Your Career Success = IQ + EQ

Being smart is great but won’t necessarily cut it; IQ alone is just not enough. Notice that most of your co-workers seem to be as smart as you are but not everyone’s success/career progress is at the same level, there is a key element that most young professionals are missing, something we’re not taught to pay attention to, that’s EQ.

So what exactly is Emotional Intelligence (“EQ”)?

Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, express and control your emotions. It also includes your ability to understand, interpret and respond to the emotions of others. Once you have understood the various emotions, you use this information to guide your thinking and actions.

How does Emotional Intelligence advance your career?

Excelling early has more to do than just understanding the importance of having brains and working hard. Its understanding that learning from others and building certain skills like collaborating, adapting and listening are just as vital in the workplace. Without EQ you could most likely be your firm’s “best kept secret”, and not be valued, acknowledged or even not promoted. Without EQ it’s almost impossible to get the recognition and treatment you might think you deserve.

Don’t limit yourself; work on your EQ before it disrupts your career!

• Being professional means you aspiring for a win-win situation and not just focusing on your own achievements. Not having a well-developed EQ makes is harder for you to realise the importance of that and it could potentially make you seem somewhat selfish to your colleagues and could be detrimental to some relationships.
• Confidence is good but arrogance is just a major turn off. No employer looks for arrogance in their future employee. Arrogant people tend to think they know everything and no one can teach them anything. With no EQ you’ll probably find it hard letting people teach you and probable won’t realise that you can learn something new from every single person you come across, which could stunt your professional growth.
• It’s okay to be in touch with your emotions, but letting them control you, your mind and actions could derail your career. Emotional people are not always fun to work with. Not having that emotional control could strip you from certain opportunities, team projects and even professional relationships.

It’s pretty evident that EQ is a strong predictor of success, and obviously the level of EQ required for various jobs will differ. For example, someone in sales is required to succeed better in a job if they have a higher EQ, compared to someone in IT. But nonetheless, EQ is important. And not realising the importance and thinking you can go without working on it will only limit or slow down your professional growth and possibly destroy career opportunities that may come your way.