Leaders Have Positive Intelligence

 In reading more on leadership, there is something outstanding leaders have that others do not. 

They had a very strong Positive Intelligence capability. 

We all have the ability to have a strong Positive Intelligence capacity but it takes focus and work. 

So where do you start? 

A good place to look at is your mental chatter. You have all heard them - the one that cheers you on to success, the one that reasons and the one that sets you up for failure. Shirzad Chamine calls this voice that is trying to set you up to fail your saboteur.

In fact, Stanford Lecturer, CEO Coach Shirzad Chamine has based his work on this very subject. 

Shirzad is the author of the New York Times bestselling Positive Intelligence. He has been the CEO of the largest coach training organization in the world, having trained faculty at Stanford and Yale business schools.

Shirzad lectures on Positive Intelligence at Stanford University, where he guides graduate students through his popular six-week PQ training. A preeminent C-suite advisor, Shirzad has coached hundreds of CEOs and their executive teams. His background includes PhD studies in neuroscience in addition to a BA in psychology, an MS in electrical engineering, and an MBA from Stanford.

If you’re not physically fit, you’d feel physical stress as you climb a steep hill.   

If you’re not mentally fit, you’d feel mental stress, such as anxiety, frustration, or unhappiness, as you handle work and relationship challenges.   

80% of people score below the minimum level of mental fitness required for peak performance and happiness.

In learning to be the best leader and person you can be, you must obtain mental fitness in the realm of your very own positive intelligence.

I would highly recommend Shirzad’s book Positive Intelligence. If you want to go further, I have an amazing coach that can run you through the 6-week course on mastering your own Positive Intelligence.

Best, 

Manal

Four Key Competencies

There are four core key competencies for supervisors, middle managers, senior managers, and top executives. They are: 

1. Inspires and motivates others

2. Displays high integrity and honesty

3. Solves problems and analyzes issues

4. Drives for results

Think about your life. Did you have a boss that uplifted you, inspired you and motivated you? Or did they do just the opposite? Did they hold true to their word and live in a place of honesty? Were they there to help you solve problems or did they happen to, or seem to, make more issues? Did they encourage you to find results and help you get there? That is the kind of leadership we all want and need. 

Someone who made you better by being around them. 

Think back to your leaders in your life. You will know for sure if they had those 4 characteristics.

So how do you become a leader like this? 

• Encourage others

• Speak life into them 

• Bring up things that will help them reach their goals but allow them to find the answer on their own

• Ask them questions about how it is going

• Do what you say you will do even when it is hard to keep your word

• Always be honest

• Be a problem solver not a problem giver

• Allow other to share their opinion

• Ask if they are open to feedback

• Collect data, fact and figures before making any rash decisions

• Know the goals

• Identify the steps to get there

• Measure often

• Plan a celebration for the win

• Include others by giving praise and recognition

• Give verbal praise whenever possible

You can practice their leadership traits at work and at home. Try it with you family and see what happens. You might find a happier home as well as a booming business. Let me know how it goes.

Best, 

Manal

Leadership: Social Intelligence

 

Leaders who are successful are often highly skilled in high social intelligence. 

This is the ability to embrace change, utilize all of their resources/team available to them while maintaining self-awareness and self-mastery in the process. 

So if you think of your most successful leader, they most likely had the ability to translate a vision into reality. This takes mastery of holding a vision, communicating that, knowing what moving pieces had to happen in the background and who needs to do it. Normally, this isn’t just one person driving the ship but rather a whole crew of people working together under the leadership of a captain (leader). 

Warren Bennis, a pioneer in leadership research says, “leadership is the capacity to translate vision into a reality.”

Leaders pioneer the research, create a vision for people and companies they lead and also effectively communicate their priorities. 

Leadership has nothing to do with a title. We all know people who wear a title but have leadership ability that is not up to the expectation of the need. 

Leadership can be at any level of an organization amongst those they collaborate to meet a common goal. 

So let’s look at you. What qualities can you work on to be a great leader. 

Let’s say you have a new idea. In sharing it with others to see what you think, let’s consider the steps a leader would take. 

You can start small with an idea in your life. It can be things like having a beautiful garden. 

• Vision - Grab an idea you are passionate about (like the beautiful garden) and map out what it would look like ideally. 

• Communication - Make your communication plan so you can share it with a few others to see what they think. 

• Collaborate - Figure out who in your world can do what and if they are bought into the idea too. 

• Resources - With your team, maximize your resources. 

• Oversee - check in on the progress of the plan. 

• Celebrate - make sure to celebrate all of the people involved and their contribution to the whole. 

I am excited to hear what small project you cast your vision about and how you work through the steps of great leadership. During this process, there is no question you will use your social intelligence. 

You are not in this alone. Leverage your social, communication, collaboration and vision casting skills. 

Have fun with this. 

Best, 

Manal

8 Characteristics & Qualities of a Great Leader

 

Leaders have the ability to impact the current state and mold the future. 

So we want to make sure they are leading with the characteristics we think are most important.

Here are 8 characteristics and qualities of a great leader:

Integrity. 

the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.

the state of being whole and undivided.

Ability to delegate. 

entrust (a task or responsibility) to another person, typically one who is less senior than oneself.

Communication. 

share or exchange information, news, or ideas.

Mindful. 

the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something.

Grateful. 

feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness; thankful.

Agile Learner.

able to move quickly and easily.

Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences.

Influence. 

the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.

Empathy. 

the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

When you think of these 8 characteristics, what great leaders from your life come to mind?  If you think of someone and you are able to mentor with that person, ask them how they grew those areas of their skillset. 

I recommend you make a leadership development plan. 

This is simple in that you take each of the 8 characteristics and qualities and measure where you are at on a sale of 1 - 10. 1 being low and 10 being amazing. 

Let’s say in integrity you are a 7 because you break promises to yourself and you are a 6 in gratitude. 

Some simple ideas might be to share your commitments to yourself with someone else and work towards moving that to a 10 - where you always keep your personal commitments. For the gratitude number, perhaps it is slowing down for 5 minutes each morning and writing down a gratitude list or closing your day with that before bed. 

You can move your own personal needle to the high levels of great leadership with practice and consistency. 

Much success leaders! 

Best, 

Manal