Improve Your Behavior
15 May 2009
Read by 1854 persons
Skills are equal; attitude and emotional intelligence make the difference.
Finding the right profile for a position is a difficult task for a decision-maker. A wrong choice can be costly.
Beyond required skills, the current trend is to choose, among equally skilled candidates, the one who will be most successful: the one who adapts to the work environment, wants to grow, and sets achievable goals.
Elsewhere, the concept of emotional intelligence is in vogue. In Morocco, it's still timid. In addition to know-how, interpersonal skills are becoming key. This technique is increasingly applied in the IT and industrial engineering sectors since technical skills are easily identifiable. To strengthen their position, candidates must present themselves well, speak easily, highlight their potential, beyond just showcasing technical expertise.
Once a candidate is selected after receiving their CV, an interview is typical to assess their potential contribution. For technicians, the final interview is with an HR manager who may not be very familiar with technical jargon. This is the person the candidate needs to convince to get the job. They must convince the manager they are the best for the role. The manager needs to understand the candidate's personality and assess their ability to integrate into the team, their potential for growth, and overall performance.
Recruiters must carefully evaluate candidates to make the right choice. Some managers understand the importance of this step for the smooth running of the work, while others do not. The latter are wrong. How many times have we heard managers complain about a colleague hired based solely on technical skills, without considering their behavior? Result: poor initial judgment jeopardizes team atmosphere and work. Many managers who miscalculated this step wish they had never hired or placed someone with inappropriate behavior in a key position.
Furthermore, some more experienced candidates now prepare in advance. They emphasize their skills on their CV and present themselves in the best possible light during the interview. Result: a smooth-talking candidate who behaves well will inevitably overshadow a less articulate but more skilled and loyal competitor. A word of advice: always have all the advantages on your side. Forewarned is forearmed.
Are technical skills enough?
Often, the job interview follows a CV selection that more or less validated technical skills. If the candidate has reached this stage, there's a good chance their technical potential is trusted. Part of the interview—and potentially other methods—will be dedicated to verifying this. However, the recruiter's other objective is to determine if the candidate will be successful in the role. This notion of success goes far beyond mere know-how. In the recruitment world, it's considered that more than half of an employee's success comes from their level of emotional intelligence.
What is the other side of recruitment?
Recruitment methods based on behavioral analysis are not new. The techniques used to evaluate and select are what's changing. Currently, the concept of emotional intelligence is fashionable. It can be summarized as follows: what an individual can do is linked to their technical skills; what they want to do depends on their emotional skills. During many interviews, the recruiter will specifically ask themselves, using pre-designed grids or based on their own experience: Can they control their emotions? Will they withstand stress? What is their self-perception? Do they have initiative? Innovation? Are they adaptable? Conscientious? etc. The technical profile is known through the advertised position. But there is also often a real behavioral profile that the candidate must guess and that is often barely outlined in the job offer. Collaborating, inventing, managing, uniting, communicating, building, listening, informing, guiding, tempering, adapting, enthusing… These are the most positive emotional skills. The needs will be specific to each position. Dividing, refusing, fleeing, or demotivating are less desirable “skills”!
How to measure these emotional skills?
In some cases, relatively complex charts are created to draw the emotional profile of the person. They are then compared to standard charts to see if the candidate's behavior matches that expected for the position offered. There are, of course, software programs specifically developed for processing this information.
What behavior to adopt?
Candidates are often aware of this behavioral evaluation by recruiters, but they don’t prepare for it as much as their classic technical and professional argumentation. Underestimating this is a mistake, as its success often determines the outcome. So, what to do? The worst solution is certainly to act. Focusing only on behavior can lead to awkward situations. The interview should be considered a genuine moment of open and honest exchange. We are here to agree on a project, a professional contract. Can I do what is asked of me? Do I want to? What will my role and situation be? Does this motivate me? These are the questions to ask yourself.
How to achieve a good result?
This is the time to try to step into the described role and ask if the fit is right. This requires preparation before the interview. Do not hesitate to ask specific questions during the interview, demonstrating a desire for involvement and investigation in the role. Each interview is unique. It is therefore pointless to transfer the fears of a previously failed interview to the current one. For example, if a team player profile was sought in a previous job and the candidate has a managerial profile, a change in behavior during the new interview could be unwelcome. Each time, the role is different, although the tools remain the same. Despite the multitude of techniques used to explain it, recruitment, even in our specialist fields, is above all a matter of meeting.
