Why Feeling Good Doesn't Always Pay Good: Emotional Intelligence

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Can't get promoted? Work on your emotional intelligence. Still underpaid? Maybe you need more EI training. This narrative conveniently ignores the structural factors that actually drive salary differences and instead suggests that workers should invest in developing skills that make them better employees without necessarily making them better paid.

It's the perfect neoliberal solution: individual self-improvement that benefits employers without challenging existing power structures.

But maybe there's another way to read this data. Maybe the workers with high emotional intelligence who report greater job satisfaction despite lower pay are onto something. Maybe they've figured out that optimizing for internal measures of success—fulfillment, meaning, positive relationships—is actually more sustainable than chasing external validation through salary increases.

References: The Contribution of Emotional Intelligence to Career Success: Beyond Personality Traits

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Four recurring narratives underlie every episode: boundary dissolution, adaptive complexity, embodied knowledge, and quantum-like uncertainty. These aren’t just philosophical musings but frameworks for understanding our modern world. 

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Transcript

0:25

This is Heliox, where evidence meets empathy. Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe easy. We go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. What truly makes someone successful in their career? You know, is it just raw talent, sheer effort, or maybe something else entirely? We often hear about IQ or maybe personality. But what about emotional intelligence? Right. This deep dive is all about exploring the surprising role emotional intelligence, EI, plays in actually achieving career success. We're looking beyond, you know, the usual suspects. Yeah, exactly. And our mission here is really to dissect this recent study. It rigorously investigated how emotional intelligence contributes to both the objective side, like money, and the subjective side, like feeling good about your job. Okay. And what's really compelling is that it did this after accounting for all those other things we think matter, personality traits, age, gender, even what you studied. Wow. Okay, so they really tried to isolate it. They did. And these insights, they come from a study published in PMC looking at about 271 working graduates. Okay, let's unpack this then. When we talk about career success, what do we actually mean? Is it just like the paycheck or is there more to it? That's a great question. And the study makes a really important distinction. It defines two key types. Yeah. First, there's extrinsic career success. This is the objective stuff, you know, externally visible things. In the study, they mainly measured it by salary. Makes sense. It relates directly to your socioeconomic status, fulfilling responsibilities, that kind of thing. Gotcha. Then there's intrinsic career success. And this is all about your subjective feelings, accomplishment, satisfaction with your career overall. They measure this using job satisfaction scores. Okay, so the feeling versus the figure. Precisely. And it's really crucial to look at both, don't you think? Especially now, maybe in the digital age where social interactions at work might be a bit reduced sometimes. Yeah, that's true. How people genuinely feel about their work is just incredibly important for, you know, well-being. Right. And this study being done in Spain makes it even more relevant. They point out that job and financial satisfaction there are actually lower than the EU average. So understanding these drivers is key. OK, so before EI became such a big topic, what did researchers usually point to? What were the traditional drivers of success? Well, historically, a lot of the focus was on the big five personality traits. Ah, yes, the big five. Right. Neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. These are seen as, you know, relatively stable traits. And they definitely influence workplace behavior and performance. Like conscientious people often feel better about their jobs. Okay. And extroverts might build bigger networks, which can help. But it feels like there's another personality factor that's really gained attention recently, something a bit different from those five. Exactly. Yes. In recent years, proactive personality has become really important in this research. Proactive personality. Tell me more. It's basically defined as your tendency, your disposition to take initiative. Just jump in and make things happen. Right. The go-getters. Yeah, pretty much. Proactive individuals are better at spotting opportunities, and crucially, they stick with things until they achieve them. And studies have definitely linked proactive personality positively with both salary, the objective part, and job satisfaction, the subjective part. So that brings us to the main event here. How does emotional intelligence, EI, fit into this whole picture with personality and proactivity? Right. So emotional intelligence, as they looked at it in the study, is your capacity to perceive emotions, first of all, then assimilate them, understand what they mean, and then manage them effectively, both your own and others, implicitly. Okay. And how do they measure that? They used a self-report ability EI test, specifically the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, the WLEI. It's designed