IS EQ MORE
IMPORTANT
THAN IQ FOR
HEALTH,
HAPPINESS
AND SUCCESS?
By learning how to identify, understand and manage emotions in a positive way, you can help
members, clients and staff perform better and achieve more.
WORDS: LEISL KLAEBE
ust as a fit body has endurance,
strength and flexibility, a fit mind
also has distinct capacities:
mental
agility,
attention,
situational
awareness and ‘emotional intelligence’ (EQ).
But what exactly is EQ, and how can it
benefit fitness professionals, managers and
business operators?
EQ is the ability to recognise your own
and other people’s emotions, to discriminate
between different feelings and to label them
appropriately. It is the ability to identify,
use, understand and manage emotions in a
positive way. EQ enables you to empathise
with others, overcome challenges and
defuse conflict.
Unlike
IQ
(intelligence
quotient),
which tends to remain relatively constant
throughout your life (although not as fixed
as once thought), EQ can be more easily
developed and honed over time.
J
The EQ-success association
EQ information can guide thinking and
behaviour, and it just might be that EQ
matters more than IQ when it comes to your
health, happiness and life success.
Being in touch with your feelings
allows you to manage stress levels and
communicate effectively with other people,
two skills that enhance your life both
personally and professionally. EQ has also
been proven to make you a better leader.
So why does this affect the fitness
industry? Because we are leaders of
change. If you could develop yourself so
that you were a more effective leader,
would you do so?
Daniel Goleman first brought the term
‘emotional intelligence’ into popular
consciousness when he wrote a book on
the subject and then applied the concept
to business in a 1998 Harvard Business
Review article.
Goleman
researched
200
global
companies and found that while the
traditional
leadership
qualities
of
intelligence, toughness, determination and
vision were necessary for success, they
were insufficient. Truly effective leaders,
he found, were also distinguished by a
high degree of EQ. In addition to traditional
leadership skills, they possessed selfawareness,
self-regulation,
motivation,
empathy and social skills.
Goleman found direct ties between EQ
and measurable results. His article remains
the definitive reference on the subject,
and his findings presented some dramatic
conclusions. Although intelligence was a
driver of outstanding performance, cognitive
NETWORK SUMMER 2015 | 55