There has been a century-long argument about the superiority of the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) over the Emotional Quotient (EQ). Many scientists and researchers find themselves on the supporting side of this table. However, there’s also a substantial number of supporters on the opposing side. But is it true that excelling at logical or numerical activities is much better than acing emotional intelligence? The answer depends on the situation and context, and we agree that for businesses and startups,  EQ outweighs IQ. See the reasons below.  

What is EQ?

EQ, short for Emotional Quotient, is a human emotional behavior and intelligence quality. It is the ability of one to accurately identify and understand what and how they feel and to do the same towards others. In addition, EQ relates to one’s ability to consider an identified emotion or feeling when making a decision. Like every other quotient, the emotional quotient is measurable. The summary of this measurement is termed “emotional intelligence” or EI. 

What is IQ?

IQ, short for Intelligence Quotient, is the quality of general, rounded intelligence expressed by an individual. It relates to one’s logical reasoning and fluid intelligence (learning and understanding new information) capabilities. IQ is also a numerical measure of such natural, fluid intelligence. 

What Role Does EQ Play in a Business/Startup?

EQ is a quality every staff in a business/startup must possess. The reason is quite simple. It is that EQ is responsible for strengthening staff appreciation of the work environment, engagement, and overall psychological and emotional balance. Numerous studies revealed that during the pandemic and post-pandemic periods, founders began to notice and even moved to encourage the development of emotional intelligence (in the workplace). According to such reports, the following are some of what businesses can achieve when this happens:

Trust Building:

Supervisors and managers who are conscious of the emotions or feelings of employees under their care will likely gain their trust. The reason is that identifying the emotions of others and applying the same in making considerate and informed decisions shows a high level of concern. Employees see this as evidence that their supervisors want their well-being. As a result, they find it easy to trust them, creating deep and rewarding connections. Trust builds a workplace team by 

Prompt and Open Communication: 

Trusting someone would always promote prompt and open communication between you and them. In a work environment, this is a must-have for success. Businesses that succeed at building trust will have staff communicating effortlessly, increasing ease of learning, incident reporting, and conflict resolution. 

Loyalty:

Many people look out for positive and peaceful work environments, sometimes, even beyond earning a good income. The thing is that an environment like this only emerges when supervisors and employees all constantly encourage each other and express a high level of emotional intelligence. Having this in place helps to build employee loyalty towards their roles, fellow employees, and the business or startup in general. Finding a satisfactory income and an emotionally positive landscape in one business or startup might be the recipe for a long-term relationship. Nevertheless, employees will still typically display loyalty and commitment towards their job roles and fellow employees if they consider the work environment as promoting and considerate of their emotional well-being. 

‍What Role Does IQ Play in a Business/Startup?

IQ stands out from EQ as it helps individuals figure their way around tasks. Employees with a high IQ can quickly and easily arrive at solutions to problems, find alternative strategies, and compare different approaches to understand what works best and what doesn’t. In general, these sets of people do things in a way that expresses high cognitive capabilities. The presence of high IQ employees in a business or startup will bring about:

Engage in Complex or Challenging Tasks: 

Individuals with a high intelligence quotient (IQ) are generally brilliant. Depending on the level of their IQ, they may even be considered geniuses in one or more ways. It implies that these individuals can engage complex problems, in specific or everyday tasks. Also, they can be expected to perform remarkably well when attempting an activity for the first time. The role of IQ in a business/startup is to enable bold assessments of new strategies or approaches and to make accurate evaluations of every available step.  

Quick and Easy Task Completion:

Successfully tackling complex tasks can only mean that one will ace the less complex ones. Therefore, since IQ helps tackle complex tasks, it will also enable faster execution of less complex or highly repetitive tasks and activities. This could spell a jackpot for small businesses as they usually require faster outputs and quicker progression toward set milestones or goals. 

‍Improved Research and Development:

Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is linked to the delivery of innovative ideas. This directly interfaces with the research and development growth of a business because IQ in a startup/business setting will enable the assessment of ongoing studies and the application of unique processes to produce new and exciting outputs.  

IQ versus EQ: What are the main differences?

IQ and EQ represent the quality of one’s fluid and emotional intelligence respectively. These qualities are unique and much different from each other. It would explain why they both have varying impacts in a workplace environment. Follow us as we dissect their main differences:

Standardized Tests: 

Standardized tests, created by scientists, allow for measuring the value of one’s intelligence or emotional quotients. These tests are regularly updated and improved to ensure their accuracy and effectiveness. IQ tests vary slightly - one from another - but they all set out to measure specific qualities. They include mathematical skills, memory, spatial perception, and language abilities. Individuals who want to measure their Intelligence Quotient (IQ) have several test options. The most common ones are; the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Raven’s Progressive Matrices, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV), and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). Emotional Quotients (EQ) and the associated intelligence are established through unique tests that check for social skills, self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, and social skills. In other words, EQ tests are designed to assess the abilities, traits, competency, and behaviors of individuals, rather than their cognitive abilities - as is with Intelligence Quotient tests. Multiple test options exist for evaluating emotional intelligence. They include; MHS’ EQ-i 2.0, the Profile of Emotional Competence, and Wong’s Emotional Intelligence Scale, among others. 

