The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And Professional Success
Daniel Goleman, the author who made emotional intelligence popular, pointed out that “at best, IQ seems to contribute only 20% of the determining factors of success.” Historically, it has been believed that the result of a job interview was determined by the score obtained on a standardized test to measure intelligence quotient (IQ), since this variable would be related to greater professional success and job performance. However, although these tests to measure intelligence continue to be used in some cases, IQ has suffered multiple criticisms, some pointing out that the test was biased and others questioning its statistical validity.
Within this sector that challenges IQ, research, articles and texts began to be published in the last decades of the last century that postulated the need to shed light on those “corners of intelligence” that could not be captured by the most accepted test. In the early 1980s, Howard Gardner developed a new model to understand human intelligence, based on multiple intelligences. Later, Mayer and Salovey began to use the construct of emotional intelligence to describe “a type of social intelligence that is based on understanding one’s own emotions and those of others, discriminating between them, and using that information to guide thinking and actions.” ”.
When Goleman published his book Emotional Intelligence, the term sparked interest among the general population and became popular beyond the “psi” field, especially because emotional intelligence would seem to be able to displace IQ in terms of its ability to predict a person’s professional success In this article we will address how these two factors are closely related.
There are several authors who have described this construct, but there is still general agreement that emotional intelligence is the necessary ability to recognize one’s own and other people’s feelings, being able to manage them when connecting with others. Emotional intelligence provides the ability to positively modify internal emotions and relationships with others, since some authors claim that emotional intelligence could influence emotions, thoughts and the will to act.
People who are emotionally intelligent are aware of their own emotions, and to achieve this, they must be in the present moment, living in the here and now Additionally, they are able to regulate emotions so that they do not intensify to the point of obstructing their ability to understand other emotional states. In a way, people with high emotional intelligence can “take off the glasses” of a very intense emotion to observe their own thoughts and other emotions beyond the first one.
Five skills related to emotional intelligence
For his part, Goleman indicates that there are five personal and social skills that are related to emotional intelligence:
The value of empathy in the world of work
Having laid out the main qualities of people with emotional intelligence, it is increasingly clear how useful emotional intelligence could be for the realization of personal projects and the establishment of healthier social and emotional ties It also demonstrates the reason why companies and organizations increasingly want to recruit people with these types of characteristics: empathy gives rise to many skills necessary for work and professional success. Empathy involves understanding others, but also helping them develop at work – a key aspect in relation to leadership; Empathy helps you take advantage of diversity in the work environment, handle difficult situations, and work as a team. Empathic people have the necessary social skills to know how to communicate without hurting the other person, but defending their own position and interests with the aim of obtaining what they want or reaching an agreement.
The relationship between professional success and emotional intelligence on an experimental level
Goleman proposed that a person could have an average or even below-average IQ and still be more successful professionally than a person with a high IQ but lacking the skills to recognize their own emotional states and those of others. Although these types of statements, so forceful, are extremely captivating, over the years experimental and correlational studies have been carried out that provided a certain scientific rigor to Goleman’s initial contributions. These investigations asked whether emotional intelligence could really predict professional success and job performance with such certainty.
To point out some studies, in 2006, Cameli and Josman found in a sample that emotional intelligence was positively related to performance in solving a task; In 2010, Jorfi and collaborators found in a group of managers and employees in the educational administrative area of Iran that emotional intelligence had a positive impact on their work performance. These are just two cases among hundreds of studies that have been carried out around the world in recent decades, which indicate, in general terms, that Goleman’s theoretical contributions are also valid when contrasted with empirical data We can affirm, then, that emotional intelligence is closely linked to professional success, so it is a skill that all people who wish to undertake a work or personal project should try to cultivate.
