Conventional wisdom had it that to succeed in work and life, IQ was the determining factor. Hence, if we had excellent grades in our schools or at the universities, prospective employees would take these as a mark of superior intelligence, that presumably would equate to high achievements at work.
While there is no doubt that IQ is a very important factor, in the last few decades society at large has begun to recognize that there is something else that is an even more powerful predictor of success. We see examples of this every day in our workplaces, our homes and in our communities. For instance, your fast-expanding company recruited a number of fresh graduates a few years ago. Among the recruits, there were a couple of people who had won the highest academic honours in their schools. While the rest were still pretty impressive, they could not match the sterling scholastic records of the top two.
Fast forward two to three years into the future. You would have expected the two brilliant persons to have surpassed their cohorts in climbing up the corporate ladder. But no, the people who had flourished were those with lesser academic credentials. And you were puzzled.
What is at work here? Invariably, this has something to do with a concept called Emotional Intelligence or its casual shorthand EQ.
Let’s discuss what EQ is after we look at the following managerial anecdotes.
Yang was interviewing for the post of General Manager with a large manufacturing company located in the south of China. He had already met three senior executives a few weeks ago at the company. The last three interviews had gone off without a hitch, and he was invited to meet the president of the company. The headhunter who brokered interviews said that this would be the final hurdle, and that the president would make him the offer if all proceeded according to plan.
Yang met the president James Wong at the office. Mr. Wong was warm, friendly and unpretentious. Yang had expected the boss to be somewhat formal and a little pompous. The founder of the company, Mr. Wong, was educated in the United States and had worked in the Silicon Valley for many years. In the late 1970s, as China opened itself to the world, he decided to return to Hong Kong. He was one of the first entrepreneurs to be invited into the special economic zone of Shenzhen.
Yang was pleasantly surprised that the president was so relaxed and personable. It didn’t really seem like an interview. After lunch, the president offered to accompany him to the airport to catch his flight. There was a lot of light-hearted conversation along the way. As they reached the airport, the president turned to Yang with a disarming smile and asked cheerily, “Tell me what is the reason I should offer you the position of GM.”
Yang swallowed and blanched. This was followed by an awkward silence. Then, he hurriedly opened the door and said, “I’m surprised that you ask me this after so many interviews. I’ll leave it to you to decide.”
With that, he got out in a huff, leaving his host stunned.
In Anecdote 1, how would you diagnose the sudden turn of events? Obviously, Yang had misjudged the intent of the president’s parting question. He had taken offence when none was intended. His host was on the cusp of offering him the job. In his offhanded way, he had posed the question almost rhetorically. All Yang had to do was to respond in an equally light-hearted way. Yet, he interpreted that as yet another probing and searching question meant to assess his worth after many arduous rounds of interview. Basically, Yang kissed the coveted job good-bye with his outburst.
Emily was the employee relationship manager of a large retail chain. Although she was young and had been in this role for only two years, she had already acquired a reputation as someone to go to if employees had any problems at work. It wasn’t unusual for employees to make appointments to seek her advice on issues ranging from indifferent supervisors to rude customers. All of them would walk away feeling “lighter”, “understood” and “appreciated”. These were the three most commonly used words to describe their sessions with Emily.
When Emily was asked by her admiring manager what transpired during her discussions with these employees, she would modestly say, “I’d close the door to my office and devote my full attention to the person sitting in front of me. I listen mostly and encourage her to speak up and assure her of full confidentiality. Sometimes, I do offer some suggestions, but in the majority of cases, these colleagues seem to know what to do when the conversation ends. I do call them to follow up a day or two later. With their permission, I sometimes speak to their bosses to let them know what we have discussed. I usually find that they generally return to their workplace with a greater sense of purpose. If there had been a misunderstanding between them and their bosses, somehow this helps both parties to open up a dialogue. And they are better able to work with each other.”
In Anecdote 2, troubled employees kept coming to Emily because she was always approachable and patient. Even managers would send their so-called recalcitrant employees to Emily. Her listening skills were great, and employees sensed her empathy when they were pouring out their sorrows to her. She provided a safe oasis for people to speak to her in confidence. And in that climate, people felt understood. Hence, people usually left with a lighter burden than when they came in. And in the event that she had to circle back to the managers themselves, her input was valued and helped break the impasse that had existed previously.
Daniel Goleman popularized the concept of EQ with his landmark book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. EQ consists of five main components.1
Component 1: Self-awareness
In Chapter 3, we spent much time on why and how we may know ourselves better. In addition to this, it is very important to be fully present as life unfolds! We seldom pay attention to how we feel. That’s because with the fast-paced life that we all lead, we are bombarded constantly by endless streams of data and thoughts. Our moods may therefore vary from moment to moment. Are we anxious, angry, feeling elated or insecure? It isn’t sufficient to be experiencing these different moods, we need to be in touch with them. The Buddhists call this “mindfulness”. When we are mindful, we are fully attuned to our emotions. Our self-awareness enables us to be consciously in touch with the here and now.
