Here is a great research paper showing that the quality of a person’s social skills is as important as their test scores when it comes to getting a good job. And now we can put a dollar figure on the difference social skills make to your pocket book.
Give yourself a 12 % raise !
This is an important research based finding for Leaders and shows the workplace value of the Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ) popularized by Daniel Goleman. It is also super good news for all of us with teenage children who are popular and simultaneously sporting a GPA less than 3.0 !
This was a very large … long study! The September edition of “Social Science Research” documented the researchers followed 11,000 tenth graders for 10 years. Here is what they found … measurements of skills such as
- conscientiousness
- cooperativeness
- motivation
Were as important as test scores in measuring - get this - the actual wages these same young people were earning in the workplace.
In fact, Students who were described by their teachers as “Conscientious, Motivated, able to relate to peers and adults earned an average of $3200 annually ( a 12% increase) than students with equal test scores and poorer social skills.
Now I just have to assume that the higher wages were a sign that these folks were more likely to be in leadership positions in their respective organizations. Social Skills are key to being an effective leader. Your job is not to be a subject matter expert … it is to create the CONTEXT for your team that naturally builds success.
Strategic vision and Social Skills are the key tools to get this done.
Here are more details on the study:
“The U of I study analyzed data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study, which followed a diverse group of 11,000 tenth graders for 10 years, tracking not only their scores on standard achievement tests but teacher appraisals of such qualities as the students’ work habits, their ability to relate well to peers, and their participation in extracurricular activities, a proxy for the ability to interact well with both students and adults.
The teachers’ assessments were then compared with the students’ self-reported educational attainments and earnings 10 years after high-school graduation.
Even after controlling for students’ achievement test scores, family socioeconomic status, and educational attainment, Lleras found that such social skills as conscientiousness, cooperativeness, and motivation were as important as test scores for success in the workplace.”
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