect a person’s EQ just by looking at their resume, but there are some giveaways you can look for during this initial stage of the recruiting and selection process.

Emotionally intelligent people will indicate that they know how to handle stressful situations. They will be able to show evidence of meeting tough deadlines, and they will probably describe situations where they had to work with different types of personalities on a project.

You should also look for evidence that they’ve improved areas like customer-satisfaction scores or sales-team effectiveness. Additionally, if the resume indicates that the individual can communicate difficult information with positive results, they probably score high on the EQ scale.

The clues won’t always be obvious, but the more you start looking at resumes and other materials through the lens of emotional intelligence, the better you will be able to weed out those candidates who have lower EQs.

#2 — Create a Pleasant and Comfortable Environment for Interviews
Ultimately, you want to get a true view of your candidate’s natural behavior. Therefore, you want to make the interview as comfortable as possible. You don’t want the candidate to revert to nervous behaviors in a tense interview environment. A comfortable candidate will show you who they really are, and this is where emotional intelligence will reveal itself.

#3 — Utilize Behavioral Interview Techniques
The instinct many interviewers have is to interview based on the specific needs of the position. They try to determine if the candidate is a good fit based on how their skills match with the role. Note that this approach may ignore emotional intelligence.

Instead, I recommend asking questions about situations, either hypothetical or from the candidate’s past. Observe how they react and how they share examples from their work history. These types of exchanges reveal much more about the candidate’s behavior and can tell you a lot about their level of emotional intelligence and overall abilities.

#4 — Check for A Good Culture Fit
Your organization has its own culture, values and ethics, and every individual in your organization comes with their own unique personality. If you can see a candidate fitting in and blending in effectively with your existing team, and they express that this is important to them, as well, they are probably emotionally intelligent. This type of person will come in to your organization with a willingness to fit in, and handle a broad range of emotions and personality types effectively.

#5 — Examine What Drives the Candidate
Sometimes it can be quite valuable to examine what a candidate does outside of work. What drives them? What are their passions and personal goals? What types of adversity have they had to deal with in their lives? Do they have a rich, fulfilling life with lots of human connections? Or does their life outside of work seem empty?

The way a person goes about living their life outside of work can tell you a great deal about how they will operate in the office and whether or not they may operate with emotional intelligence.‍

Are You Having Trouble Hiring for Emotional Intelligence?

Hiring for emotional intelligence is becoming increasingly critical for today’s businesses. You may be emotionally intelligent with your leadership, but if your people don’t have high EQs, you won’t see the results you want for your organization.

Are you having trouble hiring emotionally intelligent people? Have you developed any tips or techniques for improving your recruiting and hiring practices? I’d love to hear from you!

Send me an email at joanne.trotta@leadersedgeinc.ca.