For instance, a senior manager senses that his subordinates tend to defer to him during discussions. In countless meetings, the moment he expresses an opinion, free flow of ideas will cease. In order to encourage his people to speak up, he therefore resolves to be more relaxed and casual in meetings. He makes it a point to listen patiently and invite others to share their opinions. Over a period of time, his subordinates become more comfortable in his presence.
Component 2: Self-Regulation
With mindfulness, we will be in a better position to choose the most appropriate response to the situation at hand. Otherwise, we become completely at the mercy of what is evolving, like the proverbial puppet jerked around by the unseen strings of external events. As the saying goes, “Between a stimulus and response, there is a choice.”
Imagine this scenario: when driving to work, another motorist tailgated you for what seemed to be the longest time. Then he suddenly overtook you. Obviously, you became upset. You wanted to give chase and show him your displeasure.
Here, the stimulus was the provocative act by that driver. The instinctive response was to retaliate. But you quickly decided you had other choices. The one you eventually chose was the wiser and saner one. By remaining calm, you reached your office safely and in a positive mood.
Component 3: Motivation
People with high EQ are much better in marshalling their emotions to facilitate achievement of their goals. For instance, you may be conflicted by having to make a difficult decision. Procrastination seems to be a nice way of delaying the pain. You tell yourself nonetheless that further delay will not do and you commit to making up your mind over the weekend.
Component 4: Empathy
This is the flip-side of self-awareness. It is “other awareness” or the ability to sense the emotions in the people around us. When we are communicating with others, they are constantly sending cues to us concerning how we are affecting them. The cues come not only through words, but also through gestures, facial expressions, and tone of voice. In the Asian environment, there is yet another powerful signal: “unspoken words” or silence. Some people can pick these up immediately and quickly make the necessary adjustment in what they are saying to stay connected with their audience. Others, however, may miss them completely and behave inappropriately. A case in point is Yang, the hapless candidate in Managerial Anecdote 1.
Component 5: Social Skill
This is the litmus test of EQ. All of us have sat in at lectures conducted by different speakers. Granted that the topics are all different, how engaged we are is very much determined by the persona of the speaker and the way she behaves on the stage. If she is enthusiastic, energetic and warm, the audience will respond in kind. On the other hand, if we get a speaker who is disinterested and ill-prepared, we can sense it immediately and will tune out. This is the power of emotional connection or rapport building. It is contagious. Leaders with high EQ can leverage their emotional state and send positive ripples of energy through others.
“EI abilities rather than IQ or technical skills emerge as the discriminating competency that best predicts who among a group of very smart people will lead most ably.”
—Daniel Goleman
Earlier, we were puzzled to learn that work performance may not be co-related to high academic grades. Those who excel in companies possess the unique ability of being able to deliver outstanding results through people. They do this through leveraging their high EQ.
This is not to say that IQ is not important. It is. We can view IQ as a threshold quality. If a candidate for a post does not possess certain academic credentials (read IQ) he won’t even be selected. When he joins the company with the required credentials, he will find that people around him are generally highly intelligent. In such an environment, the differentiator will be EQ. In other words, a person who possesses both good IQ and EQ will be more successful than someone who relies only on IQ.
Here are some examples of the impact of EQ on workplace performance:
♦ Programmers in the top 10% of EQ competency develop software three times faster
♦ High EQ sales people produce twice the revenue of average performers
♦ In all professions, when high IQ people fail, 75% of the factors are due to poor EQ
How does high EQ manifest itself in the workplace? There are many people who confuse high EQ with being nice, sensitive and not upsetting others.
If you observe people around you, you will notice that there are some individuals who are in touch with how they are feeling at the moment. They are also socially aware of the emotions that others are experiencing and why they are feeling that way. Such people relate well with others because they can put themselves in their shoes. Under stress they remain calm because they can regulate their emotions. Like the proverbial duck in the pond, they may be paddling furiously under the water but they still exude poise and confidence. In tough situations, they don’t go out of kilter as they know that such events will pass and they will bounce back. This is resilience.
Though high EQ people are pleasant to work with, there is a tougher edge to them.as well. They do not go out to be nice and get everybody to like them. They will not flinch from speaking the truth because it will upset others. However, they will pick their battles, and find the right place and time to make their point. As a manager, they will uphold high standards of performance and behavior.
Since EQ is so crucial to success, what can one do about it? Unlike IQ which is innate, EQ can be enhanced and developed further. You may notice that generally as people grow older, they somehow work better with others. There is an old-fashioned word to describe this. It is called maturity.
But for practical reasons, we all can’t sit around and wait for advancing age to enhance our EQ. Besides, we all know of some co-workers who remain just as feisty and insufferable as they enter their old age.
In the next chapter, we’ll discuss how you may develop your EQ.
♦ At work, people generally possess high IQ. However, the quality that differentiates smart people is their EQ level.
♦ EQ can be developed. It starts with self-awareness and will require practice, practice and more practice.
Q1: Review the managerial anecdotes involving Yang and Emily. What strike you as the key differences in the way they conducted themselves?
Q2: Review the five components that make up EQ. Rate yourself on each component on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being ideal.
