Harnessing EQ: Vital Skills for Career and Personal Growth
Despite the importance of EQ in our personal and professional lives, few people pay attention to it, and even fewer know about it.
2/26/20235 min read
The World Economic Forum ranks emotional quotient (EQ) or emotional intelligence as sixth in the top ten qualities workers need to succeed in their workplace. Despite the importance of EQ in our personal and professional lives, few people pay attention to it, and even fewer know about it.
Before talking about EQ, let's talk about its brother- IQ.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ): One's ability to solve complex, practical problems and to learn and master the requisite knowledge and skills. It represents cognitive abilities.
IQ wins big time in the race of getting the best out of our education, getting into the coveted colleges of the country, working, and getting that promotion. "That guy has great IQ; he got into that top college." "That person cracked an interview with the best investment bank; they must be brilliant." We hear such comments frequently, mostly related to a person's IQ. But where IQ gets all the limelight for being the driver of success, we forget that it is not the only thing that determines success or exceptional leadership. Enter EQ, emotional intelligence.
Emotional Quotient (EQ): The ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict. It represents emotional abilities.
Talking about "feelings" is considered to have no room in the professional space. It is often considered "mushiness" and seen as a weakness. But where IQ can get you into the best of colleges and jobs, EQ is necessary to sustain at those positions. (I can hear you scoffing right about now.)
But why? When I say "near impossible," I am not saying you cannot do the job or the studies. Will you thrive at it? Will you enjoy it? Will you feel satisfied and satiated? EQ is a sine non qua when it comes to leadership and an essential ingredient for career advancement. Note that you can be successful and miserable. IQ and EQ exist in tandem and are most effective when they build off one another. Most leaders have a deadly combination of both high IQ and EQ.
Let's drop some numbers. Because why would you listen to me?
TalentSmartEQ tested emotional intelligence alongside 33 other critical workplace skills and found that emotional intelligence is the strongest predictor of performance, explaining 58% of success in all types of jobs.
The Coauthor of the book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 says,
"Of all the people we've studied at work, we've found that 90% of top performers are also high in emotional intelligence. On the flip side, just 20% of bottom performers are high in emotional intelligence. You can be a top performer without emotional intelligence, but the chances are slim. Naturally, people with a high degree of emotional intelligence make more money—an average of $29,000 more per year than people with a low degree of emotional intelligence. The link between emotional intelligence and earnings is so direct that every point increase in emotional intelligence adds $1,300 to an annual salary. These findings hold true for people in all industries, at all levels, in every region of the world. We haven't yet been able to find a job in which performance and pay aren't tied closely to emotional intelligence."
We read about what EQ is and why it is crucial. Now let's talk about what we mean when we talk about EQ.
In his article, David Goleman mentioned some emotional intelligence skills that are still relevant and even more important today.
Self-Awareness: As the name suggests, this involves knowing how we function, our strengths, limitations, triggers, beliefs, motivation, etc. Or in short, "Know Thyself." If we understand how we operate, we can make better decisions. Those decisions would bode well with our goals because they are in tandem with what we want. Acknowledging our limitations can help us determine our blind spots. We can seek others' help navigating through them, ultimately improving ourselves and contributing meaningfully to the team.
Self-Regulation: After knowing ourselves, we need to understand how we respond to different situations and manage our behavior accordingly. It might sound mechanical when I say it like that but hear me out. If we recognize our emotions, we can take steps to manage them better. Rather than having an emotional outburst, we can step back and pause before reacting to a situation. We can assess our status by giving ourselves time to avoid any outbursts. This can give us time to craft an appropriate response that does not derail our goodwill with others. The more self-aware we are, the more we can take steps to self-regulate.
Empathy: Empathy is the ability to understand a person's experiences and emotions. It helps in building a nurturing relationship with others and enables us to resolve conflicts gently. It differs from sympathy, which is one dimensional- we feel concerned for someone, whereas empathy is a shared perspective- we feel concerned for someone, and we try to understand the situation they are in. By listening to coworkers with empathy, we build trust and can help them navigate challenges. Whether good or bad, people might not remember what we said to them, but they will remember what we made them feel.
Motivation: Ah. Perhaps one of the most overused words in every interview in its many avatars. I will keep this short. The ability to inspire both yourself and others to action is paramount in the workplace and personal life. Having this ability keeps you afloat during turbulent times. Motivated individuals take the initiative and rise to the challenge when the situation demands it. Sometimes motivation can get contagious. Suppose we can get behind an idea and express a positive attitude. In that case, chances are others can feel the positivity, and everyone can work at the same level of enthusiasm.
Social Skills: A blanket term that comprises a lot of things. We put everything we have read so far in the blender and give it a whirl, and we get a nice soothing smoothie of social skills. Social skills involve perceiving and understanding emotions and interacting and communicating with others. It includes verbal and nonverbal communication- speech, body language, gestures, and facial expressions. How people feel around us and how we make them feel can say a lot about our social skills.
It is vital because humans do not live in isolation. Whether it's the workplace, family, or friends, we all rely on the human connection to survive. We require communication, collaboration, and a shared vision to thrive in different areas of our lives. We often have to work with people sharing related goals. Building and maintaining a nurturing relationship with them is crucial for the betterment of everyone involved.
We are not perfect. There might be gaps in our skillset that could be holding us back. All the above skills are necessary to advance our careers and personal lives. The earlier we assess ourselves and get in tune with ourselves, the earlier we can improve. Can we learn these skills? Well, according to science, we can. Stay tuned for the subsequent article.
Fun (Wikipedia) fact: "Know Thyself." According to the Greek writer Pausanias, it was the first of three Delphic maxims inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.
Reference:
https://hbr.org/2004/01/what-makes-a-leader
https://www.mindtools.com/agz0gft/empathy-at-work
https://blog.trginternational.com/maintain-successful-leadership-with-iq
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/emotional-intelligence-eq.htm#:~:text=Emotional%20intelligence%20(otherwise%20known%20as,overcome%20challenges%20and%20defuse%20conflict.
https://www.talentsmarteq.com/articles/emotional-intelligence-can-boost-your-career-and-save-your-life/#:~:text=It's%20a%20powerful%20way%20to,in%20all%20types%20of%20jobs.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2014/01/09/emotional-intelligence/
https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/emotional-intelligence-skills