Key to Success: Be Emotional

Today, success is measured by how much money someone makes. In a recent study of MIT graduates who could afford to make large donations and were very successful came to an interesting conclusion. It found that undergraduates who kept 4.0 gpas were not the most successful. It was the undergraduates who were good enough to get in and get through, but had other abilities already. For example, they were the team captain of a sports team, the club president or started their own business as undergraduates.

In fact, it was found in countless studies that the predictive power of IQ over career success was around 4%. Dr. Goleman describes IQ as a "threshold ability." Intelligence is needed to a certain point but other factors determine success beyond that. Dr. Goleman explains that there are six distinguishing competencies. These distinguishing competencies become more important as a higher level of success is reached.

1. The drive to achieve.
-high internal standards
-working long hours, setting challenging goals
2. Impact+Influence
-making persuasive arguments, proving a point in a debate, finding important points well
3. Conceptual thinking(pattern recognition)
-picking up patterns, seeing what really matters, finding underlying problems
4. Analysis
-breaking problems down, predicting how small changes will effect other areas, anticipating obstacles
5. Taking on Challenges
-being persistent
6. Self-confidence
-being able to work alone efficiently

Out of these six distinguishing competencies, four are related to emotional intelligence and two are related to cognitive abilities. This shows why intelligence is a crude predictor of success. Emotional intelligence(EQ) is clearly more important. The drive to achieve, impact, challenging oneself and being self confident and have little to do with IQ and are instead related to EQ.