How come there are both good and bad leaders? Shouldn’t all leaders be good because they are positioned as leaders? What abilities are required for a leader to be a good one? Does intelligence serve as the sole yardstick by which someone is judged worthy of the role of a leader?

Although these questions appear legitimate, they are wholly off-target.

We frequently consider IQ, or intelligence quotient, when assessing someone’s level of intelligence. On the other hand, EQ, or emotional quotient, has gained popularity in recent years:  this characteristic gauges a person’s emotional intelligence.

In leadership, having a high EQ and IQ are equally crucial. People have always been familiar with the term “IQ”, and it’s nearly always used to describe a genius. But it’s now evident that emotional intelligence has intrinsic value as well. EQ is the capacity for high-level empathy and communication with other people. Of course, having intelligence helps a leader, but intelligence won’t matter if you can’t inspire and motivate those around you through your leadership.

Let’s examine the distinctions between EQ and IQ and why leaders must use both.

What’s Measured by IQ?

The simple answer is cognitive abilities. A long answer would be that a person’s ability to learn and comprehend knowledge, apply it to the actual world, solve problems, and use abstract reasoning is measured by their IQ. In particular, IQ isn’t dependent on one’s broad understanding of numbers and facts. IQ tests rely on the ability to solve problems, see patterns, apply mathematical reasoning, and make connections between the many aspects of linguistic concepts concerning the average or statistical norm for people of their age.

What principle is used to measure IQ? Millions and millions of results come up when you search for “IQ test” on Google. Nevertheless, IQ International and a small percentage of the remainder of these IQ tests produce valid, reliable results. You must take tests administered by certified professionals or by businesses that offer IQ exams to the public in order to receive a legitimate IQ result. These tests mostly gauge your mental capacity and forecast a variety of future life outcomes, including wealth, degree of schooling, health, and even lifespan.

How IQ Indicates One’s Potential as a Leader

Ability, social skills, and drive are the three characteristics of a high-potential employee, as highlighted in a Harvard Business Review article from 2017. “Ability” refers to a person’s IQ or cognitive capacity. It’s said that cognitive ability, or IQ, is the best indicator of a person’s capacity to acquire and master the necessary knowledge and skills, as well as to solve challenging, real-world situations. To effectively lead and assign tasks, a leader must possess an understanding of the intricacies of the business.

Some people don’t think IQ matters much when it comes to being a successful leader, while others think it’s essential. It does make sense that a person with the ability to assess complexity in language, math, and spatial activities would be able to generate more correct answers and make better decisions overall. Higher mental ability goes hand in hand with the capacity to control risk, predict occurrences, and foresee variables.

According to some studies, a person’s mental capacity does, in fact, become more significant as they advance in an organization. This is due to the fact that jobs tend to get more complicated the higher a person is positioned. This explains why IQ is regarded as a critical predictor of leadership capacity.  Does that imply that businesses ought to test candidates’ IQs for leadership positions? No. Although it has been shown that mental toughness is the single most reliable indicator of a leader’s effectiveness, it's by no means the sole or most significant one.

The Four IQ Components Important for Leadership

The main IQ test components, each of which is significant for leadership in its own right, are:

• Verbal comprehending
• Perceptual logic
• Working memory
• Processing rate

• Verbal Comprehending

  Understanding and reasoning with concepts expressed in language is known as verbal comprehending, or verbal reasoning. Instead of focusing on vocabulary recognition or basic fluency, it evaluates the capacity for constructive thought.

  To prevent delays, miscommunication, and confusion, effective oral communication and comprehension skills are essential. They allow for faster and better work completion. They also maintain a positive attitude and low employee turnover by averting conflicts and relationship breakdowns. Also, effective oral communication abilities assist leaders in creating the relationships necessary for companies to succeed.

  Conversely, poor communication is expensive. According to a report jointly composed by Grammarly and The Harris Poll this February, inadequate communication costs US firms $1.2 trillion annually. It’s understandable why a lot of prosperous businesses believe that “communication makes the world go round”. It helps us learn, develop, and advance while also fostering interpersonal ties. Understanding what is being said, as well as, occasionally, what isn’t being said, is just as important as speaking or reading. One of the most crucial abilities for any leader to have is communication.

• Perceptual Logic

  Examining a problem, using visual-spatial and visual-motor skills, organizing ideas, coming up with solutions, and testing them are all components of perceptual reasoning or perceptual logic.

