Intelligence quotient vs Emotional quotient

Smartness cannot be an excuse for character flaws in any profession. These days, an individual’s personality makes a huge impact in every industry, informs David Raj.

The IT sector today needs students with the ability and confidence to carry themselves as professionals, and a string of degrees is just not enough for them to be successful. The term ‘Survival of the fittest’ first coined in 1864 by  sociologist Herbert Spencer holds good even today. 

In fact, it is only becoming more relevant as our world becomes even more competitive, manipulative and extremely skilled. Only the fittest, the smartest and the most confident will survive.

So we need to define what ‘fittest’ means in today’s context. In this dynamic world, that is still a subject of exploration and academic debate. Twenty years ago, a new factor took over the definition of fit or competent.  A new concept, that of ‘Emotional Intelligence,’ started posing a challenge to the age old measure of brain power - ‘Intelligent Quotient’ (IQ) as the single most critical factor for success in a career. 

Emotional Quotient (EQ) focuses on life skills, giving importance to emotional awareness of self and others, where the interpersonal context of the interaction with multiple stakeholders becomes important. 

From this perspective, business is all about stakeholder management:

 understanding the business and needs of the customer, and providing the solution, to be successful in the market. Contrary to this, IQ always dealt with a person’s analytical, arithmetic and logical reasoning skills, all about academic content.

But out of these, which is more critical for a career in IT? What determines professional success – IQ, or EQ? Industry leaders often say, “We hire people for attitude and train them for the skills”. So their focus while hiring is - Can he do the job (competence) versus will he do the job (motivation) versus will he fit in (team player).

Job quotient need 

Today, the rules of the workplace are rapidly changing; a new yardstick is being used to judge people. It does not measure mere smartness or academic qualifications or even expertise. Instead, it measures how well you are able to handle yourself and others, in a corporate role, in a team and in a customer-facing role. 

This yardstick is increasingly being applied in corporate hiring, firing and appraisal decisions and this new criterion will decide successes and failures. Every student or interviewee is most likely to be assessed in terms of these emotional abilities, though the scrutiny will never be explicit.

It’s time for students to introspect their ability to handle situations when they are faced with life’s difficult moments - academic or social or otherwise. For a job interview they will need different skills, and that needs a different kind of resourcefulness. 
Seeking out

Most employers look for a positive attitude among students, along with a willingness to learn, openness to new information, new environment and challenges. The right attitude will help the organisation to clearly predict the behaviour or actions of the individual. Organisations insist on the right attitude because once formed, attitudes do not change easily.

Today’s students lack clarity of thought. They do not asses themselves correctly, and as a result, lack the much-needed self-confidence. 

Accurate self -assessment will help the student to know his or her areas of weakness or strengths and that will help to plan on how to focus on his strengths and sell those in an interview.

Today, organisations focus on ethical practices and hence demand students with good foundational ethics and values. Trustworthiness and conscientiousness are few expected behaviour strengths that go a long way to impress. These traits will help the students create trust and win the confidence of others. 

A student who takes initiative and has a strong motivation for achievement is always the obvious choice of the interviewers, since this attitude will foster a high performance culture in the teams and also motivate others.

As a new employee needs to deal with customers (internal and external), customer handling skills, service orientation and an empathetic mindset are few traits industry expects today from students. The team work culture demands good communication skills, ability to influence others and a strong tendency to work with teams.