to work in teams your eq matters more than your IQ

The future of work is team-based. I have discussed my ideal tech model of assembling teams on projects in the same way it has been done for decades in the movie industry. 

Over my years building and delivering with my teams, I have verified that team members with a great EQ will have a better ability to work in teams, adjust to change and be flexible. As the workplace landscape is changing drastically today at an accelerated pace, I am certain that team members without certain emotional qualities will be unable to success, no matter how many degrees or how many paper qualifications they have. It is a very, very radical shift. It also applies directly to (those formerly know as) managers.

There is a direct correlation between EQ success and personal qualities such as perseverance, self-control and skill in getting along with others

Here is a summary of what is largely identified in the literature as the 4 categories of Emotional Intelligence

• Self-awareness: the ability to understand one’s own strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly how one’s actions affect others. A person who is self-aware is usually better able to handle and learn from past mistakes while being able to move forward without constantly dwelling on the past. 
• Empathy: Team members skilled at empathy have compassion and possess the maturity to understand human nature in order to connect with other people at an emotional level. This ability enables them to provide great service and respond genuinely of other’s situations and concerns. 
• Motivation: high-EQ team members are self-motivated, and money or title is not a unique motivator. They’re usually resilient and optimistic when they encounter disappointment and they’re almost invariably driven by inner ambition. 
• Self-regulation: the ability to maturely reveal their own emotions at the right time and the right place, without squelching them, but express their feelings with full control.

Of course as the workplace is rapidly transforming itself into team-based projects, today’s workers, especially the younger generations, are requiring from their leaders to operate in emotionally intelligent ways. The future of work is going away from jobs that simply earn a paycheck, and investing in EQ is key today to acquire, retain and bring more engagement and commitment to your teams.

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My name's phil mora and I blog about the things I love: fitness, hacking work, tech and anything holistic. 
Thinker, doer, designer, coder, leader.
Head of Product at Sikka Software.
 Here's my contact info. ​

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