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Here’s Why You Only Need Emotional Intelligence To Succeed

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When people were first introduced to the term emotional intelligence, some found this term to be the missing part of the puzzle of one peculiar situation. Namely, people with average IQs often seem to outperform people with the highest IQs, and this happens almost 70% of the time.

This fact dismisses the strongly-believed assumption that IQ is the crucial factor when it comes to success. In fact, studies have proved times and times again that emotional intelligence is the essence that sets apart the master performers from the ordinary people.   

Emotional intelligence is that intangible “something” inside all of us that is responsible for our behavior. It also navigates our conduct in different social situations and makes our personal decisions that often have positive outcomes.  

Emotional intelligence is composed of 4 core skills that are divided into 2 primary competencies – personal and social.

 

PERSONAL COMPETENCE

Personal competence puts the focus on the individual. It is comprised of the individual’s self-awareness and self-management skills. It is an individual’s ability to be always aware of their emotions. It is also their ability to manage their tendencies and behavior.  

Self – awareness is one’s ability to perceive emotions accurately and be aware of them when they happen.

Self – management is one’s ability to be aware of their emotions while staying flexible and positively directing their behavior.

SOCIAL COMPETENCE

Social competence is composed of a person’s social awareness and their relationship management skills. Social competence is one’s ability to understand the behavior, moods, and motives that other people have, to respond efficiently and better the quality of their personal relationships.  

Social – awareness is one’s ability to tell someone’s emotions accurately and understand what’s going on in their mind.

Relationship – management is someone’s ability to use their awareness of their emotions and the emotions of others to manage successfully their interactions.

IQ, Personality, And Emotional Intelligence Are Different

There is no connection between emotional intelligence and IQ because we can’t predict the emotional intelligence of someone measuring how smart one is. These 2 terms are different.

Intelligence is one’s ability to learn and it is not changed with age. Someone can be extremely intellectually intelligent but lack emotional awareness.

On the other hand, emotional intelligence is something that can develop over time. It is a set of flexible skills that can be improved or acquired with practice even if you were not born with them in the first place.

Finally, personality is the last puzzle piece. It is the thing that defines every one of us. It is a person’s inclination towards extroversion or introversion. But it also can’t predict someone’s emotional intelligence. And, like IQ, it stays the same during the person’s lifetime.

The mixture of these 3 elements together is the essence of a person. The emotional intelligence, however, plays the main part of whether someone would be successful or not because it is the only thing that we can work on to improve.

 

Source: Forbes