I grew up with two friends - Anthony and Robert.
I had more friends - I'm just using these two as an example.
Anthony was super smart. He was the kid you wanted to sit next to in class because he had all the answers. He spent more time studying than getting to know other people. Sure he was a little quirky, but his high intelligence allowed him to graduate towards the top of his class in high school.
Robert, on the other hand, focused less on his school work and more on his classmates. You always wanted to hang out with Robert because he was friends with everyone - except his teachers.
Many, many, many years later we continue to stay in touch. Anthony is using his smarts as an engineer, but he continues to struggle in his career due to various excuses. And Robert is still popular. He has excelled in various leadership roles regardless of the industry. When we get together, Anthony is often confused on his success noting that Robert barely did his homework back in school.
What Anthony struggles to grasp is that while IQ - intelligence - helped him growing up, EQ - emotional intelligence - is helping Robert today. Just because Anthony was smart in school, doesn't make him smart at work.
More and more studies show this - high performing leaders are typically high in emotional intelligence. The ability to recognize and understand your emotions - and the emotions of others, and to use this information to guide your own thinking and actions can have great influences on how you build relationships, work and collaborate with others.
And by working with others better, you can have better business results.
Be smart. Identify your leadership skills and style with an emotional intelligence
assessment, also known as the EQ-i 2.0 or EQ 360. When partnered with someone who can help you interpret the results, this tool helps leaders understand how to use emotions to manage themselves and others.
There is no “right” answer when it comes to emotional intelligence. Instead, knowing how you are wired can allow you to fulfill your career potential and lead others to do the same.