Hiring for Emotional Intelligence

Call it emotional intelligence, EQ, or soft skills, it’s important — and it’s vague.

Ask many hiring managers, and they won’t be able to define what any of these things really mean, although they typically know it when they see it. And know they would like it.

In general, soft skills are things like listening, empathy, communication and conflict resolution. No matter how you define them, they’re important in most lines of work — particularly as you get higher up in the leadership ranks.

They’re hard to test for, though, and they’re pretty dependent on context. A frontline professional who successfully defuses an irate client situation might have very different characteristics than a manager who arbitrates between two angry employees or an executive who deftly manages a round of layoffs.

As a recruiter, recognizing and vetting for emotional intelligence is a valuable part of my role. It can be derived through interpersonal contact, recap of experiences or even profiling such as DiSC or Predictive Index. Contact me today if you’re hoping to hire someone who isn’t just skilled and experienced but savvy in terms of soft skills.
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