Most of us respect intelligence. On the simplest level, we usually mean things like the ability to figure sales tax without resorting to a calculator. Maybe having a fat vocabulary and using it well. We especially admire people with analytical skills, like those who can follow a complex argument and find its weak points readily.

For the most part, you were built smart in the first place, or maybe not, and there’s little you can do to change. You can, I’m told, improve your memory and thus appear more intelligent, but I forget how. Basically, a 60-watt bulb is forever just 60 watts, however much you may want to shine more brightly.

There are countless variations on the 60-watt theme and what constitutes a “bright” guy, of course, and they can all be measured with a so-called “IQ”-intelligence quotient-test. You’ll hear quite a few arguments about the reliability of such tests, but nonetheless there’s general agreement that it can be done more or less accurately.

But we also respect and admire people who can control their impulses, who don’t fall apart in a crisis, who can assert themselves when required yet listen well to others, and who generally seem happy and optimistic. We’d probably describe a person with those and similar traits by saying something like, “That guy’s really got it together.”

We’re talking about something much different than IQ here, something that’s been called “emotional” or “social” intelligence. But can it be measured? I mean, how can you quantify characteristics like self-regard and adaptability?

How about an “EQ” test?

If that sounds like just so much mumbo jumbo, think again. You can indeed quantify your emotional intelligence-your “emotional quotient” or “emotional competency”-and you’ll soon be able to take such a test, first on paper and soon over the Internet in about half an hour. Maybe it’s your management staff, for example, who take the test, possibly potential new recruits in key positions.

It needn’t stop with that original assessment, because for $99 US you also get 15 self-study course modules designed to elevate your EQ. All via the World Wide Web.

At a time when fleet owners and managers are coming round to the idea that “soft” management skills have a place in organizing a business and making it thrive, this is compelling stuff. It’s the latest “FlexSchool” initiative from Training Alternatives in Toronto, an interesting enterprise at the leading edge of business education. There’s a strong trucking component here, incidentally, because the company belongs to Richard Ross, ex-president of Volvo Trucks Canada.

Richard has a well-developed sense of intellectual adventure, and that’s evident with his company at large and especially with the Web-based EQ course. Others in his expanding arsenal are much more grounded: Preventive Maintenance for Medium and Heavy-Duty Trucks; An Introduction to Electrical Principles; Workshop Efficiency and Analysis System; and the Professional Driver Recognition Program. Another one coming soon is Preventive Maintenance for Public Transit Vehicles. All are created with expert help, and it’s no different with the EQ course.

In that case, the original development work that allows measurement of emotional intelligence was done by Dr. Reuven Bar-On, an Israeli psychologist who spent years on the project. It’s since been applied around the world, including at the U.S. Air Force, where it’s claimed to have meant a 45% increase in successful recruiting for its “Top Gun”-style tactical training program.

Ross is teaming up with Dr. Michael Rock, a Toronto psychologist and author who runs Self-Development Dimensions Inc. using Bar-On’s measurement system as the foundation for both the FlexSchool course and more conventional workshops.

The course literature describes emotional intelligence as “.the accumulation of the strengths and weaknesses of your emotional skills,” that determine how you handle yourself and others in coping with the demands and pressures of life. Your emotional “architecture” is seen as a collection of 15 skills-flexibility and assertiveness and the like-that comprise your EQ-I, or emotional intelligence inventory.

“Study after study shows that of the skills that contribute to career success, the ‘soft skills’ of communication, openness to change, leadership, and the ability to learn effectively consistently outrank the ‘hard skills’ of technical and academic competence,” says Rock. “All of these ‘soft skills’ are dependent on the strength of your emotional intelligence ‘architecture.'”

I buy the logic, but I haven’t taken the test or the course-some would say I’d fail miserably anyhow-so I’m doing no more here than introduce a pretty interesting idea. Given that I’ve been claiming for quite a while that our industry needs management skills as much as anything else, and not just “MBA” kinds of skills, I think this one’s worth a look. Contact Richard Ross at 416/598-1795 or www.trainingalternatives.com.