Thursday, April 9, 2009

EQ - Your Success-Meter.

I have been reading these “Success Guide” craps for a while now trying to figure out what it takes to be successful in life. Is there any rule for success? Research has shown that IQ (intelligence quotient) regarded as the measure of intelligence is not solely responsible for success. Rather it is not even adequate the measure of intelligence.

In my life I have seen a number of people with high IQ doing well but not exceedingly well. I have failed to establish a relationship of proportionality between IQ and success when I look at the living examples around me. So saying that a child with a very high IQ will surely become a scientist might not always be true. IQ is just the ability to solve logical problems. But does solving logical problem alone guarantee success in life? Well, I doubt so.

Human intelligence has another aspect too called the EQ (emotional intelligence quotient). Emotional Intelligence is how effectively does one understand and manage one’s own emotion as well as those of others. Salovey and Mayer (1990) who defined EI as “the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions.”

Have you ever woke up in the morning and found yourself unhappy or uncomfortable for no reason. Nothing has gone wrong so far. Yet your lovely wife wishing you “good morning” doesn’t make you feel so good about the morning. May be the reason is purely physiological. May be you didn’t have a sound sleep. May be yesterday’s stress still has its “hangover”. Reason, whatsoever it may be, is not going to help your day ahead. An emotionally intelligent person is the one who can “let go” and get rid of this emotional state and motivate oneself to make the day ahead productive. A person with a high EQ will have an accurate interpretation of what he or she is feeling and know better how to manage it.

A few days back, I happened to catch red-handed a team member of mine lying to me about his assignment. He committed to have completed the job when it was half finished. This really made me angry and I shouted at him badly. But probably I didn’t react to the situation appropriately. A person more emotionally intelligent than me would have shown more empathy. Having assessed and understood that it is his insecurity, fear and guilt that he was not able to deliver on time has made him lie, I should have used that information to communicate to him and motivate him to do a better job in future. That would have brought the efficient best out of him. That should have been my end goal.

Good news is that EQ is something which can be worked on and improved. This will require constant hard work and focus. There are number of tools available like books, training and even materials on the internet which can help one improve one’s EQ. You will have to put in conscious effort every single day. But surely with every inch of moving forward you will realize that the dividends waiting for you are probably richer that you realized.

2 comments:

Chandragupta said...

Nice article.. Neatly done..

However, just a suggestion, it would have been better if some external links are provided wrt the training materials on EQ.

Keep up the good work!!

Manas said...

Today i knew what is "EQ"
I think it is one of the greatest thins in the world if u develop ur EQ then u very good understand other people feelings it's very good for u & also other people's because ur attitude so polite .

"YOU KNOW WHEN WHERE WHAT WILL SPEAK"