Candidate Number One is clearly brilliant. With degrees from the best institutions, his vocabulary is liberally sprinkled with words that make you want to reach for your pocket dictionary.

Candidate Number Two has a degree from a second-tier school. While he's more plain-spoken and street smart, you actually like him more. But, you think hiring the candidate with the Ivy League sheepskin is the better bet because you just assume that smarter is superior.

Not necessarily, says Jon Harvill, our APICS Recruitment and Employment Coordinator. "Both human resource experts and social scientists have begun to recognize that while a candidate's cognitive intelligence is important, his 'emotional intelligence' quotient, or EQ, provides a better indication of how well he will actually perform on the job,". Or, as Time magazine recently put it, "It's IQ that gets people hired, but EQ that gets them promoted."

The changing nature of the workplace has made a worker's EQ more important than ever before. Today's company is often less a hierarchy than a network of professionals, each with different strengths and weaknesses. Assignments are carried out by teams of individuals who pool their talents to get the job done.

As a result, the ability to understand one's own reactions to problems and stresses and to take into account the attitudes and issues of others has become one of the most valued business skills.

Emotional intelligence isn't placating your peers or schmoozing your sales prospects. It's about personal discipline and coping skills, as well as the ability to empathize with others and enlist their cooperation, and to get things done within a specific political environment.

We used to call it street smarts. We all know people who just intuitively seem to know when to talk and when to keep quiet. They fire people's enthusiasm, and keep their head when those around them are panicking. People like that are valuable assets to any organization.

Staffing professionals, like your Employment and Recruitment Coordinator, make it a point to evaluate a candidate's EQ just as they would any other workplace skill. While EQ is a subjective measure, experienced recruiters include interview questions and scenarios that are specifically designed to provide insight into a candidate's ability to handle stress, empathize with others, and work in a team.

Unlike cognitive intelligence, however, it may be possible to increase your EQ. Older workers are often more self-aware and self-motivated, and have better social skills. That has led some researchers to believe that emotional intelligence is a learned behavior ... a skill that can be enhanced through proper training. Clearly, it is an area worth exploring.

Some people achieve success without people skills, but it is safe to say that a candidate with a high EQ often is the more valuable employee. In the end, the ability to self-evaluate, steer clear of people's emotional minefields and build an enthusiastic team is far more important than a couple of IQ points.