IQ Can Be an Advantage, But These Skills Turn It Into Success

“Professors tend to be very smart people,” Ohio State University professor Jay Zargorsky said. “But if you look at university parking lots, you don’t see a lot of Rolls Royces.”?

There is no doubt that a high IQ is an advantage in today’s world. Fortune 500 CEOs rank among the top 1% in terms of cognitive abilities and high IQ children have a better chance of growing up to become “outstanding contributors in their respective fields...” According to John Antonakis , professor of organizational behavior, intelligence is the “most important predictor of work success,” but that success is not a matter of IQ alone. Zargorsky’s 2012 study found that people with higher IQs tended to earn higher incomes, but without additional social-emotional skills, their success is still limited.?

IQ Matters, but…

A high IQ can make it easier to get ahead, but it is not the only (or, even, most important) factor. In his school years, Nobel-Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman scored an IQ only slightly above average, but this hardly reflects the intelligence he went on to demonstrate as an adult. To translate intelligence into personal and professional growth requires other skills.

Communication Counts

IQ has no impact, positive or negative, on an individual's ability to learn communication skills . When people are too smart, others can have trouble identifying with them. A boss with the communication skills of Sheldon Cooper, for example, might prefer to condescend to employees, rather than attempt to relate to them. Barack Obama, on the other hand, earned the title “The Great Communicator” because he knew how to convey ideas in a way that his audience would understand, rather than with overly complicated language to prove he studied at Harvard. Good communication skills bring more people into the conversation and make them feel valued.

Organizational Awareness Builds Trust

Leaders with a high IQ have a better chance of succeeding if they also have organizational awareness . Reading the emotional currents and dynamics within a group and predicting how people might react to situations means they can approach encounters more strategically and act in ways that motivate, inspire, and harmonize with others. Even without a high IQ, we can develop greater organizational awareness by being good listeners, asking more questions, challenging our preconceptions, and finding common ground.

EQ Can Be Even More Important

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the process of how we understand, use, and manage our emotions to avoid stress, communicate effectively, and empathize with others. It involves self-awareness, self-monitoring, and relationship management and helps us overcome workplace obstacles with less conflict. People with high EQ easily motivate others and rise into leadership. Studies have connected emotional intelligence with better job performance and companies are increasingly evaluating EQ levels in potential candidates before they hire. Having a high IQ can be good, but having a high EQ could be better .?

There is no denying that a high IQ is a determinant for success, but it’s not the only factor that matters. Without the ability to communicate ideas and thoughts clearly, organizational awareness, and emotional intelligence, IQ is just another statistic. By focusing on cultivating these social-emotional skills while also developing knowledge in your field, chances are higher that you will progress toward mastery and success.

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Tom Popomaronis is Executive Vice President of Innovation at Massive Alliance, a global executive branding agency. Tom co-founded Massive's Executive Leadership Branding program – which transforms world-class executives into contributing authors at leading publications.

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