to assess those core emotional abilities. Okay. Now, I have to ask, doesn't EI overlap a bit with personality? I feel like I've heard that. You're right to ask. And yes, there's definitely a consensus that they can overlap on some level. And that's exactly why this study's design was so stringent, you could say. They very carefully controlled for those traditional personality factors. To see what was left. Exactly. To see if EI offered something extra, some unique predictive power beyond those more stable traits. And why is that distinction so important? Why try so hard to separate EI's impact? Well, because it's really relevant to figure out if there's a modifiable variable here, something you can actually change. Ah, unlike personality, which is seen as more fixed. Pretty much. Personality traits are generally considered quite stable over your lifetime. But emotional intelligence. There's a lot of evidence suggesting it's something you can potentially develop, you can cultivate. Okay, that makes sense. So if it uniquely predicts success, it gives people a target for personal growth, right? Something they can actively work on. Got it. So let's dive into the specifics of this study then. What made its approach stand out in trying to untangle all these different factors? Okay, so method-wise, they use something called hierarchical regression analysis. Sounds technical. It is a bit, but think of it like peeling an onion, layer by layer. They first looked at the impact of just the big demographic factors, age, gender, that stuff. Then, in the next step, they added the personality traits, the big five, and proactivity. Okay. And then, finally, they added emotional intelligence to see what unique difference it made on top of everything else already accounted for. So, isolating its specific contribution. Precisely. It makes the findings much more robust because you're controlling for the other known players. And you mentioned control variables. Yes. And this was key. They controlled for gender, age, the participants area of study, which was quite broad, covering sciences, social sciences, health, arts, engineering, and also their career stage. They actually split it into early career, the first two years and later career, more than two years out. Why was controlling for all that so important? Because previous research often didn't control for all these things simultaneously. By doing so, this study could give a clearer picture of EI's specific role without it being potentially confounded by, say, just being older or being in a higher paying field. Right. Got it. And the people in the study. It was a sample of 271 working graduates. They were all from the University of Dewstone, Spain. The average age was about 31, 32, but the range was wide from 22 up to 60. And it was a decent mix, 179 women and 92 men across all those different study areas and career stages we mentioned. All right. Makes sense. Now, for the moment of truth, the core findings. Let's start with that extrinsic success measure, salary. What did this deep dive actually reveal about what predicts a higher paycheck? OK, so when it came to salary, the results were pretty clear. The biggest hitters explaining a really large chunk of the differences in salary were those demographic variables. Like age and gender. Exactly. Gender, age, area of study, and career stage. Together, those explained about 45% of the variance in salary. That's substantial. Wow. Proactive personality also showed up as a significant positive factor, so being more proactive was linked to earning more. Right. But what about EI? Here's the kicker. Once those strong demographic factors and proactive personality were statistically controlled for, emotional intelligence did not account for any significant unique variance in salary. Really? None at all? None that was statistically significant in that final step of the analysis. And interestingly, neither did the big five personality traits. Huh. So basically for salary, it was more about your background, your experience level, and being proactive than about your EI or core personality. That's what this specific study suggests, yes. So what do we make of that? Why would things like age and gender potentially overshadow emotional intelligence when it comes to your paycheck? It feels a bit counterintuitive, maybe? It does initially, perhaps, but it's a really important nuance. See, in the initial simpler analyses, EI did show a positive link to salary. Oh, okay. But its direct, unique predictive power vanished once you accounted for those other really strong factors. And this actually lines up with some other studies, too. So why are those demographics so powerful for pay? Well, think about gender and area of study. There are still, unfortunately, traditional patterns where men might be more represented in, say, engineering fields, which often have higher starting salaries, while women might still be more concentrated in social sciences or health fields, which historically pay less despite being vital. Yeah. Systemic issues. Could be. Plus, things like differences in professional networking or maybe equity in salary negotiation could still be playing a role. And age and career stage, that's pretty straightforward, right? More experience usually means more promotions, higher positions, and general wage growth over time. Makes sense. And the proactivity link. That probably relates to proactive people being more persistent in overcoming obstacles, maybe actively seeking out promotions or negotiating raises more effectively. They take initiative to get ahead financially. Okay, that paints