The answers to these questions will give you insight into the candidate's interpersonal relationship skills, the ability to inspire and influence others, create resonance to a company's mission or vision, challenge the status quo, and bring out differing perspectives in a collaborative fashion:

• Could you tell us about a time or situation where you have lost your optimism? And how did you recover it?
• Could you tell us about a time or situation where you, as a leader, felt it was necessary to bend the rules. What were your actions? Why did you do it? How did you feel about it?
• Could you tell us how do you know that you created a positive work environment and great corporate culture in your former organization?
• Tell us about the most difficult boss you have had? Could you find a common ground with him? How did you find that common ground? Did you learn something from that boss? How did that knowledge further your career?
• Could you tell us about a time or situation where you failed to establish or maintain a relationship with a peer?

As always, watch for cues to how the candidate is feeling through their body language and tone of voice used when answering the questions.

Many companies try to ensure their selection decision by extending the interview process. I don't recommend this, as it can cause candidate fatigue and may result in emotional intelligence mismatches due to a lack of focus. Chances are that including questions designed to uncover the emotional intelligence factor in your hiring process will ultimately save your organization time and money. One note of caution, do not load all these questions into your interview. You will overwhelm and maybe even scare away the candidate.

A good balance is to spend 20 percent to 30 percent of the interview on questions designed to highlight emotional intelligence competencies and the other 70 percent to 80 percent on questions that focus on expertise and past experience, with an emphasis on asking the candidate to provide metrics about the outcomes or results. As you work your way through these traditional expertise-related interview questions, remember to watch for how the candidate reads and responds to cultural situations and works with others. No doubt, emotional intelligence is rarer than book smarts, but my experience says it is actually more important in the making of a leader. You just cannot ignore it.