“Blend both EQ and IQ” - Professor M.S.Rao

"In the last decade or so, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have found that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will determine your success and happiness in all walks of life, including family relationships." -        John Gottman in Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child

Previously people emphasized more on Intelligence Quotient (IQ) but presently people emphasize more on Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ).  There are a number of reasons for this. People with EQ are more successful at the professional front due to their emotional intelligence. At times the people with IQ often blame the people with EQ for reaching higher positions through manipulations or communication skills. In fact, it is not correct because people with EQ know how to get along with others as per the situation to get the tasks executed successfully thus staying ahead of others in the race.  

Emotional Quotient is associated with emotional intelligence.  Emotional intelligence is defined as the five fold process of discovering one’s own emotions, managing their emotions, discovering the emotions of others, motivating others’ emotions and managing their emotions. Salovey & Mayer defined emotional intelligence in Emotional Intelligence as follows: “We define emotional intelligence as the subset 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 actions.” 

Emotional intelligence is one of the key components of leadership skill as 80 percent of leadership success depends alone on this factor. Freedman et al.  substantiated it in Handle With Care: Emotional Intelligence Activity Book as follows: "Emotional Intelligence is a way of recognizing, understanding, and choosing how we think, feel, and act. It shapes our interactions with others and our understanding of ourselves. It defines how and what we learn; it allows us to set priorities; it determines the majority of our daily actions. Research suggests it is responsible for as much as 80% of the "success" in our lives." That is the reason why some excel as leaders and others remain as followers despite knowing these facts.  The people who practice emotional intelligence succeed as leaders, and the ones who don’t practice fail as leaders.

Some people have high egos as they have been gifted with high IQ from their parents resulting in failures in their lives.  In contrast, some people may not possess high IQ levels but succeed as they have high EQ.  In fact, a right combination of IQ and EQ pave the way for quick success.

IQ is mostly inborn acquired through heredity but EQ can be cultivated by various ways including reading, observation, training, practice and experience to name a few. Precisely, IQ is a talent and EQ is a skill.  EQ is a behavioral aspect that can be changed through awareness, training and practice. Hence, people must understand and learn about EQ to develop flexibility to get along with others and soar like leaders.

"People high in emotional intelligence are expected to progress more quickly through the abilities designated and to master more of them." - Mayer & Salovey in “What is Emotional Intelligence” in Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence: Educational Implications

Professor M.S.Rao

Founder, MSR Leadership Consultants, India

Email: profmsr12@gmail.com

Blog: http://professormsrao.blogspot.com

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