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Another cute one and how to answer it,
Although this question that I posed in the title looks like it's an interview question, it's really part of your preparation for an interview. Now, I picked up this idea from the book "301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview Questions." It's been out for a while, I think you can get a PDF online; that's what I was able to do. The short version of how to prepare in this respect for the kind of personality you want to show in your answers for demonstrating emotional intelligence, they offer in two steps.
The first idea is to select five adjectives that you believe are going to capture your work persona, and it starts off with the first two. These are personality traits that you might use if you were going to describe yourself to a close friend or date.
So, the example that's offered in the book, the first two that you pick from there was "intelligent" and "perceptive." You pick ones that work for you. So you know smart, clever whatever it is, you pick two things you might use to describe yourself to a civilian. By that I mean someone who isn't working with you professionally.
Then, the next three are really adjectives that you believe would allow you to do a great job. So, again, follow me. The examples from the book-- industrious, empathetic, creative. So, what you're looking for are ways that you can demonstrate your personality in the course of answering a question.
So, you'd like to speak in terms of . . . So, let's say you're in a situation where a firm asks you, "What would you do to fulfill our company's vision?"
Of course, this is a question that's going to be has to be more senior professional. You might talk about going to an off site retreat, bring in senior leadership, working with the firm's mission statement, distilling it down to a couple of sentences, working to bring this out to everyone. You might talk in terms of your qualities of empathy and creativity in that situation. There are lots of different ways to illustrate personality in the course of your interviews but the idea, very simply, is wherever you can, firms are not hiring robots. At least they're not asking you to be a robot are they?
They're looking for human beings who will fit into their culture.
And, as such, what we're looking for is a way of expressing that in the course of your answer, so
