As leaders, it is essential to be aware of our strengths, weaknesses, and potential blind spots. Self-awareness can help us to better understand ourselves and how we interact with others, enabling us to make the best decisions possible. In order to achieve self-awareness and become the most effective leaders possible, there are certain questions we must ask ourselves.
In this blog, we’ll be looking at self-awareness interview questions that are especially relevant to leaders. These questions are designed to draw out information about our motivations, values, and work styles, so that we as leaders can assess our proficiency and identify areas for improvement. Through this process of self-discovery, leaders can become more self-aware, enabling better decision-making, more efficient communication, and a better organizational culture.
Self-awareness & resilience interview questions
What Is Emotional Intelligence and Why Are Interviewers Asking About It?
Although it may not always be on your mind, emotional intelligence is always at work, influencing how you and your coworkers interact on a daily basis as well as how successfully you complete projects and achieve your goals.
Also known as EQ, it encompasses both internal and external elements, and you can build it up like a muscle. “I think of it as having two components,” says Patricia Thompson, PhD, a corporate psychologist and creator of the “21-Day Crash Course in Emotional Intelligence,” which more than 18,000 students have completed. The first component is “your ability to understand yourself and [your] emotions, and based on that being able to regulate yourself appropriately,” Thompson says. The second, she says, is “to understand others’ emotions to relate to them…and to have a high level of social awareness to use those insights.” In other words, can you recognize and process your own emotions and keep them under control? And are you in tune enough with others to perceive, interpret, and empathize with their emotions?
It goes beyond just having a positive work environment. Instead, EQ has a significant impact on your interactions with superiors, coworkers, and clients as well as your productivity and capacity to develop and implement winning strategies. Additionally, the increased emphasis on preventing workplace burnout, which the World Health Organization has dubbed an “occupational phenomenon,” necessitates hiring staff with high EQ because they can contribute to the creation of a healthier workplace for themselves and others and will eventually develop into leaders who do the same.
For all of those reasons, you can anticipate that hiring managers and recruiters will be looking for people with high EQ. In an interview, behavioral questions that ask you to provide examples of how you’ve behaved in specific situations and other questions that compel you to discuss how you handle, regulate, and perceive emotions could be used to probe your emotional intelligence (EQ). It can even be as straightforward as the question, “What weaknesses are you working to overcome?” This can reveal your level of self-awareness, how you respond to criticism, and how you handle frustration.
Therefore, it’s crucial to understand which typical interview questions and other inquiries you’re most likely to receive from a recruiter or hiring manager looking to gauge EQ—as well as their motivations and recommended responses—in order to prepare yourself.
Tell Me About a Time You Experienced a Conflict at Work.
According to Thompson, who aims to determine the applicant’s perception of their role and others’ roles in solving the problem, this question is really about your thought process in addressing an issue.
Joanna Lovering, a workplace psychologist and executive presence coach at Copper+Rise, suggests using the STAR method when responding to “Tell me about a time” or other EQ-testing questions. Situation (S), Task (T), Actions (A), and Results (R) are listed in this order: Situation (S), Task (T), Actions (A), and Results (R). Lovering notes that rather than just being able to talk about it, “this shows a proven record of emotional intelligence.”
Consider a project or event where there was actual contention with a coworker, client, or boss in order to apply the STAR method to this particular interview question. Keep your explanation of the situation you encountered neutral, brief, and avoid blaming or badmouthing anyone else by detailing what conflict occurred and why. You can either state the facts as they occurred without expressing an opinion or you can diplomatically accept some of the blame for the conflict, demonstrating self-awareness and leadership on your part. Then describe the assignment or what you were in charge of in this circumstance. List the specific actions and procedures you took to resolve the conflict after that, such as meeting with coworkers for an open discussion and using your compassionate listening abilities to resolve a misunderstanding. Last but not least, share the outcomes of your efforts, even if they didn’t go as planned, and the lessons you learned. Do not try to prove your perfection; instead, show your process and reflect afterward.
Deeper inquiries that go beyond easy targets and soft serves are preferable, but only if they are made in a way that is both substantive and helps you build a rapport with a potential future head of school. Another benefit of this strategy is that you can confirm the information and impressions you gather through follow-up interviews with references, online reference surveys, follow-up interviews in which you check for consistency and clarity in the recounting, or through observations of other interactions and responses later in the search process. The foundation of the ongoing process, the yardstick for evaluating a candidate’s accomplishments, character, and integrity, is their stories. Recently, author and journalist Justin Bariso provided a definition of self-awareness in a column for Inc. as “the capacity to recognize and comprehend one’s own emotions and how those emotions affect one.” By being self-aware, you can see how your emotions can either help you or get in the way of reaching your goals. You become aware of your emotional tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. ” High EQ starts with this capacity. And for heads in a job that gets more complex every year, high EQ is the fundamental competency that is most important. It does not appear on a resume and will not be made clear during interviews or reference checks unless the search committee specifically wants that to happen. Skilled head of school search consultants will support search committees in developing focus and pertinent questions as well as formulate and share their own crystal-clear insights into candidates’ self-awareness and emotional intelligence.
