In achieving career success the common misconception is that you have to be a top performer at your job. Although this is true during the early stages of a career where you are an individual contributor, how you are measured in later stages of your career may be entirely different. In the individual-contributor role the yardstick by which you are measured is your job performance, which can be analogized to your IQ.Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Political Quotient (PQ) become increasingly more important as one navigates through management ranks. This does not mean that IQ is not important; it merely means that at these levels your IQ becomes your context (background) in which you are measured; it no longer is a differentiator in your career advancement.
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) has to do with how you manage yourself and your relationships with those around you. At higher levels of management it is the relationships that drive how things happen and it is not how clever you are in your area of specialty. Similarly Political Quotient (PQ) has to do with how well you are able to form alliances with those who can make or break your initiatives. In this context, IQ can be seen as a maker, but not a breaker. Whereas EQ and PQ can be breakers–if you do not posses adequate levels of these ingredients they can end your career or at least stifle it. Let’s examine these two “Qs” in more detail:
Emotional Intelligence–EQ
Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is increasingly being regarded as a major factor in professional and personal success, not just in the corporate world, but in general. Many regard this single factor as being more important than the Intelligence Quotient (IQ). Some of the more successful people today in various areas of human endeavor are those regarded as having a high level of emotional intelligence, whatever their IQ. The concept of EQ has to do with how you relate to other people and to yourself successfully. This is one of the factors in the portfolio of soft skills that have become increasingly important in today’s world, growingly dehumanized by the ubiquity of high-technology in our everyday life.
With the growing emphasis on soft skills, employees and managers alike are expected to have the EQ savvy to be able to relate well to others socially and in a business situation. A survey of 1200 successful leaders conducted in late 2005 revealed that the one characteristic that stands out common among all is “affection.” This implies their ability to show affection–even “tough love”–and, in return, be loved stands out as a single attribute that defines a successful leader. This can also be seen a admiration in a constructive way. This does not mean that they are also a successful manager. That entails a different filter, with characteristics such as creating shareholder value, profitability, and other “Wall Street” yardsticks. But, to be a successful manager, at least some ingredients of a leader are required.
John D. Mayer, a noted psychologist, defined Emotional Intelligence as the ability to perceive, integrate, understand, and reflectively manager one’s own and other people’s feelings.
Most people experience a range of both positive and negative emotions at work. For example:
- Satisfaction: You have done a great job at work
- Exhilaration: You just won a major contract or a recognition award
- Pride: You have helped someone out of a difficult situation
- Anger: Someone has sabotaged your work and taken credit for it. Your contribution is not acknowledged properly. Someone trashed your work.
- Frustration: Your recommendation get enthusiastic nod, but then they go nowhere
- Anxiety: You are having trouble keeping up
- Worry: You are wondering if you are next on the chopping block
- Paranoia: You wonder if everyone is talking negatively about you behind your back
- Disappointment: Your project did not get funded and a “lesser” one did
We, as humans, are bundles of emotional energy first, intelligent machines second. When any one or more of these emotions bubble up during the course of everyday work experience, an emotional response is triggered first. As a result even how our brain—the source of our intelligence—is programmed is governed by this response. Acting on such impulses can lead to a response that can cause us regrets later. Emotional intelligence is acknowledging such feeling—positive and negative—but is not acting on them behaviorally. In this regard what Socrates said nearly 2500 years ago still holds true in the context of this topic: “Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs. Therefore, avoid undue elation in prosperity or undue depression in adversity.” The implication of this suggestion is twofold: It behooves us to always act rationally in our own behavior and to show emotion and concern when it relates to our dealing with others.
Emotional intelligence is not a natural gift but a nurtured one. This is why it is worth the effort to understand how to increase your awareness of this factor. The advantages of developing your emotional intelligence are several:
- Improve your self awareness
- Improve your relationships with colleagues, partners, and associates
- Help you keep yourself under control and centered
- Help you lower your stress and keep your emotions under check
- Improve your approachability: this is particularly important for managers and senior executives
- Enable your communication: Dialog openly with others and influence others with less conflict
- Enhance your standing: Influence your colleagues, managers, and customers
- Develop trust: In times of anxiety and turbulence, people will look up to you for guidance, not because you are smarter, but because they will trust you to be centered.
Theories of Emotional Intelligence
The phrase “emotional intelligence” was first coined by two U.S. psychologists John D. Mayer and Peter Salovy in the 1980s. Daniel Goleman, another U.S. psychologist built on their work and later published several books on this topic. He proposed a five-element framework to define EQ:
- Self-awareness: An understanding of yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, and how you appear to others.
- Self-regulation: the ability to manage yourself and think before you act
- Motivation: the drive to work and succeed
- Empathy: how you understand other people’s view points
- Social skills: the ability to communicate and relate to others
Other contributors have expanded on this model and added more elements to the list.
To be able to relate to others, managers, especially, must possess the following competencies in today’s corporate environment:
- To be able to manage themselves and not vent their frustrations on their staff
- Have self-awareness of their real strengths and weaknesses
- Have self confidence in their ability to lead
- Counsel or coach others within their organization and offer advice
- Encourage and mentor others
- Develop good working relationships
Despite a plethora of literature there is no standard way to test for emotional intelligence. There are many free tests available on the Internet and they reflect the flux of where this whole notion is in terms of different views and how EQ is measured. The tests are useful in making people aware of different factors and how they influence the final outcome. Developing your EQ is a lifelong process and hence needs constant attention and vigilance in your everyday social interactions. IQ, on the other hand, is a natural gift, not a nurtured one
For more information visit any of these sites: www.eip.org; www.eiconsortium.org; or www.eicenter.org
Political Quotient (PQ)
If Emotional Quotient has to do with relationships, Political Quotient deals with situations. Situational awareness and knowing of how to deal with emerging situations to best get what you want requires a skill that goes beyond what EQ alone can provide. PQ has little to do with playing politics. There are many disparaging descriptors for that behavior. The following elements can be listed as those that comprise PQ:
- Situational Awareness
- Aptness/Wit; your ability to quickly mobilize your savvy to ace a difficult situation
- Recovery from slips: How you are able to own up your mistakes and finesse corrections to get back on track or even come out on top.
- Ability to build trust both ways in an ongoing relationship
- Communication finesse: ability to communicate with the right mix of emotions and facts to make others follow you and your leadership.
Just as EQ is a nurtured attribute so is the PQ. Savvy managers take special efforts to develop their EQ and PQ attributes because they know the ultimately it is they that will give them the edge in their ongoing career growth.