Why is it that some businesspeople lead so effortlessly, while others struggle trying to find the right ways to create strategy, solve problems, motivate and manage? In Executive Intelligence: What All Great Leaders Have, Justin Menkes, Ph.D., identifies the specific aptitudes that make leaders great.
Based on nearly a decade of research including interviews with outstanding CEOs, such as Jack Welch and Andrea Jung, Menkes examines the process by which top businesspeople accomplish their work, revealing the cognitive skills that comprise such vague concepts as “business acumen,” “sound judgment” and “business smarts.”
Dividing managerial work into three main categories, Menkes identifies the core aptitudes that successful executives share. These include accomplishing tasks, understanding people and judging one’s self.
Menkes also takes a hard look at the ways executives and job candidates are assessed through personality and IQ tests and traditional interview practices. He explains why none of these methods is capable of measuring executive intelligence and presents a new assessment tool to fill this critical gap.
Menkes also argues that the aptitudes that make up executive intelligence can be practiced and improved. “Executive intelligence is not static and finite,” he states. “People can enhance their abilities to perform well at work. But first, they need to know what the specific aptitudes are that they should improve. My research gives people a road map for sharpening these skills.”
