EQ over IQ !

In home lives and working lives happiness is more likely in an environment with a minimal amount of stress and destructive interpersonal conflict. Leaders and Managers need to be skilled in EQ.

The success of any organisation is built on happy and motivated people.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ) has been used as a measure of intelligence for over 100 years.

The first modern intelligence test in IQ history was developed in 1904 by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon resulting in the Simon-Binet IQ test. Relatively speaking - Emotional Quotient (EQ) is a lot younger having been around since 1990 when Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer first coined the term “Emotional Intelligence” describing it as “a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action"

The Collins dictionary definition of EQ :

1. emotional quotient, a (notional) measure of a person's adequacy in such areas as self-awareness, empathy, and dealing sensitively with other people

COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary.

Technical skills required for any discipline from Accounting – Zoo Keeping can be learned by attending training courses, studying and getting recognised industry specific qualifications. Most skilled jobs will require some level of formal training and a person’s aptitude and IQ will influence their ability to carry out a specific job with it’s specific technical skills requirements.

The same level of training and learning needs to be given for EQ.

It is our view that skills in EQ count more than skills in IQ.

The best performing teams are always those where team members are trusted and empowered in their duties and given an opportunity to learn, grow and expand their responsibilities. This will build natural loyalty among the team such that the team members will go the extra mile to complete tasks.

For people in leadership and management positions it is essential for them to understand and apply EQ in the day to day running of their teams.

Team members without good EQ skills will not last long in a well performing team.

Bad Managers and Leaders with poor EQ skills will result in demotivated teams and high turnover of team members.

The quality of managers has a direct impact on a organisation’s bottom line and it’s ability to attract and retain great staff. Moreover the quality of management will have a large impact on the results from employees.

A checklist of best practice management would include the items below:

Be clear with the tasks to be assigned
Address problems and do not avoid awkward questions
Trust your staff and be humble
Treat staff and employees as adults
Be a competent manager - do not be weak,rude, inconsistent or tyrannical
Look to grow staffs skills and their personal development

Any manager or leader needs to have a thorough understanding of EQ skills and be able to apply them.

EQ is the foundation for a host of essential skills as it impacts most of everything said or done by an individual. People can be intelligent but not emotionally intelligent.

The foundation elements of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) are :

Self Awareness

Situational Awareness

Self Management

Social Awareness

Relationship Management

Self Awareness

The ability to accurately assess your own emotions in the moment and understand your tendencies in a situation.

Situational Awareness

Used by aeroplane pilots and government agencies – situational awareness is just as applicable in the work place or home life.

The ability to accurately assess what is going on around you and whether anyone or anything around you is an impact to your emotions or health and safety.

Self Management

What you do when you act – or don’t act. The ability to use your awareness of your emotions to manage reactions to situations and people.

Social Awareness

The ability to pick up accurately the emotions of other people and understand what is really going on with them.

Relationship Management

The ability to use awareness of your own emotions and those of other to manage interactions successfully. Solid relationships should be sought and coveted.

While EQ is harder to identify and measure than IQ

–its importance cannot be underestimated !!!

References

COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary.

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 – Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves 2009

For copies of this article or further information on how Sow to Reap can help your organisation please email us at: info@sowtoreap.org