But it doesn’t stop there - high-EQ individuals also understand how to manage the emotions of themselves and others, particularly in pressure-filled situations. Basically, EQ is the type of intangible intelligence that gives people an awareness of their emotions and their impact. They are also keenly aware of how they influence people around them. People with high EQs understand themselves and their emotions clearly. I would add that emotional intelligence describes the ability to manage oneself and one’s decisions in a manner that recognizes the effects on others.

In it, I described the core qualities of EQ as empathy, motivation, self-awareness, self-regulation and social skills. Recently, I wrote an article describing how to hire for emotional intelligence. I think most of us have a grasp of what emotional intelligence means, but it can be difficult to define. Otherwise, it is nothing more than an indicator of someone’s ability to perform well on diagnostic tests.

The fact is that intelligence, or IQ, is not meaningful unless it is paired with qualities such as self-awareness and emotional intelligence. Intelligence certainly should be valued, but it has been historically overvalued in the workplace. Surprisingly, a high IQ score is not the predictor of success that we thought it was years ago. In the past, traditional intelligence scores like the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) were considered the gold standard for predicting performance. The more we learn about emotional intelligence, the more it is revealed to be the source of success for individuals across a wide spectrum of roles, organizations and industries. In fact, people with average scores on traditional intelligence tests outperform those with high IQs 70% of the time, and the reason is the presence of EQ, or emotional intelligence. Intelligent people are often described as having “high IQs.” But more often than not in the business world, the most competent, capable and effective individuals are those with high EQs.

High eq meaning