Can IQ Tests Become a Platform for
Personal Growth? 8 Ways to Develop
Soft Skills Through IQ Testing
See also: Keeping Your Mind Healthy
We are all used to seeing IQ tests as tools for measuring intellectual abilities. Spatial thinking, logic, critical analysis, memory and attentiveness are some of the assessment factors that provide information about a person’s IQ. However, in addition to evaluating a person's cognitive skills, the results of IQ tests can be an excellent base of information for improving soft skills!
Here are some tips to use the results of an IQ test effectively.
Self-awareness
One of the most important steps in personal development is self-awareness. IQ test results can give you an idea of your strengths and weaknesses. By knowing which areas you excel in, you can focus on their further development, as well as identify which skills need improvement.
You may find that you have weak analytical abilities, and this may encourage you to work on developing critical thinking through reading or courses. Or, for example, you should work on memory, which will give you motivation to work on yourself in this area. Moreover, modern programs for working on intellectual abilities and IQ determination provide a number of tools for working on intelligence. Read Cerebrum IQ reviews and try to boost your intelligence and self-awareness. Mastering the skills can help you better cope with professional and life challenges.
Critical thinking
In the age of information overload, the skill of critical thinking is an essential skill. Critical thinking helps you to be a harmonious person with a stable psyche, a good specialist, and an interesting conversationalist.
IQ tests contain a variety of tasks that require analytical and logical thinking. By solving these problems, you develop critical thinking skills, which in turn help you approach problems more logically and effectively, and this helps you to find optimal solutions.
If your professional activity requires quick decision-making, such a soft skill will definitely be useful. The constant practice of making decisions and finding logical connections between ideas improves not only professional skills, but also personal ones, which can significantly improve your relationships with others.
Increased self-confidence
Self-confidence is an important soft skill that often plays a huge role in a person’s professional and personal life. Achieving high IQ test results, or significantly improving during preparation, can really increase your self-confidence. This way, you can get an effective basis for advancement in a certain area, which will affect your quality of life.
The more you believe in yourself, the more opportunities open up to you – watch movie characters or check real people's stories, where their success directly depends on their self-confidence. This activity also makes it easier to interact with others and to express your thoughts and ideas, which is a key soft skill. Most people are drawn to self-confident people.
Strategic thinking
The ability to plan wisely, see cause-and-effect relationships, and think ahead are important soft skills for work and personal life. By preparing for and taking IQ testing, you can determine how good you are in these niches. Strategic planning helps you clearly formulate goals and objectives, understand yourself, identify unique features, and objectively assess reality. A life lived according to a plan is much easier and calmer than one lived in chaos.
Creative thinking
Creative thinking is the ability to generate new ideas, find non-standard solutions and mentally propose alternative approaches to problems. Many tasks in IQ tests require creative solutions. Finding such solutions is not so easy, because testing helps to determine your creative abilities and work on them. Obviously, many qualities are inherent from birth, but many others can be learnt and developed by conscious practice.
In the modern world, creativity is an important skill in many professions, since most of the machine work is given to robots or artificial intelligence.
Emotional intelligence
Of course, emotional intelligence and IQ are different things. However, logical thinking is the basis for understanding other people's feelings. After all, in order to understand the feelings of another person, you need to be able to mirror situations, look at them from different angles and take into account the details. IQ testing results demonstrating a person's level of emotional intelligence can be a litmus test for empathy.
Teamwork
IQ tests can be a useful tool for building and leveling up a team, and this is especially useful for departmental or company managers. After all, if a team is to work in symbiosis, then all participants must complement one another.
By applying IQ test results to assess the strengths and weaknesses of team members, you can build the skills of effective interaction and cooperation. This includes the ability to distribute tasks and find common ground including different personalities in a diverse team.
Conflict resolution
By combining aspect of these previous points, you can develop a new soft skill – conflict resolution. The ability to think critically and analytically, as well as high emotional intelligence, create a foundation to competently resolve conflicts. An ability to logically analyze a situation will help in identifying the root causes of conflicts and develop effective solutions. People with high IQs can better understand the motivation of other people, which helps in negotiations and finding compromises in conflict situations.
IQ testing can reveal the unexpected strengths and weaknesses of a person. However, it is important to remember that tests can also produce results with errors. Therefore, do not get upset if you think that the results are wrong as mistakes can occur.
Such a test with correct results is definitely useful for everyone, because it opens new doors and spheres, possibilities and fields, as well as areas for study and development. Although IQ tests are mainly designed to measure cognitive abilities, they can actually contribute to the development of a variety of soft skills. Try it yourself and keep track of your strengths.
As for your areas of weakness, work on these and improve your talents! Soft skills and emotional intelligence are essential values in the 21st century.
Increasing self-awareness, improving critical thinking, time management, self-confidence and developing teamwork are all skills that will significantly affect your career and personal life. Use IQ tests as a tool to understand yourself and your capabilities, and you can significantly improve your quality of life. You will definitely not regret it!