How Emotional Intelligent Are You and Does it Even Matter?

We are given all sorts of encouragement as we are growing up, to develop our intellectual abilities. It is in fact our intellectual abilities that determine what type of tertiary education, if any, we are able to access, once we leave high school. Our intellectual ability is even used as the barometer, to indicate the direction our lives should take, and it is used as the single most important criterion, to help us decide, what career path we should follow, once we finish high school.

We receive very little support to grow emotionally and are even, sabotaged as we attempt to make sense of our lives as we grow up. The well-meaning adults around us constantly tell us to control our emotions and so, as we grow up, we see any need or desire to show emotion, as a sign of weakness. Great intellectual abilities on the other hand, are rewarded and as we develop our abilities to memorize things and solve mathematical problems, we are given grades, encouragement and rewards. Our emotional growth is treated as secondary and in many cases even sabotaged.

Research is now showing that IQ or intellectual intelligence is far less important that EQ or emotional intelligence, as a determining factor in how successful we will be in our lives. I am sure you know a number of people who are intellectually brilliant, yet they are socially inept and unable to create any level of success with their lives. The changing economy has made the need for emotional intelligence even more apparent than it ever was before. The new social economy we now face every day, where transparent communication, authenticity and social proof, are the keys to unlock success, have made the need for emotional intelligence more prevalent than ever before.

Achieving any level of success in the new economy is far more relational than intellectual. Developing the meaningful connection or the type of relationships, you need to succeed, is far more about emotional intelligence and less about intellectual intelligence. This finding has been confirmed by numerous studies, which have been conducted in the US Air Force and other institutions.

In the study conducted, in the US Air Force the recruiters ignored the IQ of the people they selected and focused primarily on their EQ. The dropout rate and success they enjoyed with the recruits chosen because of their Emotional intelligence, increased three fold when they changed their focus from IQ to EQ.

A large multinational consulting firm also conducted internal research within their organization. They measured the EQ of all their consultants and to their amazement, the consultants with the highest EQ, outperformed their counterparts with high IQ many times over. A similar test was conducted amongst sales clerks and mechanics and astoundingly, the same sort of results emerged. These people with less complex jobs performed up to 12 times better than people with low EQ scores.

The results that emerged from these studies showed that, success at work is only dependent on, one-third cognitive ability, while two-thirds, is due to emotional intelligence. The results were even more remarkable when people in top leadership positions were assessed. Almost Four-fifths of the ability required by people in senior leadership positions was dependent on their EQ.

Now that you know just how important your emotional intelligence is, for your success at work, don’t you think it is time to invest into developing your EQ? Now is the time to find out as much as you can about improving your emotional intelligence or you will be left behind and never be able to achieve the success you desire in your life or business.

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