Nadia DREF
Published May 10, 2009
Posted online May 15, 2009
lematin.ma
Finding the right profile for a position is a difficult task for a decision-maker. A wrong choice can be costly.
Beyond required skills, the current trend is to choose, among equally skilled candidates, the one who will be most successful: the one who adapts to the work environment, wants to grow, and sets achievable goals.
Elsewhere, the concept of emotional intelligence is in vogue. In Morocco, it's still timid. In addition to know-how, interpersonal skills are becoming key. This technique is increasingly applied in the IT and industrial engineering sectors since technical skills are easily identifiable. To strengthen their position, candidates must present themselves well, speak easily, highlight their potential, beyond just showcasing technical expertise.
Once a candidate is selected after receiving their CV, an interview is typical to assess their potential contribution. For technicians, the final interview is with an HR manager who may not be very familiar with technical jargon. This is the person the candidate needs to convince to get the job. They must convince the manager they are the best for the role. The manager needs to understand the candidate's personality and assess their ability to integrate into the team, their potential for growth, and overall performance.
Recruiters must carefully evaluate candidates to make the right choice. Some managers understand the importance of this step for the smooth running of the work, while others do not. The latter are wrong. How many times have we heard managers complain about a colleague hired based solely on technical skills, without considering their behavior? Result: poor initial judgment jeopardizes team atmosphere and work. Many managers who miscalculated this step wish they had never hired or placed someone with inappropriate behavior in a key position.
Furthermore, some more experienced candidates now prepare in advance. They emphasize their skills on their CV and present themselves in the best possible light during the interview. Result: a smooth-talking candidate who behaves well will inevitably overshadow a less articulate but more skilled and loyal competitor. A word of advice: always have all the advantages on your side. Forewarned is forearmed.
Are technical skills enough?
Often, the job interview follows a CV selection that more or less validated technical skills. If the candidate has reached this stage, there's a good chance their technical potential is trusted. Part of the interview—and potentially other methods—will be dedicated to verifying this. However, the recruiter's other objective is to determine if the candidate will be successful in the role. This notion of success goes far beyond mere know-how. In the recruitment world, it's considered that more than half of an employee's success comes from their level of emotional intelligence.
What is the other side of recruitment?
Recruitment methods based on behavioral analysis are not new. The techniques used to evaluate and select are what's changing. Currently, the concept of emotional intelligence is fashionable. It can be summarized as follows: what an individual can do is linked to their technical skills; what they want to do depends on their emotional skills. During many interviews, the recruiter will specifically ask themselves, using pre-designed grids or based on their own experience: Can they control their emotions? Will they withstand stress? What is their self-perception? Do they have initiative? Innovation? Are they adaptable? Conscientious? etc. The technical profile is known through the advertised position. But there is also often a real behavioral profile that the candidate must guess and that is often barely outlined in the job offer. Collaborating, inventing, managing, uniting, communicating, building, listening, informing, guiding, tempering, adapting, enthusing… These are the most positive emotional skills. The needs will be specific to each position. Dividing, refusing, fleeing, or demotivating are less desirable “skills”!
How to measure these emotional skills?
In some cases, relatively complex charts are created to draw the emotional profile of the person. They are then compared to standard charts to see if the candidate's behavior matches that expected for the position offered. There are, of course, software programs specifically developed for processing this information.
What behavior to adopt?
Candidates are often aware of this behavioral evaluation by recruiters, but they don’t prepare for it as much as their classic technical and professional argumentation. Underestimating this is a mistake, as its success often determines the outcome. So, what to do? The worst solution is certainly to act. Focusing only on behavior can lead to awkward situations. The interview should be considered a genuine moment of open and honest exchange. We are here to agree on a project, a professional contract. Can I do what is asked of me? Do I want to? What will my role and situation be? Does this motivate me? These are the questions to ask yourself.
How to achieve a good result?
This is the time to try to step into the described role and ask if the fit is right. This requires preparation before the interview. Do not hesitate to ask specific questions during the interview, demonstrating a desire for involvement and investigation in the role. Each interview is unique. It is therefore pointless to transfer the fears of a previously failed interview to the current one. For example, if a team player profile was sought in a previous job and the candidate has a managerial profile, a change in behavior during the new interview could be unwelcome. Each time, the role is different, although the tools remain the same. Despite the multitude of techniques used to explain it, recruitment, even in our specialist fields, is above all a matter of meeting.
Nadia DREF
Published May 10, 2009
Posted online May 15, 2009
lematin.ma
