If you thought that your degree from a top business school or your
Emotional intelligence: the number one skill
Among all the soft skills sought after, emotional intelligence tops the list of expectations. And for good reason: in private banking, bankers do not simply manage portfolios, they manage people and their emotions in relation to their constantly changing wealth.
Why does this skill make a difference?
Emotional intelligence enables wealth managers to create and maintain long-term relationships with their clients. This skill allows them to directly and indirectly:
- Managing client stress and anxiety: Faced with a volatile market, a complex family succession, or a divorce… Clients go through difficult times when their emotions take over, causing them to make strategic and, above all, costly mistakes. Knowing how to reassure them and easing their concerns is quite an art.
- Uncovering the unspoken: A client who states that they expect high return may actually be considering their financial security first, which makes risk management more complex, as they want a higher return but with low risk. Emotional intelligence enables private bankers to understand the real needs behind surface-level requests and propose solutions tailored to actual requirements.
- Building lasting relationships: In private banking, client relationships are measured in years, even decades. This loyalty is based not only on financial performance, but also on the quality of the human connection. Private bankers are part of the client’s inner circle and are often considered ‘friends’ of the client and/or their family.
How can you demonstrate this in an interview?
During a private banking interview, emotional intelligence cannot be declared, it must be demonstrated. It is often recommended to focus on concrete examples drawn from real-life experiences: describe how you handled a dissatisfied client, how you adapted your approach when dealing with an anxious profile, or how you de-escalated a complex situation.
Other factors that may be relevant to this question include the strategies employed during periods of crisis or high volatility, which may demonstrate that the private banker is able to control their emotions and make rational strategic decisions in the best interests of their client and the financial institution they represent.
In a industry where people remain at the heart of everything, emotional intelligence is considered to be the skill that strongly influences the customer journey and can contribute to its optimisation.
