Best Questions to Measure EQ in Interviews

We live. We live. Baby, how you feeling? Feeling live as hell! Jay, you on? Sure. Hold on, I gotta make sure my socks are up. Doesn't feel right. They're all crunchy. What's up, everybody? Welcome to Culture Drop. This is our very first episode of this new thing for us, which is cool. And right off the bat, we are talking this week about emotional intelligence and great questions to ask in interviews to gauge and measure emotional intelligence. I feel like there's something important that I want to say. Okay, it's time for a segment called Soapbox. Soapbox. This is not, I can't, I'm too tall for this. I'm going out. I'm just gonna stand on the couch. Cool? Okay, this is what I want to say. You have to hire people for emotional intelligence. If you want people that work for your company and on your team, that work well with other people, that embrace change, that navigate conflict better, that can take feedback, you have to hire people that are emotionally intelligent. I think it is more important than somebody's ability to perform their function and their role. When it comes to tasks and skills, you can teach anyone to do anything in the universe. And emotional intelligence is like the character traits of a human being that make them a good part of a team. That's what I wanted to say. I'll get off the couch now. But the other thing that's important about hiring people that have high emotional intelligence is because if you think about someone staying in your company long term, people with high emotional intelligence make better leaders. And so as they move up in the organization, you want people with high emotional intelligence because if they don't have it, they won't make great leaders. I'm a huge fan of asking questions in interviews that nobody can possibly prepare for. What is your biggest weakness? It's something that someone can have a rehearsed, prepared answer for. And I think it's useless when someone can anticipate the questions. And the importance for EQ is that it lets you know, is somebody willing to be vulnerable? How do they characterize and interpret their interactions with other people? In terms of the impact that I have, are people self-aware? Are they self-reflective? Are they accountable? Can they be vulnerable? I think I already said that. There are so many aspects of this that give you an insight into how people work with other people and how they want to be perceived, their ability to have empathy, to see other people's perspectives, all that kind of stuff. And these are the things you need to know about people. I feel like this is a squeaky chair. I don't want this f***ing chair. This one doesn't squeak. You probably can't hear it. It's driving me crazy. New chair, new Galen. First one, this question I love very much, which is this. If I were to sit down with every single person that you've ever worked with in your entire adult career, co-workers, leaders, everybody, who would give me the worst feedback about you and what would they say? Everybody in the universe has worked with someone they don't like. This gives you some insight into how people perceive the way other people perceive them and how they characterize those things. So I want to hear exactly what would that person say. It also is a measure of vulnerability. Will somebody say out loud this negative feedback that somebody had for them and how they showed up? Do not let people wiggle out of that answer. Specifically which person and specifically what would they say? If you worked here for this company for 10 or 15 years, a long, long, long time, how would you want to be remembered? If you had a legacy here and people were like, ah, this person that worked here for this much longer, what would you want to be known for? If you were to work here for two or three months and in that time, you notice eventually that there were some major problems or challenges with the company or organization and you recognize that those problems are because of me as your leader or boss, what would you do about that? This is a question I do not let people wiggle out of. So they're like, oh, well, I'll just have a conversation with you. I'm like, how? What would you say? How would you approach that? Like, how do you bring that up to somebody who's like your superior or whatever, a colleague to be like, you are the source of challenges here. And I want to know what language they would use. Like, how do you navigate that? Here's one. One that I ask later on in the interview process that I also like, which is of everything you know about this role, of everything that you understand about this position and what you're going to be doing here, what is the thing that you think you are least qualified for? Again, it's like a sense of vulnerability. I want to know, will someone be honest with me and tell me these things? A lot of these feel negative, and they are, but it's also we want to get to the heart of real answers and people's ability to be real in the moment. Tell me about a time when you had to lead a project or move something forward and you didn't have all the information. You didn't have everything that you needed to go forward in that process. After working together with you for like five or six months, when like the sort of job honeymoon was worn off, if you and I work really closely together, what will I say at that point is my most favorite thing about working with you? And what will I say also about like, what is my least favorite thing about working with you? That's a good one. What does it feel like for somebody else to be on the receiving end of your communication style or leadership style? This is the last one. I like this one a lot too, which is this. Take two or four or five minutes or whatever to teach me something that I probably don't know, about something that you love. Personally, something you love that has not worked. Don't be like, I love spreadsheets. No, no, no. Like actual things. D&D, ballet dancing, like weaving, knitting.