Everyone talks about IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and its importance for success. No doubt that IQ plays an important role in overall success. But the question is success sustainable without EI (Emotional Intelligence can be called EQ = Emotional Quotient too)? You can be a successful leader without much emotional intelligence if you’re extremely lucky and you’ve got everything else going for you: booming markets, bumbling competitors, and clueless higher-ups. If you’re incredibly smart, you can cover for an absence of emotional intelligence until things get tough for the business. Leading by Feel But at that point, you won’t have built up the social capital needed to pull the best out of people under tremendous pressure. The art of sustained leadership is getting others to produce superior work, and a high IQ alone is insufficient for that task.
The good news is that emotional intelligence can be learned and improved at any age. In fact, data shows that, on average, people’s emotional intelligence tends to increase as they age.
For example, one of the most common complaints we hear about leaders, particularly newly promoted ones, is that they lack empathy. The problem is that they were promoted because they were outstanding individual performers—and being a solo achiever doesn’t teach you the skills necessary to understand other people’s concerns.
Leaders who are motivated to improve their emotional intelligence can do so if they’re given the right information, guidance, and support..
The information they need is a candid assessment of their strengths and limitations from people who know them well and whose opinions they trust.
The guidance they need is a specific developmental plan that uses naturally occurring workplace encounters as the laboratory for learning.
The support they need is someone to talk to as they practice how to handle different situations, what to do when they’ve blown it, and how to learn from those setbacks.
If leaders cultivate these resources and practice continually, they can develop specific emotional intelligence skills— skills that will last for years.
