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"Leadership & Intelligence"
- by Simon Hazeldine MSc BA (Hons) FInstSMM
(c) Simon Hazeldine. All Rights Reserved.
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LEADERSHIP AND INTELLIGENCE
"Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important
quality in a good leader." - General George S. Patton
How intelligent do you have to be to be an effective
leader? Is there a link between the intelligence of an
individual and their success as a leader? Research shows
that intelligence is linked to job performance, economic
self-sufficiency, educational achievement and even marital
stability!
Perhaps most importantly research has shown that the
intelligence of an individual is the single best predictor
of success in complex jobs. It should be pointed out that
this still leaves many other factors that also contribute
to achieving the level of success required in a complex
job.
As most leaders in modern organisations are dealing with
an ever increasing web of complexity, they do need to have
the intellectual capability to cope with it!
IQ
IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient. An intelligence
quotient indicates a person's mental abilities relative to
others of approximately the same age. Everyone has hundreds
of specific mental abilities--some can be measured
accurately and can be reliable predictors of academic
and financial success.
Debate continues to rage about what specifically
constitutes “intelligence”. For example the theory of
Multiple Intelligences challenges the concept of one
measure of intelligence (e.g. IQ) and holds that that
there are a number of independent mental abilities of
intelligences that each of us possess in varying degrees.
Whilst IQ tests are not without their shortcomings, they
are one of the most widely used measures of “intelligence”
and can provide some useful data.
Professor Adrian Furnham from University College London
has stated that an individual needs an IQ of 115 or above
to operate successfully as a senior manager in a modern
organisation.
Furnham has written: “…leadership is about making
decisions, collecting, evaluating and weighing up options,
tumbling numbers and so on. Bright people see patterns,
connections and trends faster than less bright people.
They also learn more quickly. In this fast changing world,
speed of learning must count for a great deal. And with
intelligence comes confidence in one’s abilities –
essential as a leader.”
There are a number of free IQ tests available on the
internet should you be interested in exploring this area
further.
As an individual moves to more senior positions within an
organisation they will experience:
- Increasing levels of complexity
- Longer time frames to consider
Greater levels of uncertainty as their work moves from a more concrete
“black and white” world to a world that is more abstract and
conceptual. Indeed they will need to be able to make sense of ambiguous
and, at times, contradictory data.
Wider networks of people that they will need to interact with and
influence
Increasing interaction with external stakeholders
Due to the rapidly changing nature of society and the
commercial world the senior leader in a modern organisation
must have the capability to make effective decisions when
they lack prior experience and knowledge.
This takes sufficient “mental horsepower”. Leaders who
lack this will often do one of two things with regard to
their decision making:
1.They will speed up their decision making as they cannot
process all of the data and therefore make snap or
‘knee-jerk’ decisions.
2.They will slow down their decision making as they seek
our more data to assist them in making sense of the
confusion they feel.
Therefore to succeed as a leader at a senior level in a
modern organisation you do need the intellectual
capability to handle the demands that will placed upon you.
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Simon Hazeldine is a best selling author, professional
speaker and performance consultant. He is passionate
about helping individuals and organisations improve
their performance.
Simon has run leadership development programs in over
15 countries across 4 continents.
Simon is the bestselling author of Bare Knuckle Selling,
BareKnuckle Negotiating, Bare Knuckle Customer Service
and The Inner Winner
For more valuable information on improving your
sales, profits and performance (including sample chapters
from all of Simon's best selling books) at zero cost to you
visit: http://www.simonhazeldine.com today!
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