Read on you may be surprised…
The global workforce is continuously changing. Practice owners and managers are finding it harder and harder to find the right candidates for their roles. Normally, when searching for a new employee, they look at candidates’ skills, prior experience and professional goals. Of course these are important factors that need to be taken into account, but it somehow makes managers forget about a key ability which is quintessential to a successful hiring: emotional intelligence (EQ).
In order to understand how overlooked this factor is, you should know that many job descriptions do not even list this ability as one of the reasons for a successful candidacy. Building a team of emotionally intelligent people can have a positive effect on the practice performance.
What is emotional intelligence? There are many interpretations surrounding this phrase, but how exactly can we define it? Psychology Today defines it as: “the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others.” In other words, a person is considered to have a strong emotional intelligence when they are able to keep their emotions in check, whilst also empathising with co-workers and understanding why and how their feelings can impact the quality of their work.
People with high emotional intelligence are more capable of working in teams, are more flexible and they adjust easily to change. A person with a high level of EQ is more likely to succeed than one with degrees and qualifications who lacks EQ.
How can you tell if an employee has high EQ? If they embrace change, are empathetic and self-motivated, these are key qualities of someone with a strong level of emotional intelligence
But how can we find emotionally intelligent employees? Here a few tips and tricks in order to identify them easier:
1: Enquiries about past actions and professional relationships
During the interview, consider asking how the candidate interacted with former co-workers, if they got on well. This is where you should be able to find out how in touch with their emotions the candidates really are and whether they are capable of describing them. The answers received during these questions offer you a good start regarding candidates’ emotional abilities.
2: Hypothetical scenarios
To get even more in-depth information about the candidate, present them with a hypothetical situation like this one: “A patient is angry due to an appointment mix-up and your practice is not at fault. How would you deal with that situation?” EQ people will always remain calm and will try to figure out what happened to the patient and try and sort things out in a calm and polite manner.
3: Candidate self-awareness analysis
Candidates with a strong sense of self-awareness can easily detect their own strengths and weaknesses and how their actions can influence or affect others. Self-awareness also goes hand-in-hand when a person learns a lesson through constructive criticism. People such as this can also control their emotions when the situation asks for it. They understand, but don’t let anything control their actions. Candidates with a high level of EQ do not require motivation, because they are self-motivated. Even when disappointment occurs, they pick themselves up quite fast given their inner ambition. Last but not least, these type of people can easily trust and work within a new team. They do not favour backstabbing and avoid power struggles at all costs.
In their search for EQ people, many practices have started using behavioural assessments. Although the tactics mentioned above are great, some managers and owners consider emotional intelligence to be a hassle in their search, but it is worth the extra work. Having more and more people with a high level of EQ can radically transform your practice, given the fact that your employees will be more engaged and committed to ensure a consistent positive experience for your patients.
Our Great People Inside assessments (www.greatpeopleinside.com) provide easy-to-use tools and processes to attract, assess, match, select, on board, manage, develop, benchmark and maintain top talent
Finding the “right” person who is the best fit for the job and your practice, can be a very challenging task. It requires more than just your “gut feel” and “liking” the candidate, (You’ve probably even heard yourself say after an interview “I really like candidate X”) as with many things you do in your practice, it requires objective data supported by science. Don’t be too hard on yourself, in the absence of objective data all you have is your intuition! Our technology and solutions will do the work for you, helping you find employees who can flourish and reach the highest performance required to constantly bring your practice and business forward.
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