Recruiting the Right Talent

Recruiting the Right Talent

The number one priority for CEO’s globally is recruiting the right talent.

Securing optimal talent fit that embodies the knowledge, cultural values, and emotional smarts to get the job done continues to be a top of mind priority for organizations competing in the war for talent. Although we have all heard of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) not everyone has it. A few questions for reflection: Do you say what you think even if you know it will upset or hurt someone - even worse do you do this on email? Do you view people as basically good and well intentioned or are you always finding it hard to trust people and develop relationships over the long-term? Are you happy with life or are you constantly feeling the glass is half-empty? Can you develop sustaining and healthy long-term relationships or are people viewed as transactional experiences (like changing parts with little tolerance for ambiguity in life)? Depending on how you answered these questions you would either have a high EQ or a low EQ. Low EQ talent do not succeed well over the long term in their career roles, and are typically very poor managers as they create havoc in other’s lives and are not effective coaches to help people aspire to be the best they can be.

In today’s competitive environment for finding the best talent, Emotional Intelligence or EQ is more important for recruiting fit than technical skills. Smart people can grown and learn into a role - but if the EQ is not there - organizations will create cultures that are not aware of their emotions, know how to manage them or be aware of how their emotions impact the lives of others. When organizations recruit for emotionally intelligent leaders - managers and people simply do things much better!

The term EQ was dubbed after Daniel Goleman, psychologist and New York Times Contributor came out with his new book Emotional Intelligence. Although in the early days EQ was dismissed as a fad, companies have recognized the value of hiring and promoting emotionally superior workers, with the increased importance placed on leadership, team work, and culture fit. People with higher emotional intelligence know how to create and grow great teams - they are viewed as more human as leaders and they have a strong sense of heart and balance about life and its ebbs and flows. People often are hired due to their IQ - but what gets them to do better on the job is their EQ. Simple EQ questions are important to ask in recruiting that tests for peoples comfort in talking about their feelings.

Questions like: How are you feeling about looking for a new job in your life? When you are working, do you prefer to work on several tasks at once rather than focusing on just one? Do you find it easier to complete jobs if you work right to the deadline? Do you ask people for help if a task seems too hard or will you exhaust all options before asking for support? Do you prefer familiar tasks and consistency or do you prefer to have jobs that are constantly changing? Do you say what you think even if it upsets someone or do you look at conflict as an opportunity to learn and grow?

There are many good books on EQ on the market a few of our favorites are summarized. A good book for leaders is by Reldan Nadler, President of True North Leadership, Inc. and author of Leaders’ Playbook: How to Apply Emotional Intelligence - Keys to Great Leadership, as he shares ideas about Emotional Intelligence (EI), and puts its principles to work throughout this book to enhance your own business performance and that of your business team. Another good book for Project Managers is Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers: The People Skills You Need to Achieve Outstanding Results by Anthony Mersino.

There are recruiting tools that can help test and assess for emotional intelligence that help to identify people with enhanced skills - in today’s competitive world - hiring balanced leaders with both IQ and EQ will be a key success factor for enabling growth of organizations. As the talent pool becomes constrained, recruiting the right talent will intensify as an important leadership competency to develop. Even more importantly is for organization’s to have culture and strategy fit with their innovation growth objectives recruiting for EQ will be a competitive differentiator.

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