Why Emotional Intelligence Is More Important than IQ

Emotional Intelligence

A growing body of evidence suggests that a quality we've overlooked may be more important than we realize. This quality is emotional intelligence and many today believe it's more important for business success than IQ.

IQ v. EQ

We all know about IQ. IQ stands for "intelligence quotient" and it is basically a measure of academic intelligence and intellectual ability. IQ is determined by your performance on standardized tests with a variety of different tasks. 

IQ is very important if you're going to college, but what about in life generally? Emotional intelligence, which is also called emotional quotient (EQ), is your ability to perceive, understand, and manage emotions. It is therefore the foundation of all people-skills or "soft skills."

Finally, Emotional Intelligence can be learned and IQ cannot. To gain a higher emotional intelligence, training can improve your emotional competencies including emotional intelligence, social skills, interpersonal skills, self-regulation, and emotional awareness. Emotional Intelligence is now one of the key skills playing a key role in business management. 

Success in Life

High IQ is no guarantee of success in life. Rather, studies have shown that people with EI are more likely to be successful in both their personal and professional lives. The reason is that IQ helps engage your technical ability by helping you solve problems, learn things, reason, and remember details. 

But with high emotional intelligence, you're more self-aware which enables you to manage emotions. You're also more empathetic and positive. These are factors, along with managing emotions, have a greater impact on the success and well-being of an individual than academic intelligence or hard skills. 

Emotions drive people. High emotional intelligence is linked with high motivation. People with high EI have a drive that goes beyond the desire for money or title. Their inner motivation pushes them toward controlling their own emotions and achieving their goals. 

EI for the Future

One of the reasons why EI research is on the rise today is that it seems to have more relevance to the changing modern business world. IQ helps with innovation and that's important. But IQ can't solve the major problems the world faces today. In fact, people are more stressed, lonely, and isolated today, in this high-tech world that IQ has given us. IQ also doesn't help us connect with others, build strong relationships, 

IQ is far from useless. It helps in many different situations with logic, problem solving, creativity, and learning new things. But without a strong foundation of EI first, it's impossible for us to realize all that our IQ can. 

Luckily, you don't have to go to a mental health professional to improve your emotional intelligence. Developing emotional awareness can be done on your own. To become an emotionally intelligent person, you can start by taking utilizing one of the emotional intelligence tests that are readily available to identify your emotional quotient score. Using the assessment results as a guide can improve your own emotional understanding of yourself by mapping out opportunities for improving your self-awareness, social skills, interpersonal skills, and your self-regulation.

Improving your emotional intelligence and emotional awareness can make a major difference in your life both professionally and personally by teaching you more about your own emotions and those of the people around you. 

Are you striving to improve your emotional awareness and your emotional intelligence? Check out Agile Meridian. We offer a community, as well as instructor-led and eLearning courses, that support your journey to greater emotional intelligence. Check out our Agile Meridian Academy for a lot of great information.