MARCH 2008: BIZ LIFE, HELP DESK
The best is sometimes not the brightest
Academic accolades are an attractive quality in any employee,
but there’s another, equally important kind of
intelligence you won’t find mentioned on most
resumes.
“Smart is a good start, but IQ by itself doesn’t
have the impact it can have if you’re personally
intelligent,” says Kenton R. Hill, a work performance
coach and founder of Portland-based KRH Consulting. His new
book, Smart Isn’t
Enough, explores that concept of personal intelligence
— defined as the capacity to recognize, understand, value
and apply emotions effectively — and provides advice on
how to develop it.
For employers, though, the key is to hire people who already
display the traits of personal intelligence: self-awareness,
self-regulation, self-motivation, social awareness,
relationship building and interpersonal influence.
“The best measure I know is to have structured
interviews with questions designed to elicit that
information,” Hill says.
An effective tool for assessing personal intelligence during
the hiring process is the behavioral interview, he says. A
professional familiar with the concept can be brought in to do
the job, but if you’re handling the task in-house, focus
on questions like, “Tell me about a conflict and how you
handled it.”
“As you develop your interview technique,” Hill
says, “practice the questions on people [within your
organization] who you’d like to get more of.”
Try to identify trends in their responses, and look for
similar answers from job candidates. No two answers will likely
be the same, but similarities should emerge.
When someone is lacking in personal intelligence, they might
show it in a variety of ways. Directing inappropriate
aggression or humor at colleagues or failing to find motivation
in a job can both be signs. A person who finds they are passed
over for a promotion for which, on paper, they are well
qualified might also lack competency. But while it’s not
an innate quality for many people, personal intelligence can be
developed over time.
“It is possible to learn,” Hill says. “It
isn’t easy to learn, but it is possible.”
JAMIE HARTFORD
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