IQ and EQ: Both Matter for a Leader

It isn’t a wise thing to comment publicly on the IQ and/or EQ of another person.

And it certainly isn’t wise to say another person has a low IQ. That is true for any setting, any context, any situation.

Here’s what is troubling.

Imagine if we said to a student or a friend: “You have a low IQ.” Folks sadly often fall to the low expectations that someone in a position of authority says and communicates to and about them. That is why teaching from a deficit model makes no sense; it doesn’t raise the bar. Instead, it lowers it.

Parenting from a deficit model doesn’t work either. Neither does leading.

And, how we measure IQ is a topic of considerable debate. It is not as if there is one permanent IQ score. One’s score changes based on the test, the timing, the tester and the state of mind of the person being tested. Note the variables among others that determines what we can even try to call (incorrectly) AN (as in one) IQ score. There isn’t a score. There is a range and it is not fixed in time or space.

That’s why saying someone has a low IQ score is a total misunderstanding of IQ scoring. And, who knows the IQ score of another, unless one has seen quality test results administered well?

Other Scores

Surely, we recognize that IQs, howsoever measured, are not the only measure by which we need to assess an individual’s capacity to lead or parent or teach with wisdom and grace and perspicacity and depth. This we know: We need leaders with high EQ, individuals who can read a room, who can read other people and can read themselves. We know that a high EQ score enables someone to engage ably with others. We need to teach kids too the import of high EQ; it isn’t a soft skill. It is a much needed talent that can be nurtured. And we can help people improve both their EQ and even there IQ. Yup. We can do that.

Just think about the recent political prisoner swap. We had to have at least some leaders with both high IQ and EQ for it to be successful. Otherwise, the deal would not have been done. And, we know that both IQ and EQ are critical to persuasion of others.

Stated another way, leading a Democracy requires IQ and EQ. Both. And as we move forward in this political season, we would be wise to look for leaders who possess both high IQ and EQ.

Here’s one thing we do know, if you say someone has a low IQ out loud and say it repeatedly, you have a low EQ. That should be a message that the person saying that statement lacks the capacity to lead in any context, including leading a free nation with grace and wisdom and equanimity.

Leadership

Leading is hard. It is hard in virtually any context. It requires vastly more than content knowledge; it requires that we know ourselves and others; it requires that we process fast and well; it requires creativity and hope; it requires astute problem solving skills and thoughtful skills to enable engagement with others.

In a forthcoming book titled Mending Education (releasing shortly in September 2024), Ed Wang and I talk and write about the need for quality leadership if we are to improve education writ large. We address how the Pandemic produced some positives (we term them “Pandemic Positives”) that have the capacity to improve leadership if these positives are identified, used, retained and replicated and scaled. Several such positives are the need to have empathy, the ability to see and address the plights of others and to be filled with both IQ and EQ (although we do not use those abbreviations in the book for very good reasons). Bottom line, though, we need leaders in all settings who have both content knowledge and social and emotional capacity.

And, as educators and citizens, we should work hard to insure that our leaders have both IQ and EQ capabilities. We can and should also be teaching these capacities to our students at all ages and stages. After all, we want quality leaders moving forward in time. That is a gift we can give the next generation. For real. For sure.