Baby Boomers are retiring. Skills gaps are widening. Retention isn’t what it used to be.

How can ensure your business will continue to have amazing leaders for years to come?

Grow your own.

Developing internal talent and promoting from within is smart business – but identifying your company’s future leaders involves more than measuring their productivity. To successfully predict your best candidates for leadership, you need gauge their emotional intelligence (EQ).

What’s EQ?

At its simplest, EQ is a combination of self-awareness and awareness of others. It’s a unique kind of intelligence that enables you to identify and manage your emotions. The result of effective communication between the rational and emotive centers of your brain, EQ helps you recognize emotion in others, allowing you to understand their behavior better.

It’s also one of the most important measures of potential leadership success.

People with a high EQ:

• Are better able to manage their relationships with others;

• Are able to recognize the role emotion plays in their workplace;

• React appropriately and effectively to others.

As a result, individuals with high emotional intelligence are perceived as strong and authentic; people want to follow their lead.

How can you use EQ to identify your company’s future leaders?

Assessing emotional intelligence starts with asking great questions. Here are a few you can customize to determine if employees have empathy, self-awareness and the ability to effectively manage their own emotions:

Tell me about a high-stress situation you encountered on the job. Why did it occur, and how did you manage it?

This question will help you understand how well an individual controls his emotions in the face of adversity. In his response, look for evidence of situational awareness, proper prioritization and sound decision-making.

Describe a situation in which you did something which negatively impacted a customer or co-worker. How did you know it affected this person, and what did you do about it?

An individual with high emotional intelligence will describe cues (e.g., body language, tone of voice, pattern of communication) he noticed which indicated something was wrong, and then explain how he adjusted his own behavior accordingly.

When has your mood impacted your performance – either positively or negatively?

Individuals with leadership potential realize that they must keep their own emotions in check to manage situations (and others) effectively. Look for a response that shows the employee not only understands his emotions, but can control his behavior in spite of them.

Growing your team?

Experts in behavior interviewing, Exact Staff’s recruiters can help you identify candidates with the experience, aptitude and emotional intelligence to thrive in leadership roles. Contact your local Exact Staff location to make hiring leaders faster, simpler and more successful .