IQ Or EQ?: What More Important In Business?

Being members of Selfgrowth puts us in a unique position of appreciating the power of social networking, and networking sites like Ecademy, LinkedIn, and Facebook. So what is the power of social networking?

Well those in the know say it is about forming relationships. OK then what? Well then you create the opportunity that others will trust you, get to know you, and show your expertise.

So does any of the above relate to how high an IQ score you have? Is the prerequisite of having to form relationships wrapped up in your intellectual achievements? No. Successful people would say that people buy people. They say that they would not do business with anybody they didn't like, trust or believe in, even if they were the best in their field.

The traditionalist who hasn't mastered the power of social networking call it by another name, referrals, good customer service, word of mouth marketing. It all boils down to; I like that person I would do business with them.

Assuming that human being's are more likely to do business with someone they like, trust and who seem credible, what stop's people looking at ways that ensure they can build more relationships so more people like and trust them and so generate more business? Society puts a lot of emphasis on education and the need to go to university to increase your chances of succeeding in life, yet if you look all around there is no correlation with academic achievement and success. (however it is defined)

Is there a common denominator to success? Culture no, colour no, education no, gender no, money no, luck no, race no. However if you believe the current buzz of the way business is to be conducted in the 21st century, it is through networking, be it social or business, online or offline. To be effective in networking, people would want to like you, for people to like you, they have to know you and for people to know you, you have to connect with them. How can you ensure this connection is such that it will become something that both parties want to continue?

Emotion.

How do you feel? How did you fell when you met that person? Everything we do has an impact on our emotion and every emotion we feel has an impact on what we do. So why so little appreciation of it, and why so little training to create better emotional awareness in ourselves? We are all looking to create wealth. The default assumption here is money, however when you question people more deeply you almost always see that people want emotional wealth as well. There is an assumption that once you get that monetary wealth you will get emotional wealth. This is based on the premise that all current negative emotional wealth is based on the fact that you don't have monetary wealth. Ask anybody who has monetary wealth and they will tell you it doesn't go hand in hand, it might help a little, but not as much as we think. It is often the case that emotional wealth more often leads to monetary wealth.

Emotional Intelligence, as Dale Goleman defines it helps us know our emotions, manage our emotions and also recognise others emotions. I am sure most of us can recognise emotions in ourselves and others, however the resulting reaction we display when we interact with someone in a highly emotional state, would say not. The reaction is one of what we want to show, to show how WE feel. Which doesn't always serve the situation.

Being emotionally aware in business and especially in networking is fundamental in ensuring you grow. Like the elite sports performer, when you point out what they are doing that makes them the elite performer, they would say, well that's obvious, don't all other performers do that….er no that's why you're an elite performer. The same with natural networkers, they have a knack of being liked by all, understanding how we all tick and knowing what to say at the right time.

Are we all natural networkers? No. Can we all be natural networkers? Yes. If you take one step back and ask yourself, what does prevent someone from networking and putting themselves out there, assuming they would like to. Fear of being judged, fear of looking stupid, fear of rejection, fearing of saying the wrong thing, being embarrassed or not wanting to be seen as being pushy. All these fears are driven by an emotion we are feeling. Managing our emotions and being in a place where this fear doesn't exist, diluted, or at least not shown is the key to building long lasting relationships. Do we believe that the natural networkers do not have all these fears? They do, we all do, however at different degrees.

The leaders in the world, not just world leaders but company directors and managing directors, who are successful, would all have a high level of emotional intelligence. Would they all have a high IQ? The evidence would suggest not. Do only leaders need to have high EQ? What would the impact of business be if each of us increased our emotional awareness by 10%, even 1%? Would an understanding our own emotions, understanding others and understand what happens to us when these emotions arise help us not only in our business but in our everyday life. Absolutely.

Being more emotionally aware will not only help us in our business, networking and home life, it also make us more healthy. The ability to understand that, you can ONLY control what you do and nothing else. That the only way to get what you want is what you are doing NOW, in the moment, and being at your best in the moment. Do you turn up at every moment in the day? By being more emotionally aware you can do this and it will be effortless.

In conclusion I would say without any hesitation that EQ is more important than IQ in business, all you have to do is look at the evidence around you.