Daniel Goleman’s research in 1995 on emotional intelligence (social intelligence), which is based primarily on intrapersonal and interpersonal, indicates that success in many areas of life and work depends on emotional skills, as much as cognitive capacities. EQ includes self-awareness and self-control, as well as the ability to get along with others. Getting along with others implies an ability to listen, to communicate, to accept feedback, and to empathize with different points of view.
I believe the value of SQ in comparison with EQis based on the way a person, a leader will “KNOW” many different ways. This takes us from our ego state (stories we tell ourselves – both positive and negative) to a much “higher” level of awareness. The different ways of knowing may be sensory, rational and contemplative. It is very much about how you are “aware” or “conscious”. There are various levels of consciousness, in which we could develop maps of our reality, where we are paying attention to our intentions, and where we are fully awake to how we connect with the world and the people that matter to us.
This greater awakening is very much the SQ approach to making meaning in our daily lives and with others, no matter who they are. We will see things, which we normally delete, distort or even generalize. When we are practicing SQ our intuition, thinking, acting, interacting, sensing and feeling are more developed and become more reliable when we are paying attention to them. This requires that we intentionally are cultivating “spiritual” sensitivity.
