¶ … Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Impacts Business Today The article discusses how emotional intelligence (EQ) impacts business today in light of its increased use in the modern business environment. The discussion begins with an evaluation of the concept of emotional intelligence and the reasons it was introduced by Daniel Goleman in 1998. This is followed by an evaluation of the difference between emotional intelligence and intelligence quotient and the use of the concept of emotional intelligence in business today. The last two sections examine the effect of the use of emotional intelligence on business today and the reason for the increased demand for employees with high emotional intelligence.

Companies once believed that hiring individuals with high Intelligence Quotients (IQs) was a reflection of a sound recruiting strategy until the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) emerged. Emotional Intelligence introduces a new way of looking at the root cause of the successes and failures of several business professionals. The concept explains why some people with Intelligence Quotients flounder, and why those with moderate IQs do surprisingly well. As a result, Emotional Intelligence is a term and concept that is being increasingly within human resource departments and slowly finding its way in the executive board rooms. Generally, emotional intelligence is becoming a major concept in the modern working environment as a replacement of the concept of Intelligence Quotient. The concept is simply described as how well people understand and manage their emotions as individuals and how well they develop and maintain relationships with others. As the concept has created a lot of buzz in the business world, it's important to examine why managers want people with high emotional intelligence not intelligence quotient.

The Concept of Emotional Intelligence:

The concept of emotional intelligence was introduced to a wide audience by Daniel Goleman in 1995 when he published a book on the subject. He was also the first person to apply the concept in business in 1998 when he published an article on the topic in Harvard Business Review. Goleman was one of the main researchers who examined how to describe emotional intelligence and the behaviors that demonstrated skill or lack of it when using this concept. His research work included conducting a survey of approximately 200 large, global companies. Goleman discovered that the conventional qualities of leadership such as determination, vision, and intelligence are insufficient though they are required. As a result, truly effective leaders are also differentiated by a high sense of emotional intelligence (Goleman, 2004). In this case, emotional intelligence includes self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, social skill, and motivation. While these qualities of emotional intelligence seem soft and inappropriate for the business world, there is a strong link between emotional intelligence and quantifiable business outcomes or results.

There are many stories of businesspeople who were promoted into executive positions because they were highly intelligent and highly skilled but failed to succeed in the leadership position. On the contrary, there are also people with solid, but not extraordinary, intellectual capabilities and technical skills who were promoted into such leadership and executive positions and achieved much success. These examples support the prevalent notion that identifying people who are fit for leadership positions is more of an art than science. This is primarily fueled by the differences in personal leadership styles and the need for different kinds of leadership in different situations and scenarios.

In his analysis, Goleman found out that the most effective leaders are similar in one major way i.e. they have a high degree of emotional intelligence. While intelligence quotient and technical skills are not irrelevant, they only serve as entry level requirements or threshold capabilities of executive positions. Goleman argued that his research clearly demonstrated that this concept is the sine qua non-of leadership, since it's the key to making a person a great leader. Emotional Intelligence gives an individual the cutting edge and an upper hand that is not realized with intelligence quotient and technical skills. Actually, emotional intelligence is twice as important as the ingredients of IQ and technical skills in promoting excellent performance. Moreover, this concept has played an ever-increasing vital role at the highest levels of organizations, business, and companies where differences in IQ and technical skills are of negligible significance (Goleman, 2004).

As a major concept in today's business, emotional intelligence is based on five major elements i.e. self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills, empathy, and motivation. Self-awareness is having a profound understanding of individual strengths, needs, weaknesses, drives, and emotions (Chastukhina, 2002). As a result, the individual is very honest with himself or herself and is not unrealistically hopeful or overly critical. Self-regulation is an ongoing individual process that frees the person from being a hostage of his/her feelings. People with a high sense of self-regulation tend to have the ability of facing the uncertainties of an improving industry. he/she exercises...

Motivation is the intrinsic desire to achieve beyond expectations while remaining optimistic even in times of failure or setbacks. Empathy is being aware and considerate of other people's feelings and using them as important factors in making decisions. Social skills is the ability to develop some kind of common ground with every individual as a means of being an effective persuader and manager of teams.
Difference between Emotional Intelligence and Intelligence Quotient:

One of the major reasons that contributed to the development of the concept of emotional intelligence is its difference from intelligence quotient. This difference is mainly attributed to the huge variations between the impact emotional intelligence and intelligence quotient in business today. Emotional intelligence is described as a means of measuring how an individual acknowledges emotions in himself or herself and others and managing these feelings to work effectively in a team or group. On the other hand, intelligence quotient is a value that shows an individual's capability to understand, learn, and use information and skills in a beneficial way. The main difference between emotional intelligence and intelligence quotient is that emotional intelligence is based on the ability of a person in managing personal relationships in the workplace while intelligence quotient focuses on measuring concepts like logical reasoning, math skills, and word conception. Consequently, intelligence quotient does not deal with creative potential or emotional capabilities ("What is the Difference Between EQ and IQ?" n.d.). Emotional intelligence is demonstrated in effective management of feelings and developing good relationships in the workplace while intelligence quotient is demonstrated in having great academic success.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ) Competencies

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Competencies

Technical skills

Self-awareness

Cognitive skills

Self-regulation

Math skills

Motivation

Logical reasoning skills

Empathy

Academic success

Social skills

Word conception

Management of feelings

Comprehension

Development of personal relationships

Use of Emotional Intelligence in Business Today:

Since its introduction, the concept of emotional intelligence has created a lot of buzz, attracted huge debate, and publicity in the modern business world. In the early periods of its introduction, the business world was slow to understand the application or use of the concept to an extent that some companies rejected it. Actually, some businesses rejected emotional intelligence because they consider it as a relatively touchy concept to apply to business situations. However, the development and growth of businesses and the society has made it easy for businesses to adopt and use the concept. The increased use of emotional intelligence in business today is fueled by the recognition of the significance of these skills in enhancing productivity and success as well as serving as a key indicator of personal success.

Leaders have traditionally integrated at least four leadership styles in order to promote and enhance their effectiveness. They tend to shift from one style to the other depending on the specific situation at hand or the particular leadership situation. In the past few years, leaders have focused on developing and promoting an emotionally intelligent culture. This is primarily because of the role of that culture in enhancing employees' morale, enthusiasm, and performance. This process involves creating an organization with several characteristics such as an organization that respects assertiveness, encourages diversity, values communication and flexibility, promotes openness and transparency, and bears constructive disagreement.

Impact Emotional Intelligence on Business Today:

The concept of emotional intelligence has revolutionized the modern business environment through its five components that contribute to more workplace achievement than cognitive ability, technical skills, and standard personality. Businesses have traditionally focused their selection criteria on assessment of personality traits and training programs on skills like education, industry knowledge, and technical expertise (Poskey, n.d.). During this period, businesses have focused on topics like empathy, stress management, political or social insight, and assertiveness skills. While these are critical success factors that have direct impact on the bottom line, they are relatively inadequate in achieving more success and productivity.

Based on findings of recent surveys, it's evident that there is a strong link between organizational success or productivity and emotional intelligence. Researchers have confirmed that emotional intelligence not only differentiates outstanding leaders but enhances the productivity and success of the business. For instance, a study on McClelland, a global food and beverage company, showed that when senior managers have huge emotional intelligence capabilities, their departments outperformed annual earning goals by 20% (Goleman, 2004). The…