“Emotional intelligence is the foundation of leadership. It balances flexibility with toughness, vision with passion, compassion with justice.” – Amit Ray
If you have been in industry long enough, you have most likely heard that the level of emotional intelligence a person has can be a success factor in leadership competency.
In fact, more than a decade ago, American psychologist Daniel Goleman highlighted the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership, yet true leadership success requires more than just a high level of EQ.
Newtonian models of leadership required the leader to have a level of IQ to understand the systems, structures and processes that were required for success in the industrial organisation. Cognitive intelligence too, is clearly a requirement for success in leadership but it requires more than just a high level IQ also.
This new age requires different levels and areas of intelligence, since the focus of work in the 20th century was on performing the right processes, whereas in the 21st century the focus is on obtaining the right outcomes.
This shift to the new era of work, requires a new era of thinking and the Quantum Leadership Framework is born out of the understanding that true leadership success requires whole brain thinking.
Whole brain thinking requires a combination of intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual intelligence.
True Leadership Success = IQ + EQ + PQ + SQ
Let’s break down the four areas below, with their importance and how you can increase your level in each one.
IQ – Intellectual (or Cognitive) Intelligence
IQ, short for Intelligence Quotient, is a total score derived from a set of standardised tests used to measure or assess human intelligence. It’s otherwise known as a number representing a person’s reasoning ability as compared to the statistical norm for their age.
Having a high level of IQ obviously has its advantages in leadership when faced with business challenges that require a level of problem solving and cognitive ability, but it’s not the be all and end all of successful leaders, and if you are worried about your IQ level impacting on your ability to perform in your field, you shouldn’t. Studies have shown that education or lifelong learning can improve your IQ.
So what does this mean for the average among us?
Enrolling in classes or courses of higher learning and researching topics such as science, philosophy, symbolism, psychology and leadership are proven ways to improve your IQ. Also, surround yourself with people and organisations where lifelong learning exists.
I remember hearing a quote from Jim Rohn, America’s business philosopher.
“You become the average of the five people you spend the most time with”.
In this case, if you want to be a ‘smarter’ leader, look for ‘smart’ people and spend time with them.
EQ – Emotional Intelligence
EQ, short for Emotional Quotient, is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathise with others, overcome challenges and resolve conflict. One of the key benefits of emotional intelligence is that it helps you to build stronger relationships, a critical part of being an authentic leader.
It can also help you to connect with your feelings, turn intention into action, and make informed decisions about what matters most to you.
Emotional intelligence is commonly defined by the attributes of Self-management, Self-awareness, Social-awareness and Relationship management.
It’s obvious that being able to recognise and regulate your emotions and how they affect your ability to think, behave and to respond to the world around you and in connection with you is a superpower for leaders of the new era.
Being able to recognise and regulate your emotions and how they affect your ability to think is a superpower for leaders of the new era.
Higher levels of emotional intelligence also correlate with the ability to understand emotions, needs and concerns of other people and show that you have empathy and can recognise the dynamics in a group or larger organisation.
So how can you raise your EQ to make you a better leader?
Spend time learning principles and practices for improvement in self-awareness and self-management, become more socially empathetic and focus on service rather than self.
Traditional leadership training such as conflict resolution, change management and relationship management will also help to build your overall capabilities in developing and maintaining good relationships, communicating effectively and inspiring and influencing others.
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom” – Aristotle.
PQ – Physical Intelligence
PQ, short for Physical Quotient, is ultimately concerned with understanding our body, creating a positive relationship between our mind and body, actively working with our physiology to create better conditions for our body to thrive and ensuring we take steps to minimise harm to our body.
PQ is about how well you understand the mind-body-spirit connection. How well do you understand the importance of exercise, sleep, nutrition and mindfulness on your ability to function physically? Are you able to listen, identify and respond to internal messages about hunger, pain, depression fatigue etc?
Physical Intelligence is about how well you understand the mind-body-spirit connection.
At a core level, PQ is linked to your ability to perform at a high level. For leaders, this becomes critical because if you’re not looking after yourself, how can you look after others?
Working on your physical intelligence is akin to how you should use the oxygen mask in an aeroplane. You must put the mask on yourself first, before you can help others.
Increasing your PQ is one of the easier areas to work on. Learn about and understand your mind-body-spirit connection. Yoga, meditation, mindfulness, nutrition, exercise, mental and physical wellbeing programs are all places to start.
SQ – Spiritual Intelligence
As you know, we live in a world where science and spirituality are coming together. It’s one of the fundamental reasons we need to recognise and develop Quantum Leadership.
Spirituality can often conjure up associations with religion, for obvious reasons, but spiritual intelligence has nothing to do with religion. SQ or Spiritual Quotient, is rooted in the thinking with which we challenge our assumptions and change our mental models.
Spiritual intelligence has been defined as the human capacity to ask questions about the ultimate meaning of life and the integrated relationship between us and the world in which we live.
It’s the need for and access to meaning, vision, value and purpose.
It comes with a greater awareness of the paradigms and world view of others and the power and limitation of human perception and an awareness of spiritual laws and transcendental oneness.
Call it God, The Force, Consciousness, The Universe, Spirit, The Great Grand Mystery, or whatever, this transcendental oneness, this quantum science proof that everything is interconnected and that we are all intrinsically linked as part of the same quantum universe is the foundation of Quantum Leadership.
With higher levels of Spiritual Intelligence comes a greater awareness of the paradigms and world view of others and the power and limitation of human perception.
So how do you enhance or increase your spiritual intelligence?
Here are a few ways to get started.
- Practising stillness through meditation, mindfulness, yoga or breathwork
- Develop self-awareness
- Live with purpose and intention
- Understand that everything is interconnected
- Be open and present
Hopefully, you can see that focusing only on EQ or IQ as the success factor for leadership competency, you miss out on critical intelligence areas that are key to becoming a Quantum Leader.
By understanding yours and other people’s different intelligences, you can more effectively deal with people’s different talents and more effectively lead yourself and others into the 21st century with authenticity and awareness.