Today I am recommending the book, “Emotional Intelligence 2.0” by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves.
The authors list three major influencers of human behavior:
- Personality
- IQ (traditional intelligence)
- Emotional intelligence
The first two factors are generally not amenable to change. A person’s personality tends to be stable over time. IQ is typically the same at age 15 as it is at age 50. Of these three influencers, emotional intelligence (EQ) is the only one people can really change.
Four different areas of emotional intelligence
There are four different components of EQ. that build on each other. Truthfully, everybody has at least some room to grow in each area.
- Self-awareness refers to the ability to recognize one’s emotion in the moment
- Self-management refers to the ability to use awareness of one’s emotions to make beneficial choices regarding behavior
- Social awareness refers to the ability to accurately perceive emotions and other people
- Relationship management refers to the ability to perceive emotions in oneself and others in order to successfully interact with other people
The authors have developed a test to measure EQ in those four areas. Each area is scored from 0 to 100 points. After taking the test, there are specific practices a person can do to actually increase their EQ. After doing these practices, a person can retake the test to see how much improvement he or she has made.
EQ has a huge impact on income
I am primarily interested in EQ because of how it affects other people. But I find the impact of EQ on the person’s income to be especially fascinating, mostly because it is so quantifiable.
- There is a $29,000 difference in annual income between folks with high EQ and folks with low EQ.
- More specifically, each increased point on the EQ test score translates to an increase of $1,300 in income each year.
I really believe helping people improve their EQ would make the world a much more pleasant place where people are able to contribute meaningfully to society. Right now, I’m wondering if the promise of financial benefit would be enough of a motivator to get a lot of people started on this path of personal improvement. I’m figuring, heck, it’s worth a try!
Check it out the benefits for yourself
So whether you are wanting more money or can just see the benefit in having better relationships with yourself and others, please consider reading Emotional Intelligence 2.0, taking the test and doing the suggested practices. It certainly couldn’t hurt, but it can help a whole lot.
