IQ vs. EQ: Which Determines Success?

Throughout most of our lifetime we are told that our individual intelligence can be measured. Many people believe that the IQ test is the best way to measure intelligence. While this test is a great way of measuring one standard of intelligence, there are various other forms of intelligence that a lot of people do not recognize.

In psychology there are nine different types of recognized intelligence's. They are naturalist (nature smart), musical (sound smart), logical-mathematical (number/reasoning smart), existential (life smart), interpersonal (people smart), bodily-kinesthetic (body smart), linguistic (word smart), intra-personal (self smart), and spatial (picture smart). The important thing to remember is that almost all of these types of intelligence’s can be practiced and improved upon.

Emotional intelligence, commonly referred to as EQ is a combination of many different types on intelligence’s. It most heavily involves interpersonal and intra-personal intelligence. The classic idea of IQ can be comparable to logical-mathematical intelligence. This form of intelligence we are more or less born with and one can reach a plateau of knowledge in the area. While this is a fact, it is imperative to understand that a high IQ is not a guarantee of success. Even though IQ is mostly a stagnant intelligence, EQ can be improved through observation, learning, and experience.

To quote Charles Darwin, “it is not the strongest of the species who survive, nor the most intelligent, but those who are most adaptive to change.”

The book Emotional Intelligence: Explained and Illustrated, by Frances Kay and Neilson Kite goes into great detail about the advantages of emotional intelligence over IQ. In the words of the author “intelligence by IQ ignores aspects of personality, emotion, and behavior that are equally, if not more likely, to show how someone will perform. Emotional intelligence is therefore an important factor in evaluating people for roles, in making personal and business decisions, reacting collectively to circumstances and also in leading others.” Understanding emotional intelligence increases self-awareness, self-development, and gives you a better understanding of humankind in general.

Practicing and developing EQ helps you to learn how to make intelligent decisions in almost every category of your life. Understanding your own emotions and utilizing them while making decisions with lead to you having more success in your endeavors.

EQ is definitely more important in determining success than IQ. This is shown by businesses recognizing emotional intelligence “as a means of identifying better performers than the norm has led to 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies using EQ criteria as a means of identifying future high-performing individuals.”

Citation:

Kay, Frances and Kite, Neilson. (2011). Understanding emotional intelligence:Strategies for boosting your EQ and using it in the workplace. Kogan Page: Proquest Ebook Central