Emotional intelligence and business development

By Linda Julian

Most lawyers and other professionals have high IQ, but no higher EQ  -  emotional intelligence  -  than the population at large.

"Emotional intelligence" describes our capacity to read the emotional climate and respond appropriately with empathy, adaptability, reality testing, flexibility, and a whole lot more.

A fascinating study of Canadian lawyers looked at EQ and it turned out that "star performers" professionally had both high IQ and high EQ  -  they leveraged their intellectual skills to service clients and practice their profession much more effectively than those who merely relied on high IQ or mere cerebration rate.

Working on your EQ is worth it.

If you suspect you may not be scoring as high on EQ as you do on IQ, the good news is that it is eminently coachable.  You can take rapid and effective steps to improve your EQ  -  not necessarily true of IQ. 

Start with Daniel Goleman's book "Emotional intelligence:  why it can matter more than IQ" published by Bantam, and available widely.