What comes to mind when you think about what is needed to obtain your next position? Perhaps you think specifically about education, skills, and experience? Without a doubt these elements are crucial. However, what happens when you and the other candidates’ qualifications are on par? How do you differentiate yourself?

What if you are looking to advance your career, negotiate a job offer, or resolve conflict with a colleague? What will help you move the needle?

To stand apart, successful candidates often think about professionalism, communication, and Emotional Intelligence (EQ). Strongly consider refining these skills daily, as they are necessities for successfully managing your career. These transferable skills have been identified as skills employers want, which are covered in the Defining Resources Unit.

In the Canadian context, professionalism can involve a combination of attitudes, transferable skills, and behaviour or conduct such as consistency, reliability, and practicing radical listening (Heneghan, 2015), which are explored in the Nurturing My Community module. In addition to other transferable skills such as problem-solving, collaboration, leadership, and service orientation that are highlighted in the Skills Employers Want module. 

Moreover, the communication skillset is paramount! To add further, EQ is another transferable skill that resides within professionalism. It has also been identified as a determining factor for boosting one’s career trajectory.

Dr. Daniel Goleman, a leading psychologist who specializes in Emotional and Social Intelligence, imparts the significance of EQ in this interview:

I would say that IQ matters a lot in certain domains. Becoming good at software, writing demands a lot of IQ, cognitive ability. Doing well in school is correlated very highly with IQ. I would say that in life, once you get into the working world, for example, if you’re an engineer, you’re working with a team of engineers; they all have the same background you do; they’re about as smart as you are. IQ fades as a discriminator between the stars and the average.

That’s where emotional intelligence emerges. Once you’re in the workplace, once you have an MBA, once you have your degree, and you get a job commensurate with it, now you’re competing with a pool of people that have the same abilities as you on the IQ side. 

Whether they have the motivation that you have, whether they have the self-discipline, the self-management skills you have, whether they have the empathy, whether they’re socially skilled, that’s where the playing field really differs among people. That’s where you see stars emerge. I think that’s the sense in which emotional intelligence is more important than IQ. (Sounds True, 2021) - Daniel Goleman, PhD: Emotional Intelligence Now

The aim of this unit is to inspire thought, reflect on these topics and your reactions, and increase your self-awareness.

This unit begins with professionalism and communication—the infrastructure for all the components in the Resource. There are two modules to follow. The first module, Emotional Intelligence (EQ) focuses on adaptability and positivity, two skills prioritized by the Royal Roads community. The second module spotlights conflict resolution.

References

Heneghan, L. (n.d.). Radical Listening: Less Talk, More Leadership. JMW Consultants Inc. Retrieved March 7, 2021
Sounds True. (2021). Daniel Goleman, PhD: Emotional Intelligence Now. Sounds True. 
Last modified: Wednesday, 13 October 2021, 2:35 PM