There’s a common belief that highly intelligent people will inevitably become successful which is why a person’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is given importance in schools. Since grade school, students are given standardized tests and ranked by their GPA. Colleges also require satisfactory scores on the SAT or ACT exams before they admit student applicants. These tests are designed to measure their intelligence, but IQ isn’t limited to math skills and reading comprehension.
In the professional field, IQ is reflected by the hard skills that can be learned by an aspiring employee. These abilities such as typing, writing, or the ability to use software programs are what make our resumes stand out. That is why business professionals who want to take a step further into their career work tirelessly to develop their technical skills, industry expertise, and innovation.
Businesses value those with high IQs. For most companies, an aspirant with a high IQ is quick in absorbing new information and can do complex tasks more efficiently with less training time required. Workers with high IQ can weigh all the advantages and disadvantages of complex situations and deliver excellent insights to help with the solutions. All of which are essential attributes to lead teams to exceed targets and increase productivity.
It’s undeniable that people with a high IQ can handle their work more efficiently than others, but it’s only one part of it. At this time, businesses aren’t just about being clever. The growth of the company and a career boost now requires building and maintaining business relationships as well as client-customer relationships.
People with extremely high IQs doesn’t necessarily mean that they immediately have the necessary people skills. A person’s feelings are critical when it comes to communication. You need the emotional awareness or the ability to recognize and understand feelings to succeed in communicating with others. For this reason, more and more companies are also giving emphasis on Emotional Quotient (EQ), to ensure that their employees can connect with their teams, customers, and business partners in an emphatic way.
People with high Emotional Intelligence can solve problems as good as any person with a high IQ. Sometimes they’re able to make unexpected contributions based on their experiences. A successful leader needs to make emotionally driven decisions as much as they should make purely intellectual ones.
When it comes to teamwork, it’s easy to fail without emotional intelligence. Teamwork is a necessity for the success of all organizations. Working together helps find the solutions that work best for the most challenging problems as well as come up with fresh ideas to succeed in the competitive world.
Rather than having individualised and competitive goals, team members need to be flexible enough to adapt to working together to create a cooperative working environment. In order to do this, they also need a well-developed ability connected to emotional intelligence such as self-awareness, social awareness, and empathy.
Emotional Intelligence plays a huge role in the workplace. Improving your emotional intelligence can help you navigate the social complexities of the organization and even help you excel in your career. It’s an ability that should be developed by every workplace not just for its success but for the success of its employees as well.
To learn more about how emotional intelligence could benefit your workplace, check out this infographic by Sparkle.
