Employees with High IQ or High EQ-What is Better for your Bottom Line?

Employees with High IQ or High EQ- What is Better for your Bottom Line?

Whether you are hiring a consultant, manager or salesperson, choosing someone with a high EQ (or emotional intelligence) may be more important than someone with a high IQ.

In the 1996 book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman posits that EQ might be more important than IQ.

EQ which is a measure of a person’s emotional intelligence, refers to a person’s ability to perceive, control, evaluate and express emotions.   EQ remains is a trending topic both in business and in education today.   Research shows a causal relationship between those with high EQs and their rates of success versus the success of their low EQ peers.   Thus, many companies now mandate emotional intelligence training and employ EQ tests as part of their hiring process.  In some US schools, social and emotional learning is even a curriculum requirement.

IQ is still viewed as an important element of success, but today’s experts realize it is not the only determinate of life success.

Research has found that individuals with strong leadership potential also tend to have high emotional quotients.  This suggests that a high EQ is an important quality for successful managers.    It could also be suggested that anyone in your organization who possesses the important “people skills” that come with having a high EQ, will be more successful engendering customer buy-in and loyalty, thereby increasing revenue.

Consider the value of including a form of EQ in your company’s hiring process or instituting an emotional intelligence training program.  It may produce positive results including a better bottom line.  Take a look at some of this persuasive anecdotal evidence.

• “…a national insurance company found that sales agents with low emotional competencies such as self-confidence, initiative and empathy sold policies with an average premium of $54,000. Compare that with their counterparts with high emotional competencies, who sold policies worth an average of $114,000.00.”

• “IQ alone is not enough; EQ matters. In fact, psychologists generally agree that among the ingredients for success, IQ counts for roughly 10-25%; the rest depends on everything else- including EQ.”

• “Research carried out by the Carnegie Institute of Technology shows that 85 percent of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate and lead. Shockingly, only 15% is due to technical knowledge.  Additionally, Nobel prize-winning Israeli-American psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, found that people would rather do business with a person they like and trust rather than someone they don’t, even if the likable person is offering a lower quality product or service at a higher price.”