A leader’s emotional intelligence can improve with age and practice. However, your intelligence quotient or IQ does not change with age. In fact, it is solidified at around age 17. You know those tests that teachers put in front of you at a young age, those measure your intellect. Here is a sample question in case you care about your IQ:
— Two ducks and two dogs have a total of fourteen legs. True or False
Oh and if you want to take a free one online you can go here.
Your Emotional Quotient or EQ is elastic. It can be improved and enhanced over time. EQ includes measures such as Assertiveness, Decisiveness and Independence. Assertiveness is critical for business leaders. Take a look below:
Assertiveness according to Stein and Howard in the book EQ Edge, includes the following three components:
a.) The ability to express feelings to another person.
b.) The ability to express beliefs and thoughts openly even if it is emotionally difficult to do so.
c.) The ability to stand up for personal rights not allowing others to take advantage of you.
Improvement tactics here include making those internal feelings or thoughts more external by sharing them 1:1 at first and then with the group. Consider assertiveness the mid-point between the line of passivity and aggression. Somewhere in between is the sweet spot.
RQ is what I call the Resilience Quotient. The resilience quotient is a combination of your intelligence quotient and your emotional quotient. Here is why:
1.) Resilience is the ability of a person to utilize their intellect and emotional strengths to move forward with their work and lives.
2.) Resilience is the ability of a person to take a stand in the midst of an emotional system and stand for their vision and purpose without being infiltrated by the emotions of others.
3.) Resilience is facing discomfort and moving forward with courage.
Just like with EQ your RQ strengthens or weakens like a muscle as you practice leveraging your strengths and managing your behavioral weaknesses.
Today RQ is critical for leaders. The ever changing, ever opinionated and ever expanding world can infiltrate the leader’s ability to lead with passion and purpose.
All three of these quotients matter and yet by themselves they do not mean a great deal. In other words, looking only at one’s intellect or only one’s emotional intelligence does not predict future success. The ability to be resilient impacts today and will no doubt impact your tomorrow.
Why? It is not going to get any easier to lead businesses and to reach objectives. In fact, it will get more complex. So why not synthesize our IQ and EQ and move forward with Resilience?