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Is IQ Enough? Leadership and Emotional Intelligence
Leadership has been a significant recorded presence in the history of the populace and is one of the world’s oldest preoccupations. Leadership has been evident for over 5000 years from the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and has been a continuing theme amongst philosophers; theorists and entire societies. A pied group of noteworthy historical figures have enacted leadership including Moses, Confucius, Plato, Caesar, Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson, Gandhi, to name but a few. The subject of leadership is familiar to all and it knows no cultural boundaries. The word “leader” entered the English language around the year 1300 and the methodical study of leadership began over 600 years later in the 1930’s. The incessant obsession for leadership is evident when exploring the numerous theories, and publications on the topic. Over the last 75 years leadership has literally been abundantly demarcated different ways by both academics and practitioners. (Cox, 2011)
The purpose of this essay, is to explain if intelligence quotient (IQ) alone, is enough for successful leadership or if other factors are present. One such factor to consider is emotional Intelligence (EI) or also known as Emotional Quotient (EQ) and whether this is just as/or significantly more important than intelligence quotient. This essay will also discuss the ethical dilemmas that professionals in the construction industry are likely to encounter.
So, what is intelligence quotient and where did it come from? Intelligence Quotient is a person’s intelligence measured by way of a given number, the higher the number, the more intelligent the person is determined to be. The first practical intelligence quotient test was invented by two French psychologists between 1904 and 1905, Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon. The French Ministry of Education asked Binet and Simon to help de-termine which students would probably have learning difficulties in school. The government had passed laws requiring that all French children attend school, so it was important to find a way to identify children who would require more specialised support and assistance.
Binet and his colleague researcher Simon, began to develop particular and exacting questions that focused on specific areas that were not explicitly taught in schools, such as attention; memory, and problem-solving skills. Using these questions, Binet deter-mined which questions acted as the best interpreters of school success. (Cherry, 2019)
The intelligence quotient score was in the past a major consideration when companies and organisations recruited staff, especially at middle and higher-level management positions and leadership roles. Those individuals with a high intelligence quotient were given higher level positions, as it was respectfully considered and believed that those people made the best leaders. Companies were managed much like dictatorships with an autocratic style of leadership, the workers emotions and wellbeing were not given much consideration. Using intelligence quotient to determine a person’s position within a company had changed very little until the early 1990s. (Cherry, 2019)
During the 1990s, a theory of assessing leadership came about known as emotional intelligence (EI). Although a relatively new theory, it was not totally an original concept as E.L. Thorndike first coined the idea of “social intelligence” in 1920 and quoted: “social intelligence” is defined as “the ability to understand and manage men and women, boys and girls…to act wisely in human relations”. (Thorndike, 1920)
Ideas started to emerge around people’s emotions and life success and during the 1940s the theorist and psychologist David Wechsler proposed that a range of different, but effectual components of intelligence could play a significant role in how successful people were present in life. The 1950s saw the rise of the ‘school of thought’ known as humanistic psychology, such as Abraham Maslow who gave greater consideration on the different ways that people could build emotional strength. Maslow’s theory is very relevant to emotional intelligence. He suggests that those who can realise their own potential, self-actualisers, naturally have stronger emotional intelligence, and those people who struggle to meet that self-actualisation with needs such as esteem, tend to have lower emotional intelligence. (Maslow,1954). Later around the mid 1970’s Howard Gardner introduced the ‘notion of intelligence’ Gardner said that intelligence was more than just a single, general ability but was a collection of multiple intelligences. (Chapman, 2003-2014).
It wasn’t however until the 1990’s when Theorists and Professors John Mayer and Peter Salovey gave birth to the term emotional intelligence and its relevance to leadership in the business environment. The meaning of emotional intelligence refers to the ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions. Some researchers suggest that emotional intelligence can be learned and strengthened, while others claim it is an innate characteristic.
Mayer and Salovey defined emotional intelligence as: “a form of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and action”. (Mayer and Salovey, 1993)
Mayer and Salovey conducted a broad and significant range of research surrounding emotional intelligence publishing numerous articles of importance. David Caruso, PhD joined Mayer and Salovey some years later, and continued the development of the emotional intelligence, introducing an assessment to become known as “The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso-Emotional-Intelligence-Test” (MSCEIT).
In the article emotional intelligence, “New Ability or Eclectic Traits” (Mayer, Salovey and Cruso, 2008), emotional intelligence appears to be an important component for leadership, and that people who have more sensitive emotions, have a greater positive impact on others due to those sensitive emotions, which enables them to become more effective leaders.