  In a time of information overload, such as this one, finding the truth can sometimes seem impossible. We are surrounded by stories, numbers, and data that can leave us feeling lost and confused. The main issue with the information we come across is how hard it is to validate. The majority of the information we think we know comes from sources, many of whom may have been deceived or simply wrong. We need to be able to handle information turmoil as leaders. How? It consists of relying on two reliable sources of information: logical inferences from self-evident axioms and our own sense perceptions.

  Hearing, sight, taste, smell, and touch are the five senses that the human body uses most effectively to get information about the environment. Through the use of these senses, we are able to absorb knowledge directly from our environment, free from the prejudices and errors that taint second-hand accounts. We may use our sense perceptions as leaders in useful ways. For example, we can learn important lessons that are frequently overlooked in reports and statistics by paying close attention to how our team members behave, listening intently to comments, and being totally present in our work environment.

• Working Memory

  The term “working memory” in humans describes the short-term retention of knowledge that’s needed right away to complete tasks. It’s a kind of short-term memory that lasts for roughly 30 seconds and can be prolonged with practice or repetition.

  We can refer to working memory as the brain’s conductor of our daily information symphony because it serves as the conscious processing of information. Similar to a symphony without a conductor, a leader’s day would be chaotic without a method to maintain order among the deluge of information from calls, emails, to-do lists, social media, requests from coworkers, and family responsibilities.

  The two main purposes of the working memory conductor are to:

  1. prioritize and process information, enabling us to focus on what’s important and disregard unnecessary information, and
  2. retain information for later use.

  In many aspects of our lives, such as relationships, mood, and even dietary choices, a strong working memory is essential. This is especially true for leaders and other high-achieving employees.

• Processing Rate

  One way to characterize processing speed, or processing rate, a cognitive capacity, is the amount of time it takes someone to complete a mental task. It has to do with how quickly an individual can process information, whether it be aural (language), visual (letters and numbers), or physical (movement).

  Your ability to process information quickly enables you to react accurately, smoothly, and synchronously. This cognitive ability allows you to distinguish when to prioritize task speed over precision. If you’re in a leadership position in your organization, you may maximize the use of a “quick and dirty” solution when time is of the essence, which it always is. You take the lead and are often the first to provide an opinion, have a strategy, and evaluate the situation to determine a speedy course of action. You’re the highest authority in your organization, and you make snap decisions.

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What’s Measured by EQ

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, and control your own feelings alongside those that others have around you. The phrase was first used in 1990 by University of New Hampshire professor John D. Mayer and Yale University professor Peter Salovey; however, Daniel Goleman, a psychologist, popularized it subsequently. More than 10 years ago, Goleman made a major contribution to the field of emotional intelligence research when he stated in the Harvard Business Review that the most effective leaders had one crucial trait in common: they all had high levels of what is now known as emotional intelligence. It’s not that intelligence and technical skill are unimportant. These are entry-level requirements for executive positions, but they are important nonetheless.

Emotional intelligence, or EQ, has developed into a necessary skill over time. High-emotional intelligence workers are more likely to handle conflict skillfully, remain composed under pressure, and show empathy for their colleagues. The issue is that calculating someone’s EQ score is far more difficult than calculating their IQ score, even though the majority of people are never asked to take an IQ test or disclose their IQ score during job interviews. Hiring managers find it extremely difficult to recognize or select candidates based just on EQ, despite the fact that EQ is valuable. Yet, numerous evaluation tools have been developed to gauge emotional intelligence. These assessments often belong to one of two categories: 1) self-report exams or 2) ability tests.

Self-report assessments are the most used since they are the easiest to administer and score. Examinees evaluate their own behavior by answering questions or statements. A test-taker may check off the following statement: “I commonly notice that I grasp how other individuals are feeling” with “I partly disagree” or “I disagree” as one group of answers, or “I completely agree” or “I agree” as the other group of answers.

As for ability tests, they gauge a participant’s ability by having them respond to various circumstances. Individuals who take these tests often have to demonstrate their abilities, which are then assessed by an impartial third party.

How EQ Indicates One’s Potential as a Leader

Technical proficiency that got you your first promotion may not get you your second. There’s an emotional component to leadership that you need to take into account. It’s the key to effectively managing stress, coaching teams, providing feedback, and working with people.

