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March - 2016 - issue > In My Opinion

EQ Trumps IQ for Job Q

David Raj
EVP & Chief HR Officer-CSS Corp
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
David Raj
The IT sector today needs students with the ability and confidence to carry themselves as professionals, a string of degrees is just not enough anymore.

The adage 'Survival of the fittest' first coined in 1854 by the sociologist Herbert Spencer, holds good today 160 years later too. In fact it is only becoming more relevant as our world becomes even more competitive, manipulative and extremely skilled. Only the fittest, smartest and most confident will survive- truer now than ever before.

So we need to define what 'fittest' means in today's context? In this dynamic world, that is still a subject of exploration and academic debate.

Twenty years ago, a new factor took over the definition of fit, or competent. A new concept, that of 'Emotional Intelligence' started posing a challenge to the age old measure of brain power - 'Intelligent Quotient' (IQ) as the single most critical factor for success in a career.

Emotional Quotient (EQ) focuses on life skills, giving importance to emotional awareness of self and others, where the inter-personal context of the interaction with multiple stakeholders becomes important. Viewed in this perspective, business is all about stakeholder management - understanding the business and needs of the customer, and providing the solution, to be successful in the market. Contrary to this, IQ always dealt with a person's analytical, arithmetic and logical reasoning skills, all about academic content.


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