“Control, control, you must learn control,” Yoda said to Luke Skywalker during Jedi training. Just like Luke, employees must be aware of and learn to control their emotions if they want to be successful at their job (whether their job involves fighting intergalactic forces or receiving critical feedback on a presentation). Fortunately for Luke, he had a great coach and eventually became self-aware enough to conquer his volatile tendencies and channel his emotional energy into the task at hand.

When hiring, it is common to assess not only a candidate’s hard skills, educational background and resume points, but also to take into consideration his or her workplace demeanor. Unfortunately, brief interview sessions provide little opportunity to examine a person’s emotional output when faced with certain workplace situations.

Like Luke, many employees have greatness within them, but lack the tools to successfully put their emotions aside. Assessing emotional intelligence (EQ), the ability to identify, process, and manage one’s own and others’ emotions, provides this acumen in the form of self-awareness. The Hogan EQ assessment measures along six essential workplace emotional competencies:

Emotional Perception

• Self-awareness – the ability understand the emotions that are causing their current mood
• Detection – the ability to interpret others’ intentions, actions, and motivations

Emotional Control

• Regulation – the ability to seem calm under pressure and resilient in the face of failure
• Influence – the ability to empower and instill confidence in others.

Emotional Sharing

• Expressivity – the ability to effectively communicate a desired emotional state to others
• Empathy – the ability to more deeply engage in social interactions and collaborative experiences

By providing a measurement of emotional intelligence, Hogan’s EQ report gives employees insight into the roles their emotions play in their worklife as well as how they are perceived by others. By understanding their natural strengths and weaknesses, employees can learn to compensate for those behaviors. Interested in learning more about how we assess EQ? Download our complimentary eBook, Want a Better Job? Learn to Control Your Emotions.