How many of these questions have you heard in an English job interview before?
How do you respond to unexpected difficulties at work?
Can you share an example of when you had an upset customer or coworker?
How did you handle the situation?
And tell me about a time when you had a disagreement at work.
Not only are these common job interview questions, but they're also questions.
Job interviewers ask to evaluate your overall emotional intelligence
or EQ in this confident English lesson.
Today you're going to learn what emotional intelligence is and why is it so
important.
Why do job interviewers ask so many questions to
evaluate your emotional intelligence?
Then I'm going to share with you four strategies you can use to easily adapt
your answers to common job interview questions that ask about your emotional
intelligence, and I'll share example answers along the way. By the end,
you'll know exactly how to answer a variety of common job interview questions in
English.
But first, if you don't know already, I am Annemarie,
an English confidence and fluency coach.
Everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for your
life and work in English. If you would love more free resources from me,
you can visit my Speak Confident English website.
You'll find additional lessons on how to be successful in a job interview in
English,
and I have a free masterclass on how to respond to the most
common job interview starter. Tell me about yourself.
Simply visit speakconfidentenglish.com.
And now let's take a moment to discuss what exactly is emotional intelligence
and why do job interviewers ask so many questions about it?
Emotional intelligence, also known as EQ,
is your ability to recognize, understand,
manage,
and effectively use your own emotions as well as the emotions
of others. As you know,
a job interviewer aims to evaluate your overall ability to
complete certain tasks as well as your potential to be successful in a role.
If you're going to work with other people in any capacity,
then the interviewer also needs to evaluate your overall emotional
intelligence.
Questions about EQ will aim to better understand your ability to
collaborate with others, lead or manage a team,
handle customer relations,
adapt to change or uncertainty, resolve conflict,
make decisions, manage stress, maintain a growth mindset.
And so much more. The challenges.
Questions that aim to evaluate your emotional intelligence may not be
so obvious. I shared a few examples at the very start of this lesson,
but here are a few more common job interview questions you might hear
that are really focused on better understanding your eq.
Can you describe a situation where you had to work closely with a team member to
overcome a challenge and how did you handle conflicts when they arose?
Tell me about a time when you received some constructive feedback.
How did you react and what steps did you take to address that
feedback?
Describe a time when you had to manage your time and workload effectively to
meet a tight deadline.
How did you handle the pressure and ensure high-quality work?
To best address these kinds of questions that are asking about your ability to
collaborate, make decisions, handle uncertainty, handle stress,
and so much more.
Let's go over four strategies you can use to easily adapt your answers,
and I'll give you example answers along the way. Strategy number one,
emphasize your resilience.
Resilience is your ability to overcome and still move forward despite
difficulty.
Imagine for a moment that an interviewer asks you this question,
when a project doesn't go as planned or when you have a major setback,
how do you handle it? And with that question in mind,
I want you to think about what's wrong with this initial answer. Honestly,
I get frustrated when there are delays in a project.
Since my team might also feel this way,
I encourage them not to get stressed and to just press through. On its face,
this might seem like a good answer to the question,
but rather than focusing on resilience,
it actually brings focus to a negative emotion, feeling stressed or frustrated.
It also shows a potential lack of understanding when it comes to
how others might feel. Instead,
here are three alternatives that put the focus on your resilience.
Number one, I try to take a step back and focus on what's possible,
what are the possible solutions? Option two,
I acknowledge the difficulties first and I also try to create
a supportive team atmosphere so that we can all work together toward
overcoming the setbacks or option three,
I work to recognize everyone's efforts and I try to maintain an
open environment to address issues together as a team.
In these example responses,
the focus is positive and it brings focus to moving forward
without adding negativity to the team. Now, answers.
Like this aren't always easy. They don't come to you instantly,
so if you need a little bit of time to think, here's something you could say,
that's a tough question and I've never considered it before.
Could you give me just a quick moment to think and then after just a few seconds
of silence, you would continue with your response.
If you'd like more examples of how to initially respond when you don't know the
answer to a question in a job interview,
I have a full lesson on that topic and I'll share a link in the notes below the
video.
And now strategy number two for answering job interview questions about your
emotional intelligence, focus on empathy. This time,
let's focus on the question.
Share an example of when you had an upset customer or coworker,
how did you handle the situation?
Before I share with you example answers that appropriately focus on empathy,
I'd like to share with you a few examples that don't do that as well as
they should.
One common answer is I apologized and I told the
customer the delay was unexpected.
Then I requested their patients and their understanding a second response,
I didn't really know what to do, so I asked one of my coworkers to handle it,
and number three, I apologized for the situation.
I let them know we'd find a solution and then I quickly moved on.
As you look at those initial responses, what do you notice is missing?
Empathy is missing.
