Emotional Intelligence: EQ vs. EI vs. IQ

Emotional Intelligence: EI vs. EQ vs. IQ

In the early 1900s people searching for a predictor of success settled on Intelligence Quotient or IQ.  It seemed reasonable that more intelligence would: 1) open doors such as advanced education required for certain high prestige careers and 2) provide a means to figure out the secrets of success.  Throughout the century, better tests and a wider variety of tests were created to more accurately predict success.  The SAT was created to predict success in college, MSAT in management curriculum and LSAT in law school.  Some tests were designed to differentiate between IQs of 70 and 80, others between 90 and 110 and others between 135 and 145.  Each test had its special purpose, its supporters and its detractors.

But it became clear that while IQ was important, there were other factors that were perhaps even more important.  Studies in the 1980s and 1990s showed that there was less than a 25% correlation between IQ and career success.  We have all heard of taxi drivers with Ph.D.s and company presidents who cannot create coherent sentences.  Stories abound that show wasted capability such as a person who scored very high on IQ tests, worked as a bouncer in a bar, parked his Harley motorcycle in his kitchen and read Greek and Latin classics in their original language.

We now know that there are many factors that affect success.  The one I wish to focus on is emotional quotient (EQ).  Today’s literature calls it “emotional intelligence” and abbreviates it “EQ.”  For two reasons, I believe the term Emotional Quotient is more appropriate than Emotional Intelligence.  First, the discussions center around the difference between intelligence (ability to reason) and emotion so I believe combining the terms emotional and intelligence may lead to confusion.  Second, if we see emotional as an adjective and intelligence as a noun, it means a cognitive understanding of emotions, while the literature usually refers to the identifying, feeling and using emotions.

For example:  In the past, we may have bought products based on the characteristic of the product.  Today, with so many variations on products that can satisfy our need – frequently manufactured by the same company and packaged differently for different resellers – we have moved to relationship buying.  We do not buy from someone we do not trust or like.  We are much more likely to buy from someone we trust and like.  Thus a person who has a high ability to recognize, identify and feel emotions in him/herself and others (high EQ) will become a more successful salesperson.

People with high EQ will have more friends and mentors in companies and thus advance faster than a person of equal (or perhaps greater) IQ.

Likewise, people with high EQ will be better liked and more appreciated in the community or in politics and be able to solicit more backers for their proposals.

Some careers require a high IQ just to get into the career.  A study was done of 80 scientists with Ph.D. degrees and it was found that an IQ of about 120 was required to get into their program in college, but ten of fifteen more points of IQ did not predict their eventual success compared to others.  Those with a higher EQ enjoyed more success.  A conclusion from this study was that IQ set a floor or threshold for entry into the career, but that once that threshold was met, EQ determined the eventual success.

The benefit, if EQ a greater indicator of life success than IQ, is that EQ can be modified through a program of directed learning.  Regardless of your IQ or current level of success, you can increase your EQ and thus increase your life success.  You truly are the master of your destiny.

Business and Personal Development: Setting Goals

To achieve your goals you must first set the proper goals.  If you have set goals or objectives in the past, only to have them slip away unachieved, please continue reading this.

Of course our goals must be S.M.A.R.T. for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.  This is the subject of a future blog.

Discover Your Passion

To start, you must identify your passion.  This is what you:

• talk about when you have the opportunity,

• read about or study on your own or

• do on your free time.

To discover your passion, for about two weeks record the subject of your conversations, books or magazines read and activities.   Do not record conversations, reading and activities in which you engage because you must such as school assignments, employment or legal requirements.  At the end of the two weeks, you should have a good idea of how you spend your discretionary time and efforts.

Some people have many passions and bounce from project to project.  If this describes you, choose one or two passions that have a high importance to you for the coming year and work with them.

Set Your Goals

With your passion discovered, write goals to support that passion.  For instance, if your passion is to work with disadvantaged people, your goal may be to get a degree in social work or to volunteer at the homeless shelter.  If you passion is travel, your goal may be to visit three new countries in the coming year or to visit all 50 states.  If your passion is flying, your goal may be to get a pilot’s license or to purchase an airplane.  If your passion is earning money your goal may be to make your current annual income a monthly income.

Discover Your Governing Values

Make a list of your governing values.  These would be things like Truth, Freedom, Family, Spirituality, Health, Wealth, Obedience.  Prioritize the list by comparing the first two items and moving the higher priority to be above the other item.  Then do this for the next two.  Keep doing this, going through the list several times until all the items are in proper order.  As an example if the first two items on your list are truth and freedom, you may ask, “Would I lie to keep from going to jail?”  If “Yes,” then freedom is a higher priority, if “No,” then truth is a higher priority.

Apply Your Governing Values

Now compare your goals to your governing values.  Where there is a conflict, the goal will lose.  If necessary, adjust your goal to eliminate the conflict.  An example would be that if your goals require that you work 80 hours per week and a high priority value is family, you will need to adjust your goal or get your family’s acceptance of that goal for you.

Keep the three lists (passions, goals, governing values) together where you can see them daily or more frequently.  Your goals are where you are going because of your passion, but controlled by your governing values.

Develop Your Action Plan

Many of the example goals and the goals you may choose will require sub-goals.  For example, to make your annual income your monthly income may require sub-goals of: 1) research alternative methods of getting income and select the best one or two for me, 2) get the education or training necessary to become successful in my new endeavors, 3) create a business plan and 4) execute the business plan.  As you write each of your sub-goals, be sure to make them    S.M.A.R.T. goals

For each of your goals or sub-goals create an action plan that will take you from where you are to where you need to be, including milestone checkpoints to track your progress and adjust your action plan as necessary.

Goal achieving is the subject of a future blog.

Good Luck on setting ACHIEVABLE goals.