By guest blogger, Aubrey Wursten
Since its inception, employers have recognized that EQ is a leading factor in workplace productivity. In fact, a study conducted by TalentSmart (and cited by Travis Bradbury in Forbes magazine) found that emotional intelligence is the most important predictor of success, beating out the other 33 factors tested. The workplace model easily translates into one that can allow for a more successful home, school, or athletic team. Emotional health provides the building blocks for a marvellous collaboration in any organization.
What is EQ? Sometimes referred to as “EI,” emotional intelligence is the socially adept cousin of the more studious IQ, or intelligence quotient. Instead of measuring your ability to solve aggravating chemistry equations, EQ gauges your ability to tolerate the aggravating lab partner working with you. In fact, not only does an individual with high EQ learn to work closely with said colleague, that individual learns to actually enjoy some of the personality quirks that others would deem intolerable, thereby creating a fulfilling relationship instead of a laboratory personality explosion. Rather than focusing on the academic aspect of psychology theories, emotional intelligence allows us to solve the mysteries of applied psychology that affect our emotional and social health.
In 1983, Howard Gardner first proposed that traditional IQ tests did not measure all aspects of intelligence. He theorized that other crucial aspects of “smartness” existed. These included interpersonal intelligence (the ability to read other people’s intentions and needs) as well as intrapersonal intelligence (a capacity to recognize those motivations and desires in oneself).
If you want to read more, you can buy Daniel Goleman’s 1995 book, boldly entitled “Emotional Intelligence- Why It Can Matter More Than IQ” then bestseller, that helped to popularize the overall concept.
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