What is EQ?

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) plays a big role in business, and is every bit as important as IQ when it comes to career success. EQ is the ability to understand your emotions and manage them, as a way of managing the emotions of others, and it's usually broken down into five categories. Let's unpick them a little and explore their relevance to business.

The first is self-awareness, or being able to spot your own emotions and realise what effect they might have. Career-wise, good leaders are able to identify their strengths and weaknesses, then play to their strengths whilst improving the areas where they fall short. Spotting those things in other people means you can do the same for them, delegating work they'll excel at and offering them training where it's needed.

The second is self-regulation. Self-control is important in business, because you don't want to be led entirely by emotion - you should use a strategy of head over heart to make important decisions. Self-awareness allows you to recognise negative emotions and their long-term impact, whether that's anger causing you to lose your cool with a colleague or impulsivity leading to a rash decision.

Third up is motivation, or the degree to which you can motivate yourself to hit your goals. Setting ambitious but realistic targets is the sign of a great business person. Once you've reached one goal, you need the motivation to set the next and get started again.

Fourthly, empathy. You need to be able to 'read' other people, to understand how they are feeling and look at things from their point of view. It's a vital skill in negotiating, where you need to understand where the other party is coming from in order to shape your offer to them. An empathetic person has a high level of EQ and is more likely to get on with colleagues.

Finally, social skills. This is your ability to communicate with other people and build relationships. It's a skill every leader needs to have, because without strong communication and the ability to forge co-worker and business partner relationships, you won't succeed.

There are online EQ tests available, so you can see how highly you score when graded against these criteria. The higher you score, the more likely you are to enjoy career success. What's more, all these skills can be worked on to help you become a more emotionally intelligent person.