Management consultant Tom Guarriello outlines three pillars for workplace success: IQ (domain knowledge and cognitive ability), EQ (emotional intelligence and relationship-building), and NQ (openness to new ideas and staying current with trends). High proficiency in all three gives people an edge regardless of seniority.
Oh, hi, it's Tom Guarriello. You know, one of the things that we do in our management consulting firm is to work with clients around trying to figure out what kind of people they're looking for in order to make their companies successful. So I thought maybe today what I might do is just briefly go over what we see as 3 keys to success in today's really interesting and complicated work world. Let's call the first set of things you need to be successful IQ. And you know, IQ just means you've got to be smart. You have to know your area. You have to understand your discipline. You have to understand the prevailing practices, the way things get done. And the better you are at those things, the more successful you're likely to be. IQ is probably pretty much a given in today's work world. If you want to be at the highest level in any organization, you've got to have a high IQ. Now, the second set of things, let's call those EQ. Now, EQ is a phrase that's been around for a few years. It was coined by a guy named Dan Goleman. I'll put links up here. And Goleman coined EQ to refer to a bunch of characteristics which he calls emotional intelligence. What's emotional intelligence? Emotional intelligence is the ability to to really interconnect with other people effectively, to form, to maintain great relationships with other people. Now, those relationships are based on an individual's ability to monitor both their own emotional lives, to know how we are feeling and how we are experiencing other people in, in a relationship, and also how the other person is feeling so that we know how things going in a relationship. We know when, you know, I'm trying to convince my boss of an idea, but she's just not getting it, and maybe it's because I'm just not doing a very good job of figuring out how to convince her that I've got a great idea here. EQ also means my ability to monitor my own emotional state, to control my own emotions, to figure out how to present myself in the most effective way that I can within a business context so that I can get things done. So that's EQ. Now the third big group of things that we think are necessary for success, we're calling NQ. And NQ for us really stands for Innovative Intelligence. Now Innovative Intelligence is really your openness to new ideas. How How plugged in are you to the new things that are happening in your discipline, in your market, in the world in general? How curious are you? You know, if you think about the business that you're in as kind of a— if you think about it on a map, think about Google Maps, and if you zoom way in on your business, on— better yet, let's zoom in on your desk in your business, and here you are, and boy, you're right there, but as you kind of zoom out, The next thing you see is you in your department or in your team. And then you zoom up a little more and we see you in your office. And then we zoom up a little more and we see you in your organization and then in your division and your division in your company and your company in its market and the market in the global world of trends. Well, how plugged in are you to the newness that's coming through the world that affects every one of those levels levels of magnification that you live on. If you're not plugged into the right level of newness, if you're not curious enough to find out what's going on in your world, in all of those different contexts, then you're probably not going to be as valuable nor as successful an employee as you are if you are plugged into the newness. Being successful today is on one hand more difficult than it's ever been because there are a lot of factors that it takes in order to be successful. But on the other hand, it's easier than it's ever been because if you demonstrate high degrees of proficiency in all three of those basic areas— IQ, EQ, and NQ— the chances are that you're going to have a better chance of succeeding than almost anybody else in history, no matter how old you are. You remember I made a video a few months ago, maybe a month ago, about whether or not you were born after 1975. The point of that video is that we live in a world where you don't necessarily have to pay your dues in longevity in order to be successful in a corporation. And in particular, you don't have to pay those dues if you're really proficient in all three of those key areas to success. So take care and look forward to seeing you guys again soon. Bye-bye.