If you are trying to determine whether a candidate is prepared for leadership during a search committee interview for a school headship, going through their resume is a pointless exercise. It is easy to fall into this trap. The resume is easily accessible and can be used as a roadmap for the following questions. After all, it’s critical to understand a candidate’s background and career aspirations. You can contest all the active verbs on the resume, such as “developed,” “initiated,” and “collaborated,” by requesting clarification and looking for actual expertise. However, a good search consultant should have already completed the majority of this, so it would be a waste of time and resources to spend too much of the search committee’s valuable time with a candidate. Instead, you want to determine the candidate’s emotional intelligence capacity, paying particular attention to the candidate’s self-awareness. No qualification for a school leader is more frequently required than emotional intelligence, which is why it’s so important to try to understand it in a head candidate. In the crucible of regular interactions with pupils, teachers, administrators, trustees, parents, members of the community, alumni, etc. Every conversation the head has with a person could be the most significant one that person has all day. And that’s rarely the case for the head of school, who may spend the entire day flitting between conversations with wildly divergent goals and tones, some of which are planned but others of which are spontaneous, and perhaps some of which are unexpectedly awkward. The success of institutions and long-term projects also depends on the head’s interpersonal abilities. The most crucial tools of a leader in those circumstances are understanding how you are perceived and maintaining a strong, accurate sense of self-awareness. Poor performance here, on the other hand, could quickly result in unfavorable assessments of the leader that would persist and ultimately detract from overall performance. It can be intimidating to assess emotional intelligence during an interview. The simple requirement to observe the candidate during the interview itself is just as crucial in this endeavor as asking questions. Does the candidate respond appropriately to humor (yes, some levity is a valid part of an interview), seem to understand the implicit intent of the questions being posed, and “read” and understand the emotions, both subtle and outright, of the interviewers in the room? Is the candidate making eye contact with both the person who asked the question, and then with others around the table in the course of responding? Can you sense confidence? The questions should be probing and require specifics. They should request a self-evaluation and demand that a candidate describe what they learned from an experience. Such as:
3. Ask candidates to describe what they believe the proper role of the head should be in fundraising or admissions, as well as how their role fits with that of the other administrators in that area and with the role of trustees, rather than asking them to recount a record of accomplishment in, say, development or enrollment management. Then, if they haven’t already, ask them to describe a time when they witnessed that balance being severely strained and how they handled that situation.
1. Ask the candidate to talk about a time when they had to challenge the status quo in an institution and to explain what went well, what did not, and how that affected them the next time they had to lead change rather than asking them to describe something they failed or succeeded at.
You will not develop self-awareness without actually working on yourself. The most self-aware leaders are always learning and growing. Most people will tell you they don’t have time to read a personal leadership book for 10-15 minutes each day, despite the fact that we can pass out while watching television for hours on end. We must first acknowledge to ourselves that we don’t have all the answers in order to grow in self-awareness. But the secret to self-awareness isn’t just reading; it’s also putting what you’ve learned into practice. Make it your mission to work on one good idea all day long.
Self-awareness is the primary distinction between a good leader and a great leader. Simply put, they are aware of who they are and, more importantly, who they are not. There is still a pervasive belief in most management and executive ranks that they must know all the answers to be deserving of their position, despite a slight shift in the last ten years with some of our collaborative millennials. Every single one of us is aware that we don’t have all the answers, and we can clearly see in others that they don’t either, which makes it quite amusing. We would experience less stress and would become better leaders if we only had the courage to admit it.
Observe that it states when you last ASKED for feedback. The majority of us rarely solicit feedback because we don’t necessarily like it. But determining how your perceptions of yourself compare to those of others is the only way to be truly self-aware. If they don’t, others might be experiencing something entirely different from what you believe you are offering. For instance, you might believe that you are an excellent listener, but your teammates may be going through something entirely different and are annoyed by the constant interruptions you make. We all have blind spots, and the only way to identify what is in our blind spots is to get feedback from a reliable source. Not all feedback is helpful, but a conscious leader can recognize the constructive criticism and adapt their behavior in response.
Although this is a very common interview question, it is actually a crucial life question. What else would be possible if you knew what you did really well and were actively using those talents? Likewise, do you know what your weak areas are and are you putting a plan in place to strengthen those areas? Knowing your weak areas isn’t helpful unless you are willing to do something about them. Perhaps you lack the confidence to speak up during meetings out of concern for how others will perceive you if your suggestion is rejected. You could submit your suggestion in advance so that it appears on the agenda in order to boost your confidence. Small victories along the way will motivate you to push yourself further outside of your comfort zone and take on your most difficult tasks.
Make self-awareness a priority if you want to be a great leader, whether that means leading a team at work, your family, or yourself. You might not like all of the realizations that awareness brings, so it can be difficult work. Be receptive to it, and you’ll see how your life will begin to improve.
FAQ
How do you demonstrate self-awareness in an interview?
Self-awareness in a job interview be open about your weaknesses. Mentioning your areas of interest in learning and improving will help you balance information about your strengths. Inform your employer of any tasks that may require additional help or support.
What are good leadership interview questions?
- Tell me or us about a time when you used your leadership abilities at work.
- What is your leadership style? …
- Which auxiliary skills, in your opinion, are more crucial for a leader?
- How do you manage a conflict situation? …
- Which of your leadership decisions has proven to be the most difficult?
How do you answer a self-awareness competency question?
Answers to self-awareness interview questions should reflect particular character traits that are pertinent to the position or role that a candidate is applying for. Additionally, it’s crucial to project composure, poise, and confidence while responding to the query.
How do you answer the question Tell me about yourself in a leadership interview?
Brief Summary of Work History Begin by summarizing your professional history. Explain your background, tracing your development from a young age to the present. Avoid mentioning personal information and keep the conversation on your current or most recent position, where you can speak specifically about your leadership skills.
