Talent is Everything
Every business today is re-thinking its strategy and business model. Precipitated by the global recession, this reevaluation process is the subject of great discussion and debate within and across businesses and industries.
However, my view is that a significant number of companies lack the deep talent necessary to effectively engage in an innovative re-invention of their business. If you do not have available the level and quantity of talent necessary to think and plan in a broad, creative, and fundamental manner, no amount of strategic techniques and brain-storming will help. Practical problem solvers and experienced operators will be able to reduce costs and increase quality and speed of delivery. However, if radical perspective shifting thought leadership is needed, those practical improvements may not prepare the company for sustainable success in an uncertain environment.
The Seduction of Conventional Wisdom
Conventional wisdom regarding executive derailment has identified the primary cause of failure as a deficiency in interpersonal and team-oriented skills. Business literature has promoted this view so strongly that the power of intellectual problem-solving has been devalued in the selection, evaluation, and promotion of executives. Several recent research studies support the viewpoint that the importance of brain power has been diminished as a critical factor in evaluating successful senior executive leadership. One paper, soon to be published in a highly respected journal, reviewed the strong validity research of mental ability predicting executive success and identified the trend in discounting the importance of cognitive capacity in executive selection. Another study clearly showed that perceptions of leadership are heavily weighted by assertiveness and social skills rather than by the quality of the ideas and the depth of the problem solving.
My recommendation to every company is to balance both cognitive capacity and interpersonal skills in the selection and promotion of executives. One of the difficulties in evaluating problem-solving skills is the more hidden nature of intelligence as opposed to the greater visibility of social skills. A quiet, introverted, brilliant thinker may be perceived as a less effective leader than a gregarious, outspoken individual with average executive cognitive capacity. In years past, the rising tide of consumer spending promoted many adequate executives, but the deadly currents in today's economy require deep thinking talent, especially at the senior executive level.
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