Intelligence - Of The Emotional Kind

Judy Olian

(Judy Olian is Dean of Penn State's Smeal College of Business and a leading expert in strategic human resources management.)

Look around and consider the career profiles of people you know in senior sales, management, or leadership positions. I bet you've come to the conclusion that it isn't necessarily the impressively brilliant that rise to the top. Odds are that a lot more than mere cognitive intelligence determined the achievements and sustained accomplishments among these success stories. In fact, non-cognitive factors may be more telling as an explanation of triumph and survival at the top.

In the mid and late nineties, Daniel Goleman, a researcher and former New York Times reporter, publicized the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in our social lives. His second book, "Working with emotional intelligence" (Bantam, 1998), described EI research relevant to work settings. What is EI? In contrast to cognitive or analytical intelligence (the standard IQ), EI is a form of "social" intelligence providing people greater insight into their own and others' emotions. The critical elements of EI are self awareness of one's strengths and weaknesses and how they impact others, emotional self regulation - judging effectively how to express and control emotions, strong motivation driven from within, and empathy and understanding for others.

This form of intelligence gives high EI individuals an edge in reading or adapting their behaviors to the unique needs of a situation, or to the idiosyncrasies of their bosses, peers, subordinates, customers or business partners. People high on EI tend to be perceived as more interpersonally effective and self confident. They have greater emotional resiliency because they are motivated by internal rather than external drivers. They handle stress well, and are more upbeat or possess "learned optimism" in the face of setbacks that are more effortlessly set aside or overcome. High EI people evoke trust because they are more empathetic and as a result, are more likely to be listened to and believed. Rather than being undecided and incapable of expressing opinions or emotions, high EI individuals are discriminating in picking when and how to display or control emotions.

While standard IQ is critical to getting a foothold into an organization, EI is the differentiator of successful and sustained upward movement once there, according to Goleman. In fact, the importance of EI grows at higher ranks of an organization since IQ is no longer much of a differentiator -- everyone passes the threshold level on that score - and most senior positions rely heavily on relationships. In addition, EI enables people with high IQ to better leverage their analytical advantages. Brilliant strategies usually go nowhere unless the leader or innovator has the capacity to sell them to others who will run with the ball.

Research by Goleman and numerous others provides empirical support for the importance of emotional relative to cognitive intelligence. A 40-year long study of disadvantaged boys (either from welfare backgrounds or with IQs lower than 90) showed that 40 years later, IQ had little to do with their success. According to the study published in Child Development (1985), what mattered most was their ability to control emotions, handle frustration, and relate to others. The Center for Creative Leadership in North Carolina studied senior executives whose careers had derailed. The conclusion was that deficiencies in emotional and not intellectual competencies - weaknesses in handling change, functioning in teams, and managing relationships - were the primary causes of career derailment. Egon Zehnder, the international search firm, analyzed the career patterns of over 500 executives and concluded that emotional skills were more predictive of success than either IQ or relevant work experience. And according to a series of studies in the 80s by researchers Jack Hunter and Frank Schmidt, IQ accounts for at most 25 percent of the variability in job performance with motivation, job context, interpersonal and emotional factors accounting for the rest.

A few organizations have bought into the performance advantages of EI, groups as different as the US Air Force which is using EI to select recruiters, L'Oreal screening retail salespersons, or American Express and MetLife selecting or training insurance salespersons. A couple of MBA programs have added EI to their formal screening criteria to affect the interpersonal dynamics of the student cohorts, as well as enhance the odds of organizational success among their graduates.

With the recent fall of some of the most prominent leaders of private and public organizations, it strikes me that many - though brilliant - are lacking in EI. Several that come to mind would have benefited from greater self awareness of their strengths and mainly weaknesses, from greater control of their emotions (knowing when to hold 'em, and fold 'em), and more effective relationships internal to their organizations as well as with representatives of the public. We are a society extraordinarily focused on ideas and analytical brilliance. The "genius" society (MENSA) is an elite and envied group for those with IQs over 150. In comparison, EI gets little respect. Let's re-evaluate.