Why Emotional Intelligence Beats Credentials in Hiring
These days, it is rare to find a job advertisement that doesn't place heavy emphasis on academic qualifications and several years of work experience. While this is an easy way to screen and shortlist candidates, analysis of many successful people — past and present — suggests this approach may not be as effective as employers assume.
An employer's goal is to find an employee who will add real value to the organization and help it reach its goals faster, or even exceed them. Yet experience shows that employees hired purely on qualifications and years of experience often don't add enough value to make an organization thrive.
On the other hand, employees hired for other qualities — particularly the ability to influence and lead people, regardless of their academic credentials or years of experience — tend to add far greater value and help organizations shine with success. These are the employees who are consistently described as having a high capacity to accurately recognize and skillfully manage their own emotions, as well as the emotions of the people they work with.
What Is Emotional Intelligence?
In professional terms, this ability is known as Emotional Intelligence (EI) or Emotional Quotient (EQ). There are two widely used models for understanding it. The first was proposed by Konstantin Vasily Petrides in 2001. Known as the trait model, it encompasses the various behavioral tendencies a person displays, along with the abilities and talents they perceive themselves to have.
The second is the model proposed by Peter Salovey and John Mayer in 2004. Known as the ability model, it focuses on a person's capacity to process information about the emotions of others and to apply that information skillfully within their social environment.
What the Research Says
Research shows that people with high EI also tend to have superior mental wellbeing, outstanding job performance, and strong leadership capability. According to research conducted by Daniel Goleman and published in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence, EI accounts for about 67% of all the capabilities necessary for outstanding leadership performance. The same research found that EI mattered roughly twice as much as technical or cognitive intelligence (IQ) in driving leadership success.
The Charles Schwab Story
Consider the example of Charles Schwab as proof of just how important EI is in leadership. He was born in 1862 in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania, and died in 1939. Charles Schwab never finished college. After attending St. Francis College (now St. Francis University) for two years, he left and headed to Pittsburgh in search of work.
One of Charles Schwab's greatest strengths was his remarkable ability to influence people. Because of this ability, in 1897, at age 35, he was made President of Carnegie Steel, a steel manufacturing company. In 1901, he helped broker the secretive negotiations for the sale of the company to a group of New York investors led by J.P. Morgan. The company was renamed U.S. Steel Corporation, and Charles Schwab became its first President.
However, in 1903 Schwab left U.S. Steel after a falling out with Morgan and joined Bethlehem Shipbuilding and Steel Company. Under his leadership, the company grew rapidly to become the second-largest steel manufacturer in the world.
Because of his exceptional ability, by the early 1920s Charles Schwab was among the highest-paid individuals of his time. According to Dale Carnegie, the renowned author of books on human relations, Schwab was earning a salary of $1 million a year — the equivalent of $2,740 a day!
Beyond his ability to influence others, Charles Schwab also believed strongly in rewarding individual achievement directly, rather than tying each person's motivation solely to overall company performance. This belief made his employees more innovative and wholeheartedly committed, because people knew their efforts would ultimately pay off.
What Today's Employers Can Learn
Today's employers undoubtedly have a great deal to learn from Charles Schwab. Applying these lessons — looking beyond a resume to how a candidate reads people, builds trust, and rewards effort — could transform many workplaces into far more effective ones.
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