EQ Is More Important Than IQ, PERIOD.

EQ is more important than IQ !!!

I have read it so many times in the blogs and official emails, heard it in the quarterly meetings and inspirational videos but I didn’t really understand its meaning or more importantly its importance until the pandemic struck.

Because before Covid, the situations were not exactly haywire.

The usage of one’s EQ was limited to settling the disagreements between team members, managing stressful deadlines, or being a good listener in the meetings: basically, work challenges that every organization goes through on a daily basis.

When the pandemic struck, like any other workplace, ours was also struggling. Managing work from home pushed everyone on edge.

Zoom calls, skype sessions, hundreds of emails, and the change in strategies, it was not easy to cope with the pressure and the constant fear of “what happens if we get covid?” acted as the cherry on the cake.

Teams were falling apart; productivity was getting affected and our team members were getting irritated with even the minutest of distractions.

The first 2 months were a nightmare, to be honest!

But after 4-5 months, things turned around, to an extent that we launched 2 new labels under ZeroKaata, started a new Internship program and took it to another level with the admission of International students to our program, grew our community and made it even stronger, made our supply chain and marketplace business model stronger, strengthened ZeroKaata Studio with the launch of initiatives such as #zerokaataforwomen and #zerokaataforlgbtq……………… and the list goes on.

How did we do all of this?

The answer is: EQ

“You cannot increase your productivity or get work done if your mind is unstable” (This isn’t any famous quote; I am just writing it out of my own experience).

It’s true!

How can you expect to give your 100% if your mind is all over the place? Your IQ cannot work if it’s not being supported with EQ.

Be it your own will to show empathy to your colleagues as well as yourself or the support extended to you by your company, EQ is the backbone of every strong organization.

For example, when our team members first started to work from home, they were struggling a lot but things became easier when we got support from our management.

I am not talking about getting a raise or receiving a box of sanitizers or masks but the emotional support that we got from our management, especially our Founder & CEO, Gaurav Gambhir.  

They encouraged all of our team members despite our failed attempts to cope with the deadlines.

They provided us with flexible working hours, appreciated our minutest of efforts to keep things rolling, paid more attention towards making everyone feel safe, secure and comfortable, and helped us to run all the operations smoothly while working from remote locations.

That’s what helped me and our entire team to work at our best potential during the tough times.

All this support helped us to move up the ladder and to strengthen our skills which eventually worked out well for ZeroKaata.

So, when I say that EQ is more important than IQ, I mean it because it wasn’t for the former, I would have been writing this article on behalf of some other company.