According to Wikipedia emotional intelligence describes the ability, capacity, skill or a self-perceived grand ability to identify, assess, manage and control the emotions of one’s self, of others, and of groups.  Conventional Intelligence refers to IQ or the amount of knowledge one possesses.  

Obviously being bright helps your chance of success at anything you do but in terms of being successful in an HR role, isn’t emotional intelligence even more important?  If you know yourself and understand how you react when you are stressed, under deadline or dealing with a troublesome employee you can then take a step back when the trigger occurs, think things through and react in a way that is positive.  Human Resources seems to be a reactive role more than a proactive role so doesn’t it stand to reason that if you know how to manage your reactions you will be a better manager?  

If you know yourself well enough, you know which triggers occur that cause certain reactions in you.  These reactions then affect how you deal with the people you work with and manage.  Once you know yourself that well, you can recognize and understand others’ emotions.  Then you can manage the emotions of others.  Particularly in HR, I would think this is more important than your IQ or book smarts. 

Recent research shows that emotional intelligence is twice as likely as IQ or knowledge in determining which employees will be high performing.  There are also assessments available to identify the level of intelligence.  Do you currently use emotional intelligence as a factor when hiring team members?  Have you found it to be true that people with a high level of emotional intelligence do perform better for the company?