"Emotional Intelligence"
The relationship between EQ and IQ
February 2019
What is EQ?
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) refers to a certain group of skills and talents relating to emotional awareness and social skills. It aims to measure a person's ability to recognise emotions in themselves and others, and use that information effectively. It is generally considered to cover:
- Self-awareness – recognising what emotions you're experiencing and how they're affecting your actions and perception.
- Self-regulation – managing how your emotions influence your external actions.
- Motivation – maintaining personal focus and drive, resilience.
- Empathy – the ability to imagine how other people are feeling and how their experience differs from your own.
- Social skills – communication and developing relationships.
EQ vs. IQ
IQ can sometimes be referred to as a measure of “intelligence”, but is, more accurately, measuring a few specific types of intelligence:
- Visual and spatial processing
- Knowledge of the world
- Fluid reasoning
- Working memory and short-term memory
- Quantitative reasoning
No doubt, these are all important and useful skills to have! But this is hardly an exhaustive list of human talent, skill and potential. Most of us have met enough people with varying talents to see that many other aspects contribute to success, achievement and creativity.
The value of EQ
The importance of EQ is, I think, quite clear when you look at what most people actually do in a work day. Almost everyone has to work with others – what is a company if not people working together? So being able to communicate, empathise and self-regulate is key.
Additionally, it is difficult to perform at your best if you aren’t aware of your own emotional state. Being able to identify and manage your response to emotions will put you in the best position to carry out all those other IQ-related tasks, no matter what circumstances come your way.