The odds are pretty good that for as long as most of us can remember, the conventional wisdom has been that intelligence, measured by grades and standardized tests, is very important for our children to succeed. Modern researchers now understand that “brainpower” is only one piece of the puzzle, and that it’s a smaller piece of the puzzle than anyone ever contemplated before.
According to a number of major research projects looking to better understand how the most successful people become successful, those with average IQ outperformed those with high IQ 70% of the time when they had higher levels of Emotional Intelligence.
Decades and decades of research now proves out that the real secret sauce to living a successful lifestyle is focusing on building your Emotional Intelligence, learning how to manage your behavior, how to navigate different complexities of our social interactions, and how to make smarter personal decisions that allow you to make the most of your skills, your talent, and your latent intelligence.
Researchers now report that there are five huge personality qualities that the most successful people share in common with one another; five building blocks of Emotional Intelligence that can help your child do well in life.
• Empathy and conscientious behavior, having the ability to put yourself in the shoes of others and see their experiences in depth
• An openness to new ideas, to new knowledge, and to new concepts rather than a resistance to the same
• A general agreeableness that works well with others from all walks of life, all backgrounds, and all belief systems
• A concrete emotional stability to level out the highest of highs and the lowest of lows
• A comfort level with people in all kinds of social setting, exhibiting easy extroverted behavior even when performing introverted lifestyles
Emotional Intelligence is closely tied to success in a way that traditional IQ never could be. Today researchers believe that 85% of an individual’s financial success is tied to “soft skills” – people skills – as opposed to their background education, functional knowledge, or level of IQ.
At the end of the day, people are always looking to do business or get into relationships with those they like and trust.