Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and manage the emotions of oneself and those around oneself. According to Mental Health America there are 5 key elements of emotional quotient, or EQ: self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills, motivation and empathy. 

“If your emotional abilities aren’t in hand, if you don’t have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can’t have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far,” author, psychologist and science journalist Daniel Goleman said.

IQ or intelligence quotient can be seen as an essential part of our current lives. At the academic level, some students focus on the next phase of life like getting into college or earning their next degree. To get into college, most of society deems a person’s IQ as the acceptable standard. For decades, many students prioritize test scores, grades, GPA, extracurriculars, AP exams, the SAT, ACT and so many more number based systems. 

The acceptable standard is a number, but that number hardly reflects the nature of oneself. Personality must weigh in when deeming a person’s value. As Daniel Goleman said, “you are not going to get very far” just based on the numbers. 

What happens after someone finishes their high school career? When they start working, meeting people, and dealing with real-world problems, their IQ won’t matter. 2 decades from now, no one will look back at the 69% you scored on that one AP Biology test. No one will look at the 3 you got on that one AP exam.

“IQ for me just means academic smarts. Am I going to memorize the periodic table and use it for the next day? No. I’m probably going to use my emotional intelligence more—my reading of the situation, my knowing what to do when, how to respond and interact is much more important and that’s probably what I’ll take forward in the rest of my life,” junior Veda Bollapalli said. 

While having more of an IQ tendency may be beneficial in its own ways, it may not be beneficial in others. There are factors at stake such as struggles with communication in the workplace or at school and dealing with people they may not enjoy. Although they may be all knowing in a subject, it is a human tendency to let a person one does not like get in the way of our tasks throughout the day. If one does not have the tools needed to work efficiently, the amount of IQ one has will not play an important role and instead become insignificant.

While having more of an IQ tendency may be beneficial in its own ways, it may not be beneficial in others. There are factors at stake such as struggles with communication in the workplace or at school and dealing with people they may not enjoy. Although they may be omniscient in a subject, it’s a tendency to let a person one does not like get in the way of our tasks throughout the day. If one does not have the tools needed to work efficiently, the amount of IQ one has will not play an important role and instead become insignificant.

“If I ever wanted to talk to someone, using your IQ would be to give them the answer, like what you would do, but that’s not always the most EQ thing to do because you would want to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. You wouldn’t want to just tell them what to do,” Bollapalli said.  

IQ still has its place in the system. After all, you must have a solid educational foundation for any career. Book smarts still have value, but we are shifting to the next phase of life—the one where colleges look for more than perfect grades—the one where taking the SAT/ACT is optional. IQ should continue to be valued but not to the level it’s at right now. Although IQ and EQ have polar definitions, each is equally useful to life skills in their own way. 

Although IQ is a very important aspect to have, EQ is just as important and plays a vital role in our society. Rather than focusing on one’s abilities to work well on their own and come up with ideas, a person of EQ will strive to work well with others and grow as a person from it. The realization and importance of EQ comes into play when social and emotional skills are strengthened in a person and helpful during a job or even in a classroom. Work may appear to be focused on knowledge and smarts, but the ability to collaborate is just as consequential to the overall success in that one project or even life.