Manpower cannot be overrated in an organization. The right one that is. Assets may be lost. You can still borrow to start a new venture. But if you lose your key leaders, your organization can be crippled. And that applies to any organization. Truth be told, the right talent is a treasure find.
It’s why Genghis Khan, considered by many as the greatest conqueror of all time, chose to get only the best to lead his men as generals. A shining example is Jebe. Genghis went on ahead to make Jebe one of his most trusted general even when the warrior nearly killed him as he belonged to an enemy tribe. The world conqueror saw talent and took it.
But how do you spot the right talent? That is the question. With Khan, he saw how agile and experience one arrow shooter was and knew he had to have that person as one of his leaders. And perhaps the better question is, how will you choose your leaders? Will you base it solely on intelligence? Or put the notch a little higher and choose emotional intelligence? IQ or EQ? Choosing right can definitely give you a headstart to the competition.
A Quick Definition of Terms
Robots are very capable; many of them have amazed us. Look at ASIMO. It can run and even walk on the stairs. But when it comes to helping you cope with depression, it would fail. And fail miserably.
And ASIMOV can be an eyeopener on the difference between IQ and EQ. While the robot may be able to know what to do with a particular situation, he may fail to emote with any human. Of course, given the progress in AI (Artificial Intelligence) things could change.
IQ or Intelligence Quotient has appeared in our collective consciousness way longer than EQ or Emotional Quotient. It was way back in 1912 when a University of Brenslau psychologist William Stern first used the term IQ. While EQ appeared later in 1964.
Stern was using a test to grade people’s intelligence. And the results he referred to it as IQ. Everyone has been using the term ever since. Even in sports, we use it. For instance, we talk about good basketball players who can concoct amazing plays as “players with high IQ.” Today, if you score 70 in IQ you may be flagged as someone with low mental capacity while someone who scores 145 would be near-genius.
EQ, however, is emotional intelligence. It’s the ability to understand a situation and be able to apply the power of emotions to come up with needed steps for greater results. The thing is research has shown the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership positions in an organization. Simply put, successful leaders have greater EQs.
Intelligence Alone is not Enough
No doubt we would need people who have brains. But studies show those who have good EQ along with good IQ are able to achieve more than those whose forte is just intelligence alone.
What does this mean? For recruiters, it should sharpen your recruitment process. You would do well if you include both EQ and IQ in your pre-employment testing. While skills can certainly make an employee deliver, emotional intelligence helps him to be more effective in handling the job.
For mothers and fathers, this has also wider consequences in parenting. This means you should not only raise children to be book smart but also street smart. Children with better emotional intelligence learn to manage conflict. Plus they’re also ahead in developing deeper friendships.
CCL or Center for Creative Leadership revealed that lack of EQ has led many executives to their downfall. To note, CCL helps over 20,000 individuals each year not to mention the majority of the Fortune 100 companies.
They found out that the major reasons executives fail is their inability to handle change. Moreover, poor teamwork and lousy interpersonal relations have led to many of their demises.
In contrast, leaders with greater emotional capacity would be able to hurdle such challenges at work. This was what Carnegie Institute of Technology referred to as the ability as greater proficiency in “human engineering.” EQ skills were credited for 85% of financial success while IQ skills or technical proficiency was given but a measly 15%.
This has far-reaching consequences for people in sales. They found out that insurance agents who were not so confident and were poor in relating to people sold premiums on average of $54,000. On the other hand, those with glowing confidence sold premiums averaging $114,000. You may not realize it yet. But what a huge difference superior EQ makes.
