E Q : The New Criterion For Your Success At Work

Gone are the days when top companies of various domains like Google, Shell, etc. considered only the IQ of an applicant to be the criterion of his competence. The Intelligence Quotient is indeed an important indicator for logical reasoning and technical prowess, but recent studies have shown that IQ alone can't decide the executive competence of an employee and predict his future success.

For example, a research carried out by the Carnegie Institute of Technology shows that 85% of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering". Human engineering here refers to one's personality and ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead. An astonishing fact is that technical knowledge contributes to the remaining 15% of financial success only!!

Another proven fact, which all of us have experienced is that people tend to do business with a person they like and trust, rather than someone they don’t, even if the likeable person is offering a lower quality product or service at a higher price.

Hence, IQ alone isn't sufficient. Here, various other kinds of intelligences come into play, viz EQ (Emotional Quotient), MQ (Moral Quotient), BQ (Body Quotient), PQ (Political Quotient), etc. Hence, investing your time and efforts in these is a profitable prospect.

The Emotional Quotient of a person, according to A Dictionary of Psychology by Oxford University Press, is the capability to recognize her own emotions and those of others, discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, and manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt to environments or achieve one's goal(s).

Studies have been able to conclude that people with high EI could be attributed with better mental health, job performance, and leadership skills, although it may also depend upon their personal traits.

This Emotional Intelligence has five components / domains, called the 5 Elements of the EQ Model. 
They are :-

   >> Self-awareness 
   >> Self-regulation 
   >> Empathy 
   >> Social skills 
   >> Motivation

• Self-awareness is knowing about yourself, your pros, your cons and being emotionally aware and confident.

• Self-regulation is managing your emotions and impulses, hence, being adaptable and trustworthy.

• Empathy is basically social awareness; perceiving others' notions too and hence, serving as per requirement.

• Social skills include influence over others, good communication skills, conflict management abilities, leadership qualities and ensuring cooperation and teamwork.

• Motivation, here is the self-motivation, including optimism and a driving spirit.

A person with high EQ is rich in these and is able to take better decisions in times of emotional turmoil. Such people are open-minded and tend to have a healthy work/life balance because they know when to work and when to play. They also do not hold unnecessary grudges and do not hinder their growth.

That's the reason why they say, "IQ gets you hired but EQ gets you promoted." :)
So, along with the IQ, one must work upon improving the EQ too.