Sunday brain food master research highlight: Intelligence and Emotions

People often associate someone’s IQ with his or her ability to be successful. And while important to success, IQ becomes less important as we grow in our career. Its value wanes as people start to manage people, build relationships and advance up the proverbial corporate ladder.

Understanding our current EQ score - and putting a professional development plan in place to build on weak areas - will help us tremendously as we progress in our career.

“We're finding more and more that 'soft' skills bring 'hard' results in the business world." - Dunn

People with high EQs tend to have five qualities or competencies in common:

1. Optimism -- ability to anticipate the best possible outcome of events or actions
2. Self-Awareness -- knowledge of current emotional state, strengths and weaknesses
3. Empathy -- understanding of others' points of view and decision-making processes
4. Impulse Control -- ability to mitigate an urge to act (as in: think first and act later)
5. Reality Testing -- ability to see things as they are, not as we want them to be

The more of the qualities a person possesses, and the more they use them, the higher EQ they typically have.

Two tests are available to effectively measure a person's EQ:

MSCEIT developed by Mayer, Salovey, and David Caruso, was the first EQ test. A more updated version was developed by Reuven Bar-On, a psychologist who in fact coined the term "emotional quotient." The Bar-On model (more widely used and validated than the MSCEIT) evaluates in five general areas:

1. Intra-Personal -- ability to be aware of, manage, and express emotions
2. Inter-Personal -- ability to initiate and maintain relationships with others
3. Adaptability -- ability to be flexible, solve problems and be realistic
4. Stress Management -- ability to tolerate stress and control impulses
5. General Mood -- happiness and optimism levels

With the changes going on within associations today and their respective leadership ranks, it is even more important to understand the importance of EQs, both from the volunteer and the professional staff perspective. By doing so, it will only strengthen the partnership and put us at a competitive advantage.

But to succeed in business today, high EQ and IQ combined is not enough. We also need to think about our RQ.

The personal reputation, or brand, is what sets us apart from our colleagues or competitors. It is what people know they can expect from us.

Building personal brand enables us make it to the top of the corporate ladder, skipping a few rungs, because to succeed in today’s dynamic marketplace, we need to be visible and be known for something. We must stand out from myriad others with similar skills and experience. And we must use what sets us apart as the foundation for excelling in our career.

Like with EQ, our RQ can be improved with self-work. Understanding, building and communicating our personal brand will help us increase our RQ - or brand value - and our ability to take control of our career. Building our RQ is a three-step process:

EXTRACT - Unearth Your Unique Promise of Value. Learn what separates you from your peers and is compelling to those who need to know about you so that you can expand your success.

EXPRESS - Build a Communications Plan to Express Your Brand. Identify the tools that you will use to communicate your unique promise of value so that you will become consistently and constantly visible to those around you.

EXUDE - Manage Your Brand Environment. From your desk or office to your voice-mail greeting, you must ensure that everything that surrounds you sends the same on-brand message.

The Winning combination is having -  IQ, EQ and RQ.

Good decision-making requires more than intellect or what we normally think of as IQ cause in the end:

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." - Charles Darwin

Useful links:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2014/04/25/how-good-managers-manage-emotions/

http://mqjeffrey.hubpages.com/hub/Intelligence-IQ-vs-Emotional-Intelligence-EQ

http://www.forbes.com/sites/keldjensen/2012/04/12/intelligence-is-overrated-what-you-really-need-to-succeed/

http://www.reachcc.com/reachdotcom.nsf/3d3ab85617c37d52c1256af500687f55/7fc445a72ce0dbe5c1256af500027f28!OpenDocument

Always Bring "Something More"

Stephen Sondheim, musical producer, wrote: “All the best performers bring to their role something more, something different, that what the author put on paper. That’s what makes a theater live. That’s why it persists.” The best-performing leaders do the same in the roles they choose that life calls them to play - they always bring that beautiful and special ‘something more.’

They are the ones who see challenges as opportunities for change and greatness. They are the ones who see a bigger picture and vision that captures and inspires the imagination. They are the ones who surprise us with the gift of the unexpected, the unique that creates a world of new possibilities. They are the ones who leave us with smile, a warm satisfaction and comfort and a sense of caring after a conversation. They are the ones who rekindle our passion to accomplish our greatest dreams of doing and being, fire our love of life and all its beauty and inspire us to be more than we ever dreamed we could be.

In all that you do, bring “something more” to everything that you do - your profession, your family, your community and those whom you serve. Make life’s theater come alive with your beautiful and special gifts that only you have been given. Inspire us all to greatness and joy beyond our wildest dreams.