IQ versus EI

Nowadays intelligence is the most asked-for article of trade. The rapid development of science and marketing raises the need for workers of various specialities. In the second half of the twentieth century the ideal worker was a single-functioned specialist, who mastered his/her profession and didn't have to interfere in other scientific and professional spheres. Nowadays the situation has changed greatly. Singled-functioned workers are insufficient nowadays as the amount and quality of work increases. At present the most needed specialists are those who combine several specialities, can tackle with several theoretical and practical branches and fulfil many tasks simultaneously. For example today each worker apart from his/her particular speciality must deal with computer, know several foreign languages and so on. The fact that these specialists occur rarely, despite the great demand in them, leads to extremely high wage rates for those handful of workers, who can combine several specialities. Besides, abilities and skills of quick perception and processing a huge amount of information, leadership, ability to control one's emotions and emotions of other people are also valued greatly.

These abilities indicate the presence of emotional intelligence. This term was invented as an alternative to IQ. The matter is high level of IQ is not sufficient for a professional worker. The invention of the term EI was caused by the fact that the majority of employees with high level of IQ didn't show the required potential for fulfilling their tasks, as they were expected to demonstrate. When this feature was noticed, psychologists and HR-managers began to think what the problem was. They analyzed many cases and were surprised by the fact that in most cases brilliant schoolchildren and students didn't become leaders, bosses, chiefs, etc. On the contrary mediocre pupils and students, who were not successful in their studies easily became leaders and played the first fiddle. Later it was discovered that high level of IQ is not the main condition to be successful in life and career. Scientists determined that in order to be a success, a person must not only be clever and intelligent, but also be able to understand him/herself and emotions of other people. High level of EI means the inclination to leadership and managing abilities.

EI has two main dimensions. The first means self-understanding, adequate self-appraisal and ability to create interpersonal relationships, inner motivation and incentives. The second dimension implies the ability to apprehend other people, to hear and listen other people, the ability to build and maintain interpersonal relationships.