EQ vs. IQ: The Winning Combination for Success

Aug 3

Aug 3 EQ vs. IQ: The Winning Combination for Success

You probably know what the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is. You may have even taken an IQ test for yourself to measure your cognitive ability. 99.5% of the population falls between an IQ score of 60 and 140 and those who rank above 140 are considered to be genius1.

But do you know what Emotional Quotient (EQ) is? EQ is an increasingly popular measure of intelligence that many people are embracing as a better way to measure success. It’s also known as emotional intelligence. We want to dissect the ways in which EQ and IQ differ, understand how EQ best contributes to one’s success, and introduce different methods for improving EQ.

The difference between EQ and IQ

According to the University of New Hampshire psychology department, emotional intelligence is the "ability to validly reason with emotions and to use emotions to enhance thought." It is said that EQ leads to more creativity and the ability to solve problems through the understanding of their own emotions as well as the emotions of others.

On the contrary, IQ is a score derived from a standardized test that covers logical reasoning, word comprehension, and math skills. It relates directly to intellectual pursuits such as the ability to learn as well as understand and apply information to skill sets, but doesn’t account for emotional understanding and applying it to the world.

EQ and success

While IQ is a strong predictor of academic success, it alone is not enough to set you up for success in life. EQ is the mix of skills that tend to take success a step further into ensuring happiness and prosperity. Researchers have shown that our success at work or in life depends 80% on EQ and 20% on IQ2.

EQ has been broken down into different dimensions: perceiving emotion, using emotions to facilitate thought, understanding emotions, and managing emotions. From there, there are 5 key skills that determine someone’s level of EQ: self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy, and social skills3.

Perceiving emotion relates to being aware of and recognizing other people’s physical and psychological states, their emotions, being able to express one’s own emotions and needs accurately, and appropriately distinguishing emotions that are real versus fake.

Using emotions to facilitate thought involves redirecting and prioritizing your thinking based on the feelings associated with those thoughts, generating emotions that will facilitate better judgment and memory, capitalizing on mood changes so you can appreciate multiple points of view, and using emotional states to improve your problem-solving skills and creativity3.

Understanding emotions are understanding the relationships between various emotions, the causes and consequences of them, and understanding the transitions between different emotions.

Managing emotions refers to being open to both pleasant and unpleasant feelings; monitoring and reflecting on your emotions; engaging, prolonging, or detaching from an emotional state; and managing the emotions both within yourself and in others4.

As an employer, do you prioritize candidates who show the skills of someone with high EQ or the skills of someone with high IQ (logic, word comprehension, and math skills)? For most of you, the answer is probably EQ. IQ applies well on paper, but EQ applies well to life, including our relationships and quality of our mental health, which all circle back to success.

How to improve EQ

In Just Barisio’s book IQ Applied, he identifies 13 actions that illustrate how EQ manifests itself in everyday life.

Here are the 13 actions that signify emotional intelligence.

You think about feelings
You pause before speaking or acting
You strive to control your thoughts
You benefit from criticism
You show authenticity
You demonstrate empathy
You praise others
You give helpful feedback
You apologize
You forgive and forget
You keep your commitments
You help others
You protect yourself from emotional sabotage

Understanding the 4 dimensions, 5 skills, and 13 actions of EQ and applying them to your own thoughts and practices will help you become more emotionally intelligent.

Conclusion

While both IQ and EQ contribute to one’s overall intelligence level, they both are needed for success in work and in life. With extensive research on the topic, it has been proven that EQ holds more weight in determining success. This includes the ability to perceive emotion, use emotions to facilitate thought, understand emotions, and manage emotions. EQ is something that can be improved over time without the limitation of age or circumstance.

If you want to truly set yourself up for success, become an expert in your emotions, and understand the emotions of others. Acquaint yourself with the everyday actions that manifest emotional intelligence and work to incorporate them into your own life. Employers are becoming more interested in EQ over IQ and it isn’t necessarily something that can be written down on a resume.

If Who Staffing can help you in any way with building a process that allows you to win the war on talent, please feel free to reach out to start a conversation or go here for more information about us.

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