More and more people view emotional intelligence as a vitally important trait in most employees (at any level). In fact, according to a 2011 CareerBuilder poll of 2,600 hiring managers, 75% of them place a higher value on an employee's emotional intelligence than their IQ.  However, EQ is especially important for leaders. This is due to the fact that EQ is what enables an individual to read people and situations and predict the appropriate course of action to ensure the greatest possible results for all parties.

Conflicts and miscommunications in the workplace are frequently caused by the absence of emotional intelligence abilities. This dynamic is frequently the result of an inability to identify or understand emotions. Having trouble controlling and expressing one’s emotions is one of the most prevalent signs of low emotional intelligence. You may find it difficult to actively listen to others or to correctly acknowledge the worries of your coworkers.

Think about the connections that you share with your colleagues. Consider this:

• Are you having tense discussions?
• Do you frequently place the blame elsewhere when plans don’t work out?
• Do you often have outbursts?

All of them indicate a deficiency in emotional intelligence. It’s crucial to develop social skills through comprehension of and application of empathy and the fundamentals of emotional intelligence.

The Four EQ Components Important for Leadership

Generally speaking, emotional intelligence can be divided into four main competencies:

• Self-awareness
• Self-control
• Social consciousness
• Relationship management

It’s essential to comprehend each component in order to grow your emotional intelligence. An in-depth look at the four categories is provided here.

• Self-Awareness

  Self-awareness is the foundation of all things. It highlights your capacity to identify your emotions and how they affect your performance as well as that of your team, in addition to your understanding of your strengths and shortcomings.

  Working with colleagues who lack self-awareness may slice the effectiveness of a group in half, increase stress, and demotivate members, according to Harvard Business Review research from 2018. Self-awareness is important because it helps you bring out the best in others by starting with yourself. Completing a 360-degree feedback form, which asks you to assess your performance and compare it to the views of your supervisor, colleagues, and direct reports, is a simple method of measuring your level of self-awareness. You’ll learn more about your conduct and how you're viewed within the company through this approach.

• Self-Control

  Self-management is the capacity to control your emotions, especially under pressure, and keep a positive attitude in the face of obstacles. Self-managing leaders are more likely to react and struggle to control their impulses.

  Reactions are typically instinctive. But the easier it is for you to go from reaction to response, the more attuned you are to your emotional intelligence. In order to deal with challenges and stress more appropriately and consciously, it’s critical to take a moment to breathe, gather yourself, and do anything needed to regulate your emotions. You may choose to walk or call a friend to help you accomplish this.

• Social Consciousness

  Understanding and controlling your emotions is crucial, but you also need to be able to read a room. Your capacity to identify the feelings of people around you and the dynamics at work in your business is known as social awareness.

  Empathy is a skill that leaders with strong social awareness employ. They make an effort to comprehend the thoughts and feelings of their peers, which helps them interact and communicate with them more successfully. Empathic communication allows you to perform better, both personally and as a member of your team.

• Relationship Management

  Relationship management is the skill of successfully influencing, coaching, mentoring, and resolving disagreements with people.

  Although some people would rather avoid conflict, it’s crucial to appropriately handle problems when they come up. According to a 2015 study by the Society for Human Resource Management, unresolved conflicts can deplete company resources and morale by wasting up to eight hours on gossip and other pointless activities. Having those difficult talks is necessary if you want to maintain the satisfaction of your workforce.

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The Future of Leaders’ IQs and EQs

A person who possesses a healthy balance between IQ and EQ is better in social and analytical contexts. It also implies that they have a greater capacity to manage stress and adjust to shifting circumstances. Long-term, this increases their success and resilience.

We’ll continue to get new insights into intelligence, which will enable us to make greater use of all the abilities at our disposal. We anticipate seeing EQ given more importance in business and education eventually. Future research may place more focus on improving emotional intelligence in addition to cognitive skills, since there’s a rising interest in creating tools to assist people in increasing their EQ.

While both IQ and EQ are significant indicators of a person's intellect, they assess distinct concepts. It must become standard practice to evaluate leaders on an equitable basis. Leaders must have compassion for their subordinates. A leader’s capacity to inspire the best in people around them will be enhanced by their capacity for critical thought and the use of emotional intelligence in challenging circumstances. Both EQ and IQ are necessary for even resolving conflicts; thus, it’s about time they were given equal weight.

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