Why do some people possess greater emotional well-being? Why are some better able to achieve success in life? Bar-On and Stein’s work gave a new vision about these and other basic questions that remained with no answer.
And so the Emotional Intelligence revolution began.
In the 1980s, one of a number of emotional intelligence breakthroughs took place, when the American-born Israeli psychologist Dr. Reuven Bar-On began his work in the field. He was perplexed by a number of basic questions. Why, he wondered, do some people possess greater emotional well-being? Why are some better able to achieve success in life? And—most important—why do some people who are blessed with superior intellectual abilities seem to fail in life, while others with more modest gifts succeed?
By 1985, he thought he’d found a partial answer in what he called a person’s Emotional Quotient (EQ), an obvious parallel to the long-standing measures of cognitive or rational abilities that we know as IQ, or Intelligence Quotient.
He believed emotional intelligence was made up of a series of overlapping but distinctly different skills and attitudes which could be grouped under five general theme areas or “realms,” then further subdivided into 15 components or “scales.” This was essentially what came to be referred to as the Bar-On model of emotional intelligence, upon which the EQ-i was developed. Even when the EQ-i was in its infancy, Bar-On had a hunch that the skills it was designed to measure would eventually prove to be even more important than traditional cognitive skills when it came to successfully coping with life’s demands.
Meanwhile, a movement known as positive psychology was gaining broad acceptance. Many practitioners began to suggest that in order to treat (for example) depression, a good first step would be to look for a skill or competency and build from there. An area in which someone was functioning well could serve as the basis for meaningful change, and point the way to an eventual cure.
At about this time, Steven was introduced to Reuven Bar-On, who was then attempting to interest North American publishers in his as-yet-unfinalized EQ-i. Steven was drawn to the concept at once, because Bar-On was looking at a number of clearly delineated skills that could with practice be improved—the flip side of what Steven was working on. The EQ-i offered promise and hope. If Bar-On was correct, almost everyone could benefit.
When Reuven Bar-On presented the model of the EQ-i at a meeting of the American Psychological Association in Toronto, Canada, in 1996, we were deluged with media attention. More than 100 North American newspapers reported on his findings, and, during that single week, we did dozens of radio and television interviews. Since then, the pace has quickened.
There are several reasons for this overwhelming response.
1 – People are excited and relieved to receive confirmation of what they’ve instinctively known all along—that IQ needn’t be taken quite so seriously as before, that other factors are at least as important when it comes to success in life.
2 – It’s encouraging to discover that, thanks to the alternative or supplementary framework provided by the EQ-i, emotional intelligence can be reliably measured, and may eventually take its place alongside cognitive intelligence.
3 – It’s heartening to learn that emotional intelligence cuts across the gender gap. Over and over again, we have found that men and women have remarkably similar overall scores on the EQ-i. This held true in a number of diverse countries and cultures worldwide.
4 –Iit’s equally heartening to discover that emotional intelligence transcends race.
5 – The last, and perhaps most important, point is that people are buoyed by the knowledge that EQ is not permanently fixed. Age, gender, or ethnic backgrounds do not deter you from enhancing your EQ. The skills defined and measured by each of the EQ-i’s component scales can be improved no matter how old you are, and the stronger your skills, the greater your chances for success.
The stronger your emotional intelligence, the more likely you are to be successful as a worker, a parent, a manager, an adult child to your own parents, a partner to your significant other, or a candidate for a workplace position.
It’s never too late to make a change for the better.
The EQ Edge (Steven J. Stein and Howard E. Book)
