How should I begin this discussion? Perhaps by admitting to the lie in the title, although by modern standards my little misdirection would barely warrant the accusation of click bait. In fact, I could write this whole article largely unaltered and most wouldn’t give it a second thought. However, you as our customers, colleagues and friends are not ‘most’ people. You have come to expect a higher standard of intellect, interrogation, and integrity from us, and I would prefer not to abuse your trust nor waste your curiosity.
So what is this really about? It is a fair question and one I will do my best to answer. The simplest way to explain our concept is to acknowledge that intelligence itself is not the thing that has evolved. Intelligence rather it is our understanding of, interaction with and appreciation of different forms of intelligence which has expanded.
Let me be honest, ‘The evolution of intelligence’ makes for a snappier title! But, I have your attention now right? Now that I have it, lets do something with it. After all your attention (divided as your time and your effort) represents two of your most valuable resources.
We don’t have to go back very far in human history to arrive at a time when IQ was the lone descriptor for intelligence. This imperfect tool that was almost impossible to measure with accuracy outside of culturally similar groups allowed us to categorise people and make judgements on their potential based on their answers to a range of questions.
The list of possible flaws with the method for measuring this aside, the simple fact is that only an IQ score below a certain level was a good indicator of life outcomes (generally not good ones) but above that level there really wasn’t anywhere near the validity in this test score that the world credited it with. A high score was not a bad indicator of potential in certain fields, but it did nothing to predict potential success within them. IQ was a blunt tool that lacked nuance, as such it was good for eliminating people from possible life outcomes but to be honest so are exam results.
What intelligences tells you and what it doesn’t tell you
IQ tells us nothing about motivation, determination, commitment, or many other factors that lead people to success so even as a predictor of likely outcomes it was flawed. So, without disrespecting IQ testing we must except it can only ever limit us. While this limitation may be a good thing, as it prevents people from getting ‘out of their depth’ it is also deeply frustrating.
What is the value in something you cannot change or improve? I would argue very little. Perhaps I will decide that I will never be an astronaut, or a doctor, or even an academic mathematician based on my score but it will never tell me what I could be good at, or what I need to work on to become good at something that interests me.
Discounting the slightly improved scores that can be achieved on IQ tests through practice and familiarity my score is more or less fixed and, as stated before, can only act to reduce opportunities do not expand or recommend them. Surely as a recruiter for a college or company or as a parent or as a young adult starting out in the world there must be a better measure of value, worth and potential than IQ!
Emotional Intelligence
Enter Daniel Goleman and the new messiah of personal success prediction “Emotional Intelligence”. EQ as it has become known spawned a human resources revolution. Suddenly every organisation was running competency-based interviews and what we started to look for in regards to peoples potential was no longer the brute force of IQ but rather the unrealised potential of EQ.
The concept of EQ (Emotional Intelligence)
The concept of EQ itself has evolved with various different categories being added or removed from Goleman’s original model to suit the requirements of the user. This in itself was a big step forward from the inflexible IQ. But the real promise of EQ, which made it an instantly more desirable measure is that people could work on and actively improve their EQ. For the first time intelligence testing was opening doors and revealing potential rather them slamming them shut.
So what is EQ? In its simplest form I like to think of EQ as being the ability to both recognise and manage emotions in ourselves and in those around us. This is often broken down for the purposes of academic education (although it is not necessary to understand the academics to possess, develop, and gain benefit from the ability) into the following categories: Self-Awareness; Self-Management; Social Awareness; Relationship management; and, dependent on where you study, Self-motivation is often given a separate category all to itself.
One former colleague of mine really hit the nail on the head when they described EQ to me in terms of life experiences. After all we have all had the bad boss, or perhaps the same experience outside of work, where we just felt like we were not understood by the person in front of us, that feeling of not being understood translates very quickly to other negative emotions. Most of us have also had the opposite experience. Imagine, if you will, how motivated you would be to work for someone who always ‘got you’, who was emotionally consistent across the full range of possible situations (not getting stressed – and not passing on that stress – when things go wrong, and not letting up on motivating you when things are going well).