Relationship:

Startups, businesses, and workplaces all have to do with people and relationships. For example, employees of a company build relationships when they attend to business customers, and they also do the same when they communicate and engage with their supervisors and fellow employees. Let’s take a look at how EQ and IQ both perform when it comes to relationships. Emotional Quotient (EQ) successfully promotes office and work relationships. Furthermore, emotional intelligence propagates team collaboration and resilience. It is also a great tool for bringing employees closer together and making them feel that they are an important part of the company or business. On the other hand, Intelligence Quotient (IQ) fails at working or supporting office relationships. Instead, it deals with comprehension of tasks and project details or objectives. IQ also helps with filtering information, deep thinking, and quick processing or performance of complex or daunting calculations or activities. In summary, high IQ individuals might have the answers to a customer’s issue but they may find it difficult to understand how they feel and therefore fail at accurately associating or connecting with them.  

Origin:

IQ first appeared in a publication titled; “Inquiries into the Human Faculty and its Development.” Francis Galton is the author of the publication released in 1883. The term EQ came around much later, in the year 1986. It appeared in a doctoral thesis released by Wayne Payne and titled “A Study of Emotion: Developing Emotional Intelligence.” 

Is EQ More Important Than IQ for Business Success? 

Before moving into details, it is worth mentioning that CrunchBase News reports surveying about 100 founders, with 95% percent highlighting the need for EQ over IQ in the context of leadership and about 60% mentioning that it is crucial to introduce EQ in the business or company’s cultural practice. 

Jared Allen’s Meta-Analysis

A study by Jared Allen and co-scientists, referenced in this US Chamber of Commerce article, states that cognitive intelligence or general mental ability (GMA) and EI are crucial requirements for business success. However, the study goes further to say that EI is far more responsible for this success than GMA. The study utilizes 65,826 observations. It explains that entrepreneurship is widely known as an “emotional rollercoaster” since it involves managing failures and successes in an unpredictable mix of emotions. This requires entrepreneurs and business owners to have sound control of their feelings and emotions, bringing us back to the importance of EQ over IQ for business success. 

3 Ways Founders Can Improve Their EQ

Founders can improve their expression of emotional intelligence and even go on to inspire employees or business partners by taking the following steps: 

Intentional Acts:

Developing emotional intelligence will require hitting the gym every day to express conscious and regular efforts at empathy, appreciation, and positive evaluation of people and situations. By being intentional about identifying employee emotions and considering these emotions in the decision-making process, founders can build their EQ muscles. 

Reading Books:

What better way is there to learn and become than to read books, especially those authored by people who are the exact reflection of what you wish to become? Founders can become better emotionally intelligent people by reading books or making personal research about emotional quotients and the people who have successfully built their emotional intelligence. Here are 10 amazing pieces to start with. 

Employing a Personal Coach or Therapist: 

It is common to see people employ the services of personal trainers or therapists in building a habit or achieving a goal, such as losing weight. Similarly, founders can sign up for private sessions with EQ therapists and professionals to speed up their understanding of the concept and their ability to express sound emotional intelligence. 

5 Ways Founders Can Improve EQ in Their Startups. 

Founders can improve Emotional Quotient in their startups by simply upscaling some of the steps they take in developing their emotional intelligence. Here are some examples:  

Encouraging Empathy:

Encouraging kindness and positivity in the workplace is one of the first steps to take in building EQ in a business or startup environment. Founders can achieve this, first, by expressing empathy as much and as often as they can - to people within and around the business. This will position them as a good example and ultimately, as a mentor to employees who want to build their emotional intelligence. 

Providing Access to Coaching Opportunities: 

Just as we mentioned, founders can build their emotional intelligence through private or personal coaching/therapy sessions. But this one method could be applied across an entire business/startup to ensure that employees equally build their emotional intelligence. For instance, a business could organize general EQ coaching and therapy sessions where all employees are required to attend and exchange ideas, discuss their EQ challenges, or express their general perspective on the subject matter.

Rewarding Honesty and Transparency:

A huge part of emotional intelligence is expressing honesty and transparency in dealing with people. That being the case, a business/startup can improve EQ internally by recognizing and rewarding employees who consistently express honesty and transparency. Rewarding honesty, transparency, and general emotional intelligence will make the idea attractive to employees. Moreover, it will encourage them to flex their EI muscles, integrating it into the business’ cultural fabric.

‍Promoting Communication: 

How about asking employees to look at the impactful book on EQ, which you came across last week, or introducing EQ in your discussions with other staff? Taking any of these two communicative actions could significantly increase employee interest in emotional intelligence. Furthermore, simply talking about emotional intelligence could help employees become well acquainted with the subject even when they are yet to read a book or to take steps to practice it. 

Inculcating EQ into Hiring and Training Processes: 

Hiring and training activities offer a huge opportunity for employees to grow and pick on new skills. Businesses can take advantage of this by organizing these activities in a way that presents an opportunity for learning or expressing emotional intelligence. For instance, hiring managers could inform prospective employees of the importance of EQ in the business/startup. In addition, businesses can introduce EQ test questions in their interviews and directly assess the EI capabilities of new employees.    

Conclusion

In summary, Intelligence Quotient helps individual employees succeed at their tasks, whereas Emotional Quotient helps the entire business unite, understand each other, and inch forward together. The weight of EQ over IQ in this context arises from the fact that businesses thrive on relationships (whether with customers, business partners, or authorities). It means that IQ produces solutions and services, while EQ encourages relations with humans, building their interest in the business products and driving their loyalty towards the brand.

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