Hiring for Emotional
Intelligence at the
Men's Wearhouse
The Men's Wearhouse is now the lead-
ing discount retailer of men's clothing
in the United States. It has more than
400 stores, 6,000 employees, and an-
nual revenues of $630 million. The firm
is growing rapidly-adding an average
of one new store per week.
The Men's Wearhouse founder and
CEO, George Zimmer, has built his
business by trying to reinvent the
shopping experience. "Most business
practices repress our natural tendency
to have fun and to socialize," says
Zimmer. "The idea seems to be that
in order to succeed, you have to suf-
fer. But I believe that you do your best
work when you are feeling enthu-
siastic about things. Our business is
|
based on faith in the value of human
potential."
Hiring at the Men's Wearhouse re-
flects Zimmer's philosophy. In selecting
and training new salespeople, for in-
|
stance, management believes success
has more to do with the ability to un-
derstand people than it does about un-
derstanding how to sell suits. "We don't
look for people with specific levels of
education and experience," says the
company's vice president of training,
Shlomo Maor. "We look for one crite-
rion for hiring: optimism. We look for
passion, excitement, energy. We want
people who enjoy life."
What does optimism have to do
with selling suits? Everything, argues
Maor. "Optimistic people do not pre-
judge or pressure customers," he says.
"You have to sell the right product to
the right customer for the right rea-
son-which often means delaying
gratification and taking rejection in
stride. That's emotional intelligence,
and it's what makes great salespeople
great."
|
Source: E. Ransdell, "They Sell Suits with Soul," Fast Company, October 1998, pp. 66-68.
|
|
|
|
choices when they're angry and stressed out than when they're calm and col-
lected.
Negative emotions can result in a limited search for new alternatives and a
less vigilant use of information. On the other hand, positive emotions can in-
crease problem solving and facilitate the integration of information.77
You can improve your understanding of decision making by considering
"the heart" as well as "the head." People use emotions as well as rational and in-
tuitive processes in making decisions. Failure to incorporate emotions into the
study of decision processes will result in an incomplete (and often inaccurate)
view of the process.
Motivation
We'll discuss motivation thoroughly in Chapters 6 and 7. At this
point, we want to merely introduce the idea that, like decision making, the dom-
inant approaches to the study of motivation reflect an overrationalized view of
individuals.78
Motivation theories basically propose that individuals "are motivated to the
extent that their behavior is expected to lead to desired outcomes. The image is
that of rational exchange: the employee essentially trades effort for pay, security,
promotions, and so forth."79 But people aren't cold, unfeeling machines. Their
perceptions and calculations of situations are filled with emotional content that
significantly influences how much effort they exert. Moreover, when you see
|
Home
© Prentice-Hall, Inc. A Pearson Education Company
|