Understanding the difference between intelligence quotient and emotional intelligence, gives the professionals a better understanding in tackling their own unique challenges within their own industry. The construction industry is one of the most labour-intensive, project-based industries in the UK and contributes significantly to the economy, and this is still the case today, coming second only to the service industry. (Department of Business Innovation and skills, July 2013)
The very nature of the business within the construction industry is totally project-based, resulting in employing a very diverse range of people. All having to work together, often on short term contracts. Effective working relationships must constantly be established and maintained. To successfully manage and coordinate all these relationships, it is essential that construction professionals and managers possess a higher level of intelligence, personal characteristics, interpersonal skills and leadership qualities (Shirazi and Hampson, 1998). All these areas are important components of the emotional intelligence superstruct.
A major difficulty confronting many construction companies and organisations is the ability to keep workers motivated for the life of the project, from the first site meeting; throughout the various construction stages, to the final handover and settling outstanding accounts. (Loosemore et al, 2003). Love et al, (2011) identified that when members of the team were motivated, it was easier to identify problems faced during all the construction stages, and solutions to the problems were easily identified.
Songer and Walker, (2004) stated that the ability to be aware of, to understand and appreciate the feeling of others, is not necessarily something that is practiced frequently within the construction industry. The incapability of many construction professionals to control their emotions, and their level of dissipation of emotions might be significant for current and future projects. However, studies have disclosed that construction professionals and managers are somewhat slow to adapt to new and even existing management methods, which include the importance and reasoning of emotional intelligence.
From an organisation or company’s perspective, their concerns within the engineering and built environment, are that construction professionals’ use of non-technological or soft skills such as communication, leadership, teamwork and management have resulted in their careers plateauing, due to gaps in emotional intelligence (Goleman, 2004). Goleman argued that it was not intelligence quotient (cognitive intelligence) that guaranteed business success but emotional intelligence. He described emotionally intelligent people as those with four characteristics:
The first characteristic is self-awareness, being good at understanding one’s own emotions, the second characteristic is self-management, being good at managing one’s own emotions, the third characteristic is social awareness, being empathetic to the emotional drives of other people and the fourth characteristic is social skills being good at handling other people’s emotions. This seems logically acceptable at one level, but it also possibly contradicts the reality that most of us experience, specifically and well reported that many of the most successful leaders such as Steve Jobs and Richard Branson are not emotional intellectuals.
However, there is research that disagrees with Goleman’s findings. It turns out that emotional intelligence isn’t the biggest aspect of a leader’s success. This statement is based on a comprehensive data-driven assessment released by Development Dimensions International (DDI) in 2016. Their research was from findings from 15,000 leaders from 300 organisations, across 18 countries and from 20 industries, these findings reflect how leadership shapes business in today’s society. (DDI, 2016)
IQ was calculated using data from the Ravens Progressive Matrices and Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking tests, both standard and accepted measures of cognitive ability. EQ was calculated using data from their global leadership personality inventories collected over the last 40 years, using a combination of two factors: interpersonal sensitivity (it takes one to know one effect) and imperceptivity (reverse coded)
Finally, they looked at which two indices were more critical in predicting assessment centre performance in seven different behavioural skills producing the graphic “Predicting Leader Skills” IQ did a better job in predicting the more business-focused aspects of leader performance, those with business savvy and financial acumen, while EQ, related more strongly to performance in the people focused competencies, such as leading teams and building networks.
Some interesting outcomes from the research showed that as leaders climbed the leadership ladder, the less they used any EQ skills they had learnt and focused more on using their IQ skills they always had. Examples of successful leaders who have a high IQ and poor EQ are Bill Gates whose IQ is 160 and Mark Zuckerberg who’s IQ is 152, that as CEO’s their success may well stem from the teams around them, they can depend on the people around them to compliment their strengths and counter their weaknesses, so they pay for EQ This can be clearly seen from the graphic “The shifting balance of execution versus engagement as leaders ascend” (See Appendix 2)
The research from DDI credibly implies that using IQ to present a strong business case and clear rationale maybe more beneficial, then once the client having been influenced by the business case, using EQ will be the perfect partner to ensure the plan is a success.
So, although theorists have argued over the years on which matters more Intelligent Quotient (IQ) or Emotional Quotient/Intelligence (EQ/EI), in recent years the reality is that both matters equally, just in different measures. So, in the words of Daniel Goleman (2006) from his book Emotional Intelligence: Why can it matter more than IQ. “In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels”
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