Academic aptitude (IQ) has no connection with how people understand and deal with their emotions and the emotions of others (EI). This makes perfect sense: we have all met very clever people who nonetheless had no idea about how to deal with people, and the reverse.

Some people have high IQs and low emotional intelligence and vice versa, while some people score highly on both and some do not.

IQ and emotional intelligence attempt to measure different forms of human intelligence; along with personality, these measures make up an individual’s psyche.

Emotional intelligence is the one part of the human psyche that we can develop and improve by learning and practising new skills. IQ and personality are more static measures and likely to stay reasonably constant throughout life (although you can develop your ability to complete IQ tests very successfully).

Emotional intelligence can only be measured by how some individual progress through life – developing meaningful relationships with others, their interpersonal skills and understanding, their ability to manage their own emotions, and their personal skills.