Are you looking to hire new C suite executives like a chief executive officer (CEO), chief financial officer (CFO), chief operating officer (COO), or a chief information officer (CIO)? If so, then don’t make the mistake of underestimating the importance of soft skills in your new hire, including their emotional intelligence.
While it’s tempting to focus on a candidate’s skills and past experience, especially in a management role, recruiters recommend also taking a look at their emotional intelligence before committing to a hire. When you learn more about C suite executive recruiters you’ll see that they do more than simply check what’s on a candidate’s resume – they also utilize soft skills assessment tools in the process.
The Value of Emotional Intelligence
Why do executive recruiters assess soft skills like emotional intelligence in candidates? It’s all about leadership, teamwork, and the ability to work well with others. The best leaders are the ones who are able to understand and control the emotions of themselves and those they work with.
This is especially important in management where the pressure is high and they will often be faced with stressful situations and ever-changing work environments. Having someone on board who can keep them and their team cool is a vital asset to any company.
Five Components of Emotional intelligence
There are five key components to emotional intelligence which include self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
- Self-awareness: recognizing and understanding your own emotions, as well as being aware of how your emotions effect the people around you
- Self-regulation: keeping your emotions in check and expressing them in appropriate ways
- Motivation: remaining goal-oriented and passionate without the need for external rewards like money or fame
- Empathy: understanding and sympathizing with others’ emotions, as well as being able to respond appropriately
- Social skills: using your emotional intelligence to connect with others, build relationships, gauge conversations, and be persuasive
When you break these five key components down it becomes clear why emotional intelligence is absolutely essential in management. A leader needs to be able to connect with their team, inspire them, lead them, and keep everyone calm and focused during stressful situations.
How to Gauge Emotional Intelligence
Often, soft skills can be hard to determine in a candidate. They’re not something you will usually find on a resume or LinkedIn profile, and work experience doesn’t always put them on display.
The best way to gauge emotional intelligence is to interact with the candidate personally. Look for cues in the way they talk and interact with the people around them: are they personable and charming? Do they listen? Do they take the time to recognize the hard work of their team when talking about past work experience?
If you lack the resources or don’t feel confident in your ability to gauge soft skills, then consider hiring experienced executive recruiters to find the right candidate instead. With a combination of experience and assessment tools, they’ll be able to find your next C suite executive in no time.
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