When It Comes To Success in Life and Career, EQ Eats IQ For Breakfast

In the past, a false but widely embraced notion about success was that intellect (IQ) was all that mattered to lead a successful life. However, research and personal experience continue to show that IQ takes a second place to emotional intelligence in determining personal and professional success.

I was a slightly above-average student throughout most of my university career in computer science. There were some outliers in courses I took in business and the humanities where I generally found myself in the top 5%. I was otherwise generally in the middle of the pack.

That being said, I am generally recognized as a leader in most settings I find myself — from group projects to professional and social settings. I always get asked to be a mentor and I am usually recognized for how I bring people together, how I get along with and inspire most people I interact with. These traits have become the building blocks of my success as a professional, and they do not have much in common with my IQ or academic qualifications.

The value of an IQ score

A traditional IQ test assesses cognitive abilities through vocabulary, reading comprehension and retention, reasoning and math skills. Meanwhile, EQ assessments test different aspects of emotional intelligence: emotional literacy, empathy, intrinsic motivation and how we navigate emotions.

In his book Outliers: The story of success, Malcolm Gladwell explains that "having a high IQ is a lot like height in basketball. Someone who is five feet tall most likely does not have a realistic chance of playing professional basketball. You need to be at least six feet or six-one to play at that level, and all things being equal, it’s probably better to be six-two than six-one, and better to be six-three than six-two.

But past a certain point, being tall stop mattering so much. A player who is six-eight is not automatically better than someone two inches shorter. Michael Jordan the greatest player ever was six feet! This same principle applies to intelligence, the higher your IQ, the better, but only to a certain threshold. After this threshold of so-called average intelligence (typically between 85 and 115), more intelligence won’t help you to be any more successful.

The higher your IQ, the better, but only to a certain threshold. After this threshold of average intelligence, more intelligence won’t help you to be any more successful.

Analysis done by dozens of experts in hundreds of corporations, government agencies, and nonprofits organizations worldwide arrived independently at remarkably similar conclusions, and their findings are particularly compelling because they avoid the biases inherent in the work of a single individual or group. Their conclusions all point to the paramount place of emotional intelligence for excellence in life and on any job.

The trouble with geniuses

To drive home the point of why IQ does not matter too much in the grand scheme of things, Gladwell tells the story of Chris Langan:

"Chris Langan born in 1952 has been described by some as the smartest man in the world. His IQ has been estimated to be between 195 and 210. Einstein had an IQ of 160 and Langan’s IQ was 30% higher than Einstein’s!

While this doesn’t mean that Langan was 30% smarter than Einstein, all we can assume is that when it comes to thinking about really difficult things like physics or astronomy, Langan’s brain computing power might have edged Einstein’s.

Langan had begun speaking at 6 months old and taught himself to read at 3. At the age of 5, he began to ask about the existence of God and by age 14 he could produce drawings that looked like photographic reproductions. At 15 he was able to play the guitar solos of Jimi Hendrix note for note and at 16 he had read Principia Mathematica! This guy was smart.

Langan had begun speaking at 6 months old and taught himself to read at 3. By age 14 he could produce drawings that looked like photographic reproductions. At 15 he was able to play the guitar solos of Jimi Hendrix note for note and at 16 he had read Principia Mathematica!

After earning a perfect score on the SAT despite taking a nap during the test, Langan was offered 2 full scholarships; One to Reed College in Oregon and the other to the University of Chicago. Langan chose the former, which he later said was a “big mistake” causing a “real case of culture shock” in the unfamiliar urban setting. His brilliance was no help in adjusting to an urban environment.

He lost his scholarship because his mother did not send in the necessary financial information, so Langan returned to his hometown and worked as a forest service firefighter for 18 months before enrolling at Montana State University.

Faced with severe financial transportation problems, however, and believing that he could teach his professors more than they could teach him, he dropped out. He took a string of labour-intensive jobs for some time, and by his mid-40s had been a construction worker, cowboy, farmhand and bouncer.

