IQ vs. EQ

            Intelligence is a rather controversial topic.  It is much desired but little understood. 

            IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient.  It is called such because there was a time when the age equivalent of one’s performance in certain predefined tasks was divided by one’s current age, and the quotient is multiplied by 100 to arrive at a score.  If a person performed at par with age expectations, the score that you will get would fall on or roughly approximate 100.  Following this logic, the higher one’s score is from 100, the more intelligent that person, and the lower it is from 100, the less intelligent.  Although intelligence tests have veered away from this concept of age expectations for at least the last 50 or so years, the name IQ continues to represent a single number that supposedly summarized one’s intellectual abilities.  

            So, what’s the hype with IQ scores, and so what if one has a very high IQ score?  Time and again, research in the west show that current IQ tests are only related to one’s performance in school.  It has little or nothing to do with one’s happiness, work life, family life, or even future success. 

            Over the last decade or so, the term EQ was popularized by Time magazine, when it featured Daniel Goleman’s book called Emotional Intelligence.  EQ was certainly a spin on the more popularly known IQ.  In this book, Goleman highlighted the research of how socio-emotional skills were more reliable indicators of happiness and success in one’s life.  Although there is no test that can definitively measure one’s so-called “emotional intelligence,” Goleman summarized the pervading knowledge about how personal clarity and emotional management can lead to a personal sense of wellbeing and success in various aspects of life. 

            Emotional intelligence begins with understanding oneself well, and striving towards ever greater understanding as one goes through one’s experiences.  It then leads to an acceptance of the person that one is, warts and all.  With this understanding comes a workable mastery of one’s reactions and eccentricities.  One is then able to take responsibility and to find ways to deal with one’s reactions to people, situations, and events.  Over time, one is able to manage one’s emotions well enough to pay attention to and to address other people’s feelings and reactions.  This involves a dynamic process of doing constant self-checks and responding to relevant cues from others.   

            It is said that it is one’s IQ that lands one in a good job, but it is one’s EQ that enables that person to keep that job and to even get promoted.  To some extent this statement is true, depending, of course, on the kind of job we are talking about.  Suffice it to say that when an endeavor requires working with other people, be they superiors, subordinates or peers, there will be a need to use one’s emotional intelligence. 

            Having a high IQ or being smart in the traditional sense has its value. For instance, we have heard of the extreme instance of the recluse scientist whose inventions have led to the marked improvements in the lives of people because of some mathematical equation they were able to prove.  We need brilliant intellectuals and researchers to shed light on some of the biggest problems that we face, and some of these people have ill-developed socio-emotional skills. 

            In the end, what is more important, IQ or EQ?  I say that they are both important.  I believe that our responsibility lies in developing our gifts and potentials.  If we are blessed with a good intellect, we need to nurture that for our own and the benefit of society in general.  Similarly, we also need to learn about ourselves and learn to relate to others in the best way possible.  This also has its obvious benefits.