A High-EQ Mindset

A high EQ mindset maintains the composure whatever be the situation, either being glorified or vilified.

EQ in its simplest form is being aware of our emotions and managing them to get best out of the situation. It’s also about trying to understand other emotions and be empathetic. EQ becomes more critical for leading today’s business dynamic with uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity, but how can we dig deeper into a high EQ mindset? Is EQ fundamentally inherent, hardwired or can be trained to some extent? Or is it circumstantial?



The importance of EQ gets prominence as seniority increases - working with people and getting more complicated tasks done gets more relevance as you grow. IQ is about the ability to reasoning and cognitive skills which are important for the digital knowledge workers today. However, to move up and take more responsibility and accountability, EQ is important as it drives the organization success. Some of the important attributes of EQ are like how do you relate to others problem, are you empathetic, are you optimistic and so on. These skills are required as it helps inspire others, make better decisions, build a team, drive ideas and solve intrapersonal relationships.

Higher EQ helps you have an open mind, minimize biases, be cautiously optimistic, be an effective listener and be more creative. All these qualities become critical when you are leading and have to constantly align and motivate people to follow your direction; when you deal with cross functional peers where you do not have the authority and be persuasive with other senior managers who have the strong opinion about doing things. Higher EQ is not completely equal to political cleverness, especially doesn't mean to tramp down others in order to climb up the narrow corporate ladder, or to win without purpose, principle and professionalism.

Maintain the composure whatever be the situation, either being glorified or vilified. EQ has tremendous relevance in today's world. The high EQ drives a positive mindset and keeps you motivated about life. A leader who neither reacts tremendously when he/she does/sees/receives good praise nor extremely dejected about anything (glorified or vilified) happening to him/her is a hallmark of a human with supreme EQ. He/she maintains his/her composure whatever be the situation - good or bad and understands every event is a passing cloud. Only when one makes this as the second nature, he/she will be empathizing other person's situation and respond positively.

High EQ is the opposite of “ Ego Quotient."High EQ helps a leader in holding a group on a common goal, be confident when things are tougher; and be humiliated when getting complimented- It helps a team member continues to be a good team player by being able to relate to the general group mood, and not be carried away by one's own agenda.
- It is the ONLY way people with diverse backgrounds can relate to each other!!
- Leaders with good EQ use it well to connect and forge strong networks throughout the organization which helps them to reach out to people when they need to.

EQ can make or fail a leader, a big E means to be energetic, emphathic, insightful, motivational or positive; but the small E means ego, extreme thinking; superficial way, negativity or low maturity. A well blended high IQ + EQ mindset is an “intimidated” combination to harmonize the business and human world.