Emotional Quotient (EQ) and Leadership Effectiveness

Emotional Quotient (EQ) or Emotional Intelligence (EI) is increasing becoming relevant and important for leadership effectiveness. Recent studies indicate that EQ is a powerful key to effective leadership and also human resource management as up to 90% of the difference between outstanding and average leaders is linked to EQ. It is also interesting to note that so many leaders with high Intelligent Quotient (IQ) fail whereas those with less intellectual endowment are extremely successful leaders. We often find in organizations several leaders with PhDs but poor leadership skills due to poor level of EQ. We have several such examples in Sarawak and also in other states in Malaysia. Therefore, it is important to note that the success or failure of an organization is highly attributed to leadership. As a result the leadership development is crucial element in any organization.

Leaders in organizations today are also being judged by a new yardstick, which is how well they are able to handle themselves and others at workplace. The EQ yardstick is increasingly being applied to decisions regarding the hiring and firing of employees, who will be retained and who will be sidelined and who will be promoted. It is said that in the corporate world a person is recruited on the basis of his or her IQ, but is promoted on the grounds of his or her EQ. Unlike IQ, EQ grows as we grow and EQ skills can be learned and nurtured.

With the knowledge of EQ, leaders will be able to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, and also the strengths and weaknesses of their subordinates. Besides they will also be able to use their own strengths to overcome their weaknesses through continuous learning and at the same time successful in motivating their subordinates in achieving the goals of the organization.

What actually is EQ? Daniel Goleman, who is a well known author of books in EQ, defines EQ as "the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships". Dalip Singh, another famous EQ author, on the other hand defines it as “the ability of an individual to appropriately and successfully respond to a vast variety of emotional stimuli being elicited from the inner self and immediate environment”. According to Dalip, EQ constitutes three psychological dimensions namely emotional competency, emotional maturity and emotional sensitivity, which motivate an individual to recognize truthfully, interpret honestly and handle tactfully the dynamic of human behaviour.

We are all aware that people are the most important resource for any organization and people in organizations today comes from a diverse background. They differ not only in nationality, race, ethnic origin and culture but also differ in attitude, values, perception, personality and also motivation. As a result, a good knowledge of people management also includes good knowledge and most importantly the application of EQ principles. In simple terms, EQ can be defined as knowing what feels good, what feels bad, and how to get from bad to good.

Bala facilitating the workshop session

At Curtin University of Technology, Miri Campus, staff are constantly engaged and involved in various in-house training and development programs organized by the Human Resource Department. The university believes and invests in staff development as this is essential for the achievement of the university’s vision and mission, besides looking ever forward. Recognizing the important of EQ and leadership effectiveness a workshop was recently organized at the university. The workshop was facilitated by Mr Balakrishnan Muniapan, who also lectures human resource management at the university's Business School. During the workshop Bala exposed the participants with the basic principles of EQ which includes understanding the self, managing the self, understanding other and managing others. References were made to both western and Vedic models of EQ in his session.

The first principle of EQ is the understanding of the self, which is crucial for any leaders. This involves high self-awareness and having an accurate understanding of who you are, how you behave, how other people perceive you, recognizing how you respond to others, being sensitive to your attitudes, feelings, emotions, and general communication style at any given moment and being able to accurately disclose this awareness to others. Managing the self is another principle of EQ, which refers to the capacity or the ability to soothe oneself, management of time and stress and this also includes the ability to shake off the anxiety, despair, anger and irritability.

Understanding others is the third principle of EQ and it involves the awareness of others feeling, need and concern, while the fourth principle of EQ is managing others, which involves being able to help others deal with their feelings and emotions in productive ways and assist them in increasing their awareness about their own impact on others.

Participants are actively engaged in discussion on EQ related case studies during the workshop

In the workshop, Bala also described the Vedic model of EQ which eventually moves into another dimension of intelligence called the spiritual intelligence or SQ. The Vedic model goes deeper into the dimension of understanding the self. It explores the understanding of three levels of the body, which are the physical, subtle (mind, intellect and the ego) and the real self. It also includes the area of the leadership of the mind as it is often said that the mind can be the best of friends for one who has conquered it but for those who have failed to control it, the mind can be the greatest enemy.

The interactive workshop also included EQ based case studies and discussions besides an EQ test for the participants to understand their own level of EQ. With a good understanding of EQ it is hoped that leaders will be mentally and emotionally strong and firm in driving the organizational resources (human resources) towards achieving the vision and mission.

For further information, please contact:

Ms Renee Foong,
Public Relations Assistant,
Corporate Communications Unit,
Curtin Sarawak Malaysia

T: + 60 85 443939
D: + 60 85 443806
F: + 60 85 443838
E: renee.f@curtin.edu.my or corpcomm@curtin.edu.my