a clear picture for salary. But what about the other side of the coin? How we feel about our jobs? That intrinsic satisfaction. Was the story different there? Oh, yes. This is where it gets really interesting and quite different. For job satisfaction, emotional intelligence emerged as a strong and significant predictor. And this was, even when they controlled for demographics, the big five traits, including neuroticism and proactive personality. Wow. So EI really stood out for job satisfaction on its own. It did. It added significant, unique variance. It explained a part of job satisfaction that nothing else in their model did. That's fascinating. What else predicted job satisfaction? Well, neuroticism was a significant negative predictor. So higher neuroticism meant lower job satisfaction, which kind of makes sense. Yeah, more worry, less happy. Exactly. And consistent with the salary findings, proactive personality was also a significant positive predictor of job satisfaction. People who take initiative tend to be happier in their jobs, too. Interesting. And the demographics, age, gender. Here's the contrast. Unlike with salary, those sociodemographic factors did not significantly explain differences in job satisfaction in this study. So pay is influenced heavily by demographics and proactivity, but job satisfaction is more about EI, proactivity, and avoiding neuroticism. That's the pattern this study revealed. Yes. It really makes you think, doesn't it? We've all probably known someone brilliant on paper who just struggled with people or seemed unhappy at work. So why? Why would EI be so vital for our contentment, even if it doesn't directly fatten the wallet? What's the mechanism there? Yeah, it connects a lot of dots, I think. People with high emotional intelligence are just generally better equipped for the social dynamics of work, right? They're more likely to work effectively in teams. They can adapt their own feelings better, manage their emotional responses when things get stressful. And all of that directly feeds into experiencing more positive feelings about the job itself, more satisfaction, a greater sense of, yeah, I'm doing okay here accomplishment. That makes a lot of intuitive sense. And the neuroticism link is pretty direct too, right? If you tend towards emotional instability, anxiety, negative thinking, that naturally chips away at job satisfaction. For sure. And proactivity contributing to satisfaction. Well, if you feel empowered to take action, make changes, shape your work environment positively, you're naturally going to feel more satisfied than if you feel passive or stuck. Absolutely. Okay, so let's boil this down. What are the core insights, the actionable takeaways from this deep dive for you, the listener? How can you apply this? I think the study gives us a really clear synthesis highlighting these distinct roles. Okay. So for extrinsic success like salary, the evidence here points towards focusing on things like your educational choices, gaining solid experience, using your age and career stage strategically for promotions, and definitely cultivating that proactive approach, spotting and grabbing opportunities. Right. Emotional intelligence, while obviously a good thing to have in life generally, didn't seem to add direct predictive power for salary in this model once those other big factors were accounted for. Take it clear on salary. And for intrinsic success, job satisfaction. That's where emotional intelligence really shines as a powerful, independent predictor. If you want to feel more fulfilled, more content in your job, get that sense of accomplishment. Cultivating your EI seems like a very worthwhile investment. Proactivity helps here too, definitely. And managing neurotic tendencies, working on emotional stability, can prevent dissatisfaction from grouping in. So why should you, listening right now, care about this distinction between drivers for salary versus satisfaction? What's the practical point? Well, it really helps you direct your energy strategically, doesn't it? How so? If your number one goal right now is boosting your salary, this study suggests focusing on those external factors experience, maybe specific skills tied to higher paying fields, and being proactive in seeking raises or promotions. So it highlights that maybe the measure of success isn't always the number on the payslip. Exactly. That day-to-day feeling of satisfaction, that intrinsic reward, is often the true measure of career fulfillment for so many people. And this leads to a really interesting thought, doesn't it? If emotional intelligence is indeed this modifiable variable, something you can develop, unlike those more static personality traits, it raises a key question for you to ponder. Which is? What specific practical steps can you as an individual actively take to cultivate your own emotional intelligence? How can you work on perceiving, understanding, and managing emotions better to really boost that intrinsic career success, that feeling of well-being, even if it doesn't directly guarantee a bigger paycheck next year? A fascinating thought indeed. Something to definitely consider as you navigate your own career journey. Thanks for listening today. Four recurring narratives underlie every episode. Boundary dissolution, adaptive complexity, embodied knowledge, and quantum-like uncertainty. These aren't just philosophical musings, but frameworks for understanding our modern world. We hope you continue exploring our other podcasts, responding to the content, and checking out our related articles at helioxpodcast.substack.com.