Employment Industry News
Assessing Emotional Intelligence
March 2011
Emotional intelligence (EI) has become an industry buzzword, partly because of Daniel Goleman’s 1995 best-seller, Emotional Intelligence (Bantam Books, 1995). EI has come to indicate an enviable level of professional maturity exhibited by highperforming employees.
While EI’s exact definition is a little fuzzy — “we’ll know it when we see it” — it clearly is something that organizations wish to see in their employees. How are HR professionals using this concept and what objective criteria have they applied to assess EI?
Susan Fletcher, a psychologist in Plano, TX, says, “Self-awareness is at the heart of emotional intelligence. Selfaware people are more productive and organizations are more profitable.” Some examples of lack of self-awareness:
- The CEOs who have to appear “right” at all costs.
- The bosses who go into a rage when their department doesn’t meet monthly business goals.
- The coworkers who compete instead of cooperate.
- The employees who take credit for others’ efforts and blame others for their own mistakes.
- The salespeople who talk too much, annoying customers.
Assessing Emotional Intelligence
But how can HR and hiring managers
know whether candidates possess emotional
intelligence before they are hired? According to Harvey Deutschendorf, author of The Other Kind of Smart (AMACOM,
2009), you can do it through carefully crafted questions designed to
get at four key elements of EI:
- Awareness of and control over one’s own emotions
Typical question: “Give me an example of a case where you had to check your emotions when dealing with someone
at work. How did you become aware of your emotions and what did you do to keep them under control?”
“Give me a situation where someone lost control of their emotions when dealing with you. How did you react?” - Empathy
“Give me an example of a time you had to really listen to understand where someone was coming from.”
“How do you work with people who think differently than you and have different values?” - Social Influence
“Give me an example of how you became a positive influence among a group of people that you worked with.”
“Have you ever worked in a situation where there is low morale, where everyone is negative? How did you cope with
that situation?”
- Positively inspire others
“Have you ever been in a situation where you proactively took it upon yourself to step in and take some action that
you felt was important for the good of your workplace? What was the reaction of others to what you did?”
According to Deutschendorf, here are the key things to watch out for:- Candidates who talk in terms of the
third person or who give textbook or
cookie cutter answers and show no
emotions. - Applicants who appear to be struggling
to come up with answers or
don’t appear to understand the relevance
of the question. - Candidates who blame their work
situation on others around them and
do not take responsibility for their
own behavior.▲
- Candidates who talk in terms of the
For More Information:
Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations: The Business Case for Emotional Intelligence
http://www.eiconsortium.org/reports/business_case_for_ei.html
6Seconds.org – The Business Case for Emotional Intelligence
http://www.6seconds.org/blog/2010/10/the-business-case-for-emotional-intelligence-2010/