Even though Chris Langan was a man with a one-in-a-million mind and an ability to get through Principia Mathematica at sixteen. It was not a guarantee for success or any confirmation that he would reach his potential, IQ was only a piece of the puzzle. There were so many other factors for which a high IQ didn’t make much of a difference.

While Langan had a very difficult upbringing due to failed parenting and extreme poverty amongst many other challenges, one would naturally not picture someone who was theoretically smarter than Einstein slugging away on a construction site or as a bouncer in their mid-40s".

Langan’s story helps to understand that success takes more than intellectual excellence or technical prowess and that another sort of skill is needed to survive and thrive in today’s world. Internal qualities such as resilience, initiative, optimism and adaptability are now taking on new importance.

How to improve your EQ

An emotionally intelligent individual is highly conscious of his or her positive or negative emotional states.

Emotional intelligence refers to your ability to identify and manage your emotions, as well as the emotions of others. Emotional intelligence helps you to be highly conscious of your emotional states whether positive — joy, love, gratitude or negative — frustration, sadness or resentment. You can improve EQ using the following suggestions:

1. Become more self-aware — Stay in touch with yourself, practice identifying the emotions you feel and labelling them. Try to understand if you are feeling anger, joy, frustration, jealousy, fear, trust etc. Journaling is a good strategy to improve awareness.
2. Practice self-regulation — Being aware of your emotions is the first step, but you also need to be able to manage what you are feeling. People who possess good self-regulation can adapt well to changing situations. They don’t bottle things up, but they do wait for appropriate ways to express their emotions rather than just reacting impulsively at the moment. Mindfulness and mediation help to improve self-regulation.
3. Improve your social skills — When you can understand your emotions, it is easier to understand and interpret other people’s emotions as well. This will serve well in building your social skills since you will find it easier to respond appropriately to different situations. Individuals with great social skills can build rapport with colleagues and communicate their ideas effectively. People with good social skills are not only great team players, but they are also able to take on leadership roles when needed.
4. Work on your motivation — People who have strong emotional intelligence tend to be more motivated to achieve goals for their own sake. Rather than seeking external rewards, they want to do things because they are passionate about it and find them fulfilling. Find your passion.

Misconceptions about EQ

Emotional intelligence does not mean merely “being nice”. At strategic moments it may demand you to be blunt, for example by calling someone out on their misogyny. Also, EQ doesn’t mean giving free rein to feelings, singing kumbaya and just “letting it all hang out”. Rather, it means managing feelings so that they are expressed appropriately and effectively, enabling you to work smoothly with others towards common goals.

Also, women are not necessarily “smarter” than men when it comes to emotional intelligence, nor are men superior to women. Everyone has a personal profile of strengths and weaknesses in these capacities. You may be highly empathic but cannot handle stress. Also, you might be quite aware of the subtle shift in your moods but might be very awkward in a social setting.

Emotional intelligence does not mean merely “being nice”.

While it is true that men and women as groups tend to have a shared, gender-specific profile of strong and weak points. Analysis of emotional intelligence in thousands of men and women found that women on average, are more aware of their emotions, show empathy, and are more adept interpersonally. Men, on the other hand, are more self-confident and optimistic, adapt easily and handle stress better.

Also, your level of emotional intelligence is not fixed genetically, nor does it develop only in early childhood. Unlike IQ, which changes little after teen years, emotional intelligence seems to be largely learned, and it continues to develop as you go through life and learn from your experiences — your competence in it can keep growing.

Your level of emotional intelligence is not fixed genetically.

Studies that have tracked people’s level of emotional intelligence through the years show that people get better and better in these capabilities as they mature by growing more adept at handling their own emotions and impulses, and at honing their empathy and social awareness.

In conclusion, your IQ will only get you so far if you want to achieve success personally and professionally. Change is constant. Technological change, global competition and a recession powered by a once in a generation pandemic are current realities that make emotional intelligence even more crucial in today’s world.