If you think carefully, I am sure you will know people in your life who either excel or fall down on each of these EQ areas. If you know someone who excels in all 5 there is a good chance they are one of your favourites and an even greater chance they are successful across a range of areas within their life.
And just like that we had an answer to the decades old question about why IQ wasn’t a good predictor of success. The best part about this revelation is that your EQ could be improved. So problem solved right? Well not so much. Like every scientific theory the theories of Intelligence are only the accepted truth until something better comes along. For now at least that something better is SQ (Social Intelligence).
Social Intelligence
Now it wouldn’t be fair to call SQ a scientific revolution as EQ wasn’t and isn’t especially criticised or challenged. In fact quite the opposite, with the term ‘Social Intelligence’ being coined by Daniel Goleman himself. Rather than a competing theory in the ascendency SQ is more like EQ 2.0; an evolution of the already dominant idea. In fact, like the previous evolution in the thinking about intelligence this latest one does nothing to discredit or devalue any of the theories that preceded it. Instead each new theory has augmented the previous ones, plugged gaps in understanding and built on what has come before.
I must have heard one hundred different viewpoints on what distinguishes SQ from EQ, and combined with having read a high percentage of Goleman’s published work on both subjects I feel I can offer my understanding and present it in the simplest form possible to benefit you the reader.
Emotional Intelligence is more rooted in the moment; it is about how we manage our own emotions and those of others and, by definition emotions, are a fluctuating tableau where spikes can rise and fall in a moment. This doesn’t detract from their importance; particularly in a crisis situation where lives may depend on those in the situation having a high EQ.
EQ is very internalised with learning from personal experiences and the bulk of our assumptive knowledge base coming from those experiences. For example we know how someone might feel when a relative dies because we know how we have felt previously rather than because we have assimilated all the feelings of other people we have previously encountered in the same circumstance. There is an interactive element to EQ, especially in how it is deployed, but the learning element is still largely an internal experiential dialogue.
Why Social Intelligence is a Must-have for future success
Social Intelligence can be considered the architectural tool of our future success. I particularly like Will Chou’s take on this: it’s about figuring out the best way for you to get along and come out of a situation with a favourable outcome. Fundamentally Social Intelligence is about managing relationships, and this can be in the presence of high emotion or none at all, with a view to optimising the future outcomes of any given interaction.
Mastering Social Intelligence
The truth is that a real Master of Social skills is almost always a master of all forms of intelligence as each underpins the next. Without the base requirement in IQ an individual’s life prospects are limited, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be successful in what they choose to do in life. This first hurdle is the only one you can’t learn to overcome, but as with all things it is easier to master your emotions in your youth rather than learn to live with them as an adult. While I suggested a lot of EQ is internalised, I also highlight that we can learn to improve our EQ and application of emotional strategies.
It is fair to say that all social skills are learned from other people, some formally and some informally. For socially sophisticated children the relationship between SQ and EQ can even be reversed with the realisation that our social strategies are deployed most effectively when we are calm and keep others calm (or intentionally make them the opposite). In these cases, the motivation to improve EQ comes from a desire to improve SQ. Fundamentally they are connected and closely rely on each other, and this is where ISSA comes into the picture.
There is such a clear advantage in developing these skills at a young age, as living with them and improving them over a lifetime means that they become instinctual and authentic. Due to technological advancements and more recently covid children have lost their best teachers for many of these skills: each other.
How mobile devices change the human behavior
The total unstructured time children spent together was already dwindling before the pandemic and, while I do not wish to dwell too long on the issue, mobile phones and social media has done a lot to separate us from one another while appearing to achieve the opposite. This however is dwarfed by the scale of the problem coming: with the majority of toddlers and other children being isolated from their extended social community groups that have been the normal driver of social skill development.
Perhaps this is why our understanding of intelligence has evolved. Perhaps it has been the loss of the natural environments that have fostered EQ and SQ historically that have shown us their importance as they have become less common. Whatever the reason, the mandate is clear, we need to find new methods and situations to foster emotional and social intelligence within our children especially at a time when the few that remained have been denied to them.