Emotional Intelligence: A Key Factor for Every Great Leader

For decades, if not since forever, people have been led to believe it’s a person’s IQ that is important for leadership. Yet psychology has proven this isn’t really the case. Just because someone has a higher IQ doesn’t mean they will out-succeed someone with a low IQ. In many cases, it is the one with the higher Emotional Intelligence (EI) who comes out on top in the business world.

Emotional Intelligence was introduced to the world in 1995 and answered the question as to why people with average IQ levels seemed to outperform those with higher IQ’s about 70 percent of the time. This information destroyed what most people had thought dictated success – IQ. Tons of research has solidified the importance of EI over IQ when it comes to succeeding in the realm of business and in other leadership roles. EI is what makes us special and likable – or hateable, depending on who we are talking about at the moment.

Emotional Intelligence is made up of two different types of competencies: social competence and personal competence. These two competencies are broken down further into subcategories.

Personal Competence: What dictates a person’s self-awareness and self-management skills. This is more of a personal aspect of self. It doesn’t deal too much with interactions with others. Personal competence is being able to stay aware and keep in check your emotions, manage behaviors and control tendencies.

• Self-awareness is when you have the ability to gauge your own emotions and monitor them as they come.
• Self-management is the ability to apply the awareness of your mental state and make wise decisions despite those emotions.

Social Competence: What makes up your social awareness and ability to build and maintain relationships; it is the skill of understanding other people’s behavior, motives and personalities while using this information to improve your relationship with those people.

• Social-awareness is what some call a certain sixth sense; that very special ability to see past what they want you to see and recognize what’s truly going on.
• Relationship management is the skill in using such awareness of your emotions and the emotions of others to manage your social interactions successfully.

So how important is Emotional Intelligence over IQ? Let’s take a look at some stats.

• A 2011 study found that 1 out of 3 hiring managers look at EI when choosing to hire someone.
• Seventy-one percent of them said it is more important than IQ.
• Fifty-nine percent said they would hire someone with high IQ but low EI.
• IQ may only account for 4 to 25 percent in an individual’s job performance.
• Manufacturing managers reported half of the work related accidents after EI training.

The wonderful thing about Emotional Intelligence, unlike IQ, is that a person can increase their EI through the correct training. And according to psychologists, there are few ways a person can increase their Emotional Intelligence through some self-training exercises.

Be Able to Reduce Your Negative Emotions

The most important aspect of Emotional Intelligence is the ability to successfully manage your negative emotions. Negative emotions cause people to react to conditions without considering the consequences.

• Reduce the habit of engaging in negative personalization.
• Overcome the fear of rejection.

Look Stress In the Eye and Keep Cool

Every living creature on this planet is genetically engineered to feel stress under negative conditions. This is a warning mechanism to let us know we need to take action. Nevertheless, this fight or flight instinct can work against us if we don’t gain some sort of control over it.

• Physical exercise can reduce stress. How we treat our bodies can have a direct effect on our mental health.
• When you feel anxious or nervous, try rinsing your face with cold water since it has been proven to reduce stress.

Being Able to Be Assertive and Express Complicated Emotions When Needed

“Being who we require that we can talk openly about things that are important to us, that we take a clear position on where we stand on important emotional issues, and that we clarify the limits of what is acceptable and tolerable to us in a relationship.”

― Harriet Lerner

There are times when it is vital for us to set out personal boundaries. This could mean standing our ground about matters for which we disagree about without behaving disagreeably. It also means saying “no” without feeling bad about it, setting our priorities and standing up for what we believe in.

Author: Philip Piletic is a freelancer, writer and traveler who loves to share his experience about business, marketing and tech.