The leadership difference: Executive intelligence

✍ Scribed by Justin Menkes

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Weight: 75 KB
• Volume: 2006
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1087-8149
• DOI: 10.1002/ltl.178

✦ Synopsis

ome businesspeople lead and manage so effortlessly and effectively that it seems like magic. But can you pull aside the curtain that conceals their artistry to discover the specific skills that make them so exceptional? Actually you can.What distinguishes them is a remarkable facility for the critical thinking skills necessary for managerial work, what I call Executive Intelligence. It is these skills that we must seek to develop in ourselves and in the people we hire.

Unfortunately, these skills are quite rare, and the vast majority of executives act without thinking. Does that sound harsh? Consider what one of the most published authors on managerial decision making, McGill University professor Henry Mintzberg, wrote in a 1973 book titled The Nature of Managerial Work. He brought together the findings of hundreds of studies involving senior and middle managers, hospital administrators, and chief executives. His in-depth analysis revealed that people rarely employ rational or linear approaches to problem solving, and they almost never make decisions by trying first to understand what the actual problem is that they are addressing. Instead, they take immediate action, groping their way toward a solution through trial and error. Mintzburg's research revealed that acting without thinking is how the vast majority of managers do their jobs.