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It's all very well to be kind, compassionate, and charismatic. But the most crucial predictor of executive success has nothing to do with personality or style. It's brainpower. Here's how to find those people with the sheer intelligence to become business stars.
So much has been written about leadership personality and style that hiring managers are in danger of neglecting the most critical factor in executives' success: intelligence. More specifically, those responsible for hiring and promoting haven't been given the tools necessary to evaluate the cognitive abilities that allow a person to consistently reach the "right" answer. How could they recognize such smarts? Historically, the only reliable measure of such brainpower has been the standard IQ test, which, for good reasons, is rarely used in business settings. But in rejecting IQ testing altogether, hiring managers have turned their backs on the single most effective assessment of cognitive abilities, simply because there isn't a version that applies to the corporate world. They have dismissed the one method that could help them identify business stars.
Yes, it's nice when a leader is charismatic and confident, and a great résumé can tell you a lot about a person's knowledge and experience. But such assets are no substitute for sheer business intelligence, and they reveal very little about the leader's ability to get to the truth of the matter. Thinking critically is the primary responsibility of any manager, in any organization, and a leader's capacity to engage in this process is largely determined by his or her intelligence. Of course, there are many academically brilliant people who might score in the genius range on an IQ test but who could never make it as the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. That's not surprising, since IQ tests focus on the cognitive skills central to success in school, not success in business.
Nevertheless, there's a lesson to be learned from the predictive power of IQ tests. That is, to accurately forecast how successful someone will be in a particular activity, you must examine the cognitive skills he or she possesses that directly affect that activity - in this case, in the workplace rather than in the classroom. In this article, I'll define the specific cognitive abilities that make up what I call "executive intelligence" and describe what to look for when interviewing job candidates or considering a manager for promotion.
The Main Ingredient: Critical Thinking
For many years, management scholars and practitioners have acknowledged that business leaders must be able to think critically. Lucent Technologies CEO Patricia Russo, who has led the company's turnaround, described this ability to me as "clarity of thought." The people who have it are rare, she said, but if you get a team of clear thinkers, "the possibilities are endless." Avon CEO Andrea Jung made a similar observation:
"Clear thinking in senior leadership is a primary attribute we look for. I've seen little correlation between those who have a formal business education and those who possess clear thinking. Some people have a knack for this, some don't.“ What Russo and Jung are referring to is a very specific ability - critical business thinking, which is the foundation of executive intelligence.
Please click here to continue reading Hiring for Smarts.
Reprinted from Harvard Business Review |
 Note from Kevin
Greetings!
Since we have been focused on the subject of talent - and in particular, superior performance - I am especially excited to share lessons on organizational intelligence. In the article "Hiring for Smarts," Justin Menkes clarifies the difference between IQ intelligence and organizational intelligence, and we will all be served well to know the difference. I guarantee you that each of us can put a face to someone with incredible levels of IQ who struggles at the organizational level. We have to know the difference between the two, and more importantly we have to know how it affects the overall performance of our organizations.
Many of you use The Personal Talent Plus Report supplied by TTI and administered by LeadersWay. The report includes one section that is referred to as Personal Skills, which is a direct reflection of the three areas Menkes discusses in this month's article. The Personal Skills report is a cognitive tool designed to identify a person's level of cognitive development (intelligence) in six dimensions to include how they see the outside world and how they see themselves within the outside world. The report reflects cognitive "horsepower" as it applies to people, tasks and systems both externally and internally.
What I would like each of you to get from "Hiring for Smarts" is that while getting the right person in the right job is critical, we also have to determine the level of cognitive "horsepower" they bring to their job. As a last thought before you read the article, I want you to consider the competitive advantage you will have when you begin "stacking the deck" with superior performers in EVERY position. I challenge you to think differently when it comes to the common focus on key positions. Your ability to create more results with less resource is a direct result of getting superior performers in EVERY position!
Life is good... Superior performers make it better!
KW |