Empathy is the ability to understand why others feel the way they do.
Not only do these answers lack empathy,
they also minimize the validity of someone's emotions or their frustration.
Instead,
here are several alternatives that bring a focus to empathy,
showing that you're able to understand how someone feels and validate
why they feel that way. As a result,
it shows that you're able to better connect with others and manage customer
relations or manage relations on your team. Option one,
they were undoubtedly frustrated when the client complained.
I told them I understood exactly why they were frustrated and I apologized for
the inconvenience. Option two,
I listened carefully to their concerns and then I reassured them that my team
and I would work quickly to fix the issue. Option three,
I maintained a calm,
respectful tone when indicating that I understood their frustrations.
Then I followed up with them by email later to let them know that I appreciated
their concerns and that my team and I were working to solve the problem.
Each of these examples does a better job highlighting your empathy.
They also indicate that you're able to handle difficult situations with.
Diplomacy.
Strategy number three for responding to questions that evaluate your emotional
intelligence is emphasize a growth mindset.
Imagine an interviewer asking you when you receive constructive feedback,
how do you respond? What actions do you take?
Just as we saw with strategy number one,
it's important to avoid focusing on negative emotions or reactions.
Instead, you want to focus on having a growth mindset.
A growth mindset is the belief that you always have the ability
to learn, grow,
and gain new skills through perseverance and effort.
Rather than taking constructive feedback personally and feeling hurt,
you reflect on what was shared and how you can use that information to
grow or to gain new skills and insights. Interviewers,
of course, want to see that you're open to constructive feedback.
No one starts a new job and does everything perfectly.
There are always opportunities to improve,
so if you have a question about constructive feedback and how you respond,
here are a few answers. To avoid, honestly,
it took me off guard and it took some time for me to wrap my head around it.
Typically, I take in what's being shared and I try to remain open.
I don't always agree with the feedback,
but I maintain politeness throughout the conversation. Honestly,
I don't take criticism well,
so I have to remind myself to not be defensive.
In contrast to those examples,
here are a few responses that highlight your growth mindset and
your emotional intelligence. When I receive constructive feedback,
I see it as an opportunity for growth and improvement.
I may be surprised initially,
but I value the feedback and I work toward improving my skills.
Once I've had time to process the feedback,
I work on an action plan to implement the suggestions.
After receiving feedback,
I ask questions to better understand the suggestions and if
necessary, I may even ask for guidance or resources to help me improve.
I think feedback is essential for a personal and professional growth.
I consider a stepping stone and I always welcome it. And now,
strategy number four, showcase your communication skills.
For this strategy. I want you to consider this common job interview question.
Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult coworker or a difficult
member on your team. How did you handle it? Of course,
with a question like this,
an interviewer wants to know how you communicate with your.
Coworkers.
Are you able to remain objective and approach situations diplomatically?
The following responses indicate a lack of communication and
an inability to problem solve.
There are lack of time management impacted our team's productivity,
but I didn't want to create tension, so I just did the tasks myself.
Eventually, my manager noticed the issue and discussed it with the person,
and I was relieved that my manager took care of it.
I talked about it with my other coworkers first,
and in the end I realized there's not much you can do about it as
opposed to those answers and to better highlight your ability to communicate
clearly with others and problem solve. Here are some better responses.
I try my best to find common ground with the other person,
especially if we have opposing points of view.
I'll often do a one-on-one with a person, and if necessary,
I'll re delegate tasks based on a person's strengths or abilities.
I look for ways to understand the other person and for opportunities we have to
collaborate. To do that, I set clear expectations,
share progress updates,
and I try to find the best method of communication between the two of us.
Now, after you've shared one of those initial responses,
you could add on and indicate the final result.
For example, as a result of our efforts,
we were able to benefit from our individual strengths and find a way to work
together to achieve our goals. With these strategies in mind,
I want you to practice,
choose one of the several job interview questions I shared in this lesson today
and consider how you would respond with a focus on resilience,
empathy, a growth mindset, or communication skills.
And if you're not sure, here are two questions you could choose from.
Option one,
describe a situation when you had to deal with a difficult customer or client.
How did you approach the situation and what was the outcome?
Option two,
describe a time when you had to manage your time and workload effectively to
meet a tight deadline.
How did you handle the pressure and ensure high quality work? As always,
you can share your answers with me in the comments below.
If you found today's lesson helpful to you, I would love to know,
and you can tell me in one very simple way.
Give this lesson a thumbs up here on YouTube, and while you're at it,
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one of my Confident English lessons. And don't forget,
you can visit my Speak Confident English website for many more lessons on
how to successfully answer questions in a job interview,
and get my in-depth masterclass on how to respond to tell me about
yourself. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for watching this lesson.
I truly appreciate it, and I look forward to seeing you next time.