|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Executive Intelligence: What All Great Leaders Have
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sales rank 436,404
Customers rating (based on 28 reviews)
|
|
|
|
|
What differentiates a "star" executive from his or her peers? This is no idle question because experts like Peter Drucker, Jim Collins, and Jack Welch agree that great talent builds great companies. So, finding and assembling a critical mass of the very best people should be the first priority of every business. But how do you recognize a star? What distinguishes them? Over the years, we've heard vague answers such as, "they are people with sound judgment, business smarts, or business acumen."But what do any of these terms really tell us? Based on eight years of research on intelligence tests and cognitive skills, Executive Intelligence reveals the set of aptitudes that all brilliant leaders share. Dr. Justin Menkes, a renowned leadership expert, verified these findings through hundreds of interviews with senior executives, including thirty of the most celebrated CEOs in the world. Menkes discovered that just as great mathematicians share an exceptional facility for skills such as computation and deductive reasoning, great managers also have a certain set of cognitive skills that are at the heart of business acumen. Managerial work can be broken down into three subjects: accomplishing tasks, working with other people, and self-evaluation. Within each of these categories there are identifiable cognitive skills that determine how well an executive performs, such as: TASKS -- the abilities to properly define a problem, identify the highest-priority issues, and assess both what is known and what needs to be known in order to render a sound decision. OTHERS -- the abilities to recognize underlying agendas, understand multiple perspectives, and anticipate likely emotional reactions. SELF -- the abilities to identify one's own mistakes, encourage and seek out constructive criticism, and adjust one's own behavior. Though these cognitive skills play a profound role in determining a manager's success, they are not what most employers focus on when recruiting or promoting executives. Instead, nearly everyone fixates on personality type, style, or other irrelevant characteristics. This book seeks to refocus attention on what really determines leadership aptitude. What star leaders do is not magic. Their accomplishments are made possible by specific, identifiable skills that can be measured -- and learned. With a clear understanding of Executive Intelligence, managers can develop a means to improve their own performance as well as identify and cultivate the critical mass of talent their organizations so desperately seek.
|
|
|
| Publisher | Collins Business | | Release date | 11/2005 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Hardcover |
| | List price | $27.95 | | Our price | $23.2 (you save 16.99%) | | Used price | from $0.65 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Book Seller...Not Amazon...Did Not Have Book
This book was advertised by one of Amazon's partner companies. I was excited to have the opportunity to purchase the book at a good price. The seller did not have a copy. After reading the reviews of the seller, it is not uncommon for this to happen. Amazon needs to monitor these companies more closely.
 A rigorous and eloquent examination of "the single biggest driver of executive performance"
There are significant differences between information and knowledge. The former consists of raw data; the latter is what results from an evaluation of the data to increase one's knowledge and understanding of the given subject. Hence the importance of judgment when making decisions based on that understanding. Also, there are differences between what can be learned from formal training (e.g. reading, reasoning, and writing skills) and what cannot (e.g. character). Finally, as Howard Gardner and countless others have asserted, there are many different forms of intelligence that are frequently viewed as aptitudes.
For example, in his latest book, Five Minds for the Future, Gardner identifies and then explains five separate but related combinations of cognitive abilities that are needed to "thrive in the world during eras to come...[cognitive abilities] which we should develop in the future." Gardner refers to them as "minds" but they are really mindsets. Mastery of each enables a person:
1. to know how to work steadily over time to improve skill and understanding;
2. to take information from disparate sources and make sense of it by understanding and evaluating that information objectively;
3. by building on discipline and synthesis, to break new ground;
4. by "recognizing that nowadays one can no longer remain within one's shell or one's home territory," to note and welcome differences between human individuals and between human groups so as to understand them and work effectively with them;
5. and finally, "proceeding on a level more abstract than the respectful mind," to reflect on the nature of one's work and the needs and desires of the society in which one lives.
Gardner notes that the five "minds" he examines in this book are different from the eight or nine human intelligences that he examines in his earlier works. "Rather than being distinct computational capabilities, they are better thought of as broad uses of the mind that we can cultivate at school, in professions, or at the workplace."
In this volume, Justin Mendes explains that Executive Intelligence(tm) (or ExI) "is the single biggest driver of executive performance" and claims that it is overlooked by current assessment practices. Through his work with some of the most effective executives in the world, Menkes, co-founder of Executive Intelligence Group, sought to understand the qualities of star performers. He found that success could be attributed to intelligence but not to, for example, the academic IQ required for admission into top universities. Instead, Menkes has identified specific patterns of "intelligent executive behavior." He distilled this behavioral pattern of success and, over three years, designed an assessment methodology to measure it. This is the Executive Intelligence Evaluation.
What does this evaluation involve? I visited executiveintelligence.com and located this explanation: "Structured as a one-on-one interview, the Executive Intelligence Evaluation quantifies and benchmarks an executive on the unique cognitive skills that are essential for leadership excellence. Instead of simply asking an executive about their capabilities, the methodology requires a candidate to demonstrate their skills. To accomplish this, the ExI Evaluation utilizes job relevant scenarios that necessitate: decision making and information gathering, managing the activities of others, and evaluating/adapting one's own thinking and behavior - in other words, the central responsibilities of any executive. What's more, a candidate's capabilities are evaluated in the real-time verbal format in which they must be demonstrated on the job. The interview takes about one-and-a-half hours and is conducted by a highly trained expert. Scores have been shown to have no adverse impact in terms of race, gender, language, or country of origin."
This brilliant book can be of immense value to C-level executives in any organization (regardless of its size or nature) who have or share primary responsibility in one or more of these areas:
1. Identifying their organization's leadership and management needs
2. Locating, interviewing, and selecting those to fill those needs
2. Supervising assignment and development of executive talent
3. Measuring executives' performance
4. Determining their compensation
5. Deciding on promotions, probations, and terminations
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out any of Howard Gardner's (notably Five Minds for the Future), Daniel Goleman's Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis' Judgment: How Winning leaders Make Great Calls, Steven Feinberg's The Advantage-Makers: How Exceptional Leaders Win by Creating Opportunities Others Don't, and Launching a Leadership Revolution: Mastering the Five Levels of Influence co-authored by Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward.
 Good information for building a team
While I'm not certain I completely buy off on the premise that IQ is the single best predictor of success, this book does a nice job of laying out the qualities needed to succeed as a leader. Dealing with others, anticipating unforseen consequences, humility, etc. - all things to look for. Definitely worth a read if you're responsible for hiring and building a team.
Executive Intelligence
Menkes offers an excellent model for executive intelligence modeled after Binet's work in general intelligence that can be applied to the business world. He also offers quality real-life applications for using this model in companies.
He also cites why companies are not as effective as they should be, while offering hope that such intelligence can be developed in leaders. I highly recommend this excellent book as it has both personal and organizational applications.
Great book for assessing yourself and your bosses
I simply loved this book! The author states clearly and succinctly what makes up Executive Intelligence and that is task, people, and self. Through these three cognitive skills a person can gauge oneself or his boss. This is very powerful because you can discover blind spots and hidden strengths both in yourself and those you work for.
I would use these techniques in sizing up my competition.
|
|
| | |
|
