In an overwhelming world of self-help leadership
advice, what are the unchanging
fundam
entals
that really make a difference?
It's a crucial question- one
that inspired Dr. Menkes to embark upon ten years of
research into the topic. Working with the late
Peter Drucker, Justin Menkes endeavored to unravel
the mystery behind star executive performance.
He soon discovered that relying upon our
preconceived notions of great leadership had
confounded, confused, and led us astray. His
most startling finding was that there are specific
fundamentals universal to success, but we
consistently overlook them. What’s more, these
lessons can be understood and incorporated into
anyone’s behavior.
After interviewing
thousands of executives around the world, including
many of the most celebrated CEO’s, one truth became
evident: there are a very small set of bedrock
principles that determine success. Essentially
there exists a sort of Executive IQ- not the kind of
smarts that make someone good at arithmetic
and vocabulary, but rather the essential subjects
one must master to excel as a leader. We’ve
all known people that were considered geniuses in
school, but who are utterly hopeless in a business
setting. What Menkes found was that this
contradiction was not surprising, since academic
training teaches us little of the practical
abilities required to excel professionally.
The culmination of Dr.
Menkes’ research resulted in the discovery of what
he termed “Executive Intelligence”, and he later
released a bestselling book under that name (Harper
Collins, 2005). Executive Intelligence helps
us cut through the clutter of unproven management
fads, and turn our focus to the fundamentals that
extraordinary leaders have mastered. Since his
discovery, Menkes has provided thousands of people
around the world with the clear, actionable ways to
transform their own lives and thus ascend to new
heights of excellence.
Dr. Menkes findings were so
revolutionary that they were immediately adopted by
the world’s preeminent executive search firm,
Spencer Stuart, which uses Executive Intelligence to
select and cultivate the next generation of great
leaders around the globe. In his roles as
author, consultant, and keynote speaker, Justin
Menkes has been the subject of features in
Newsweek, USA Today, Harvard Business Review, Wall
Street Journal, Chief Executive Magazine, and
Businessweek.
His consulting services are sought after by such
corporations as DuPont, Pratt & Whitney, Credit
Suisse, J-Crew, and Hewlett-Packard, where he acts
as a valued advisor helping companies and
individuals identify their strengths, overcome their
weaknesses, and find sustainable long-term success.
Menkes graduated with
honors from Haverford College and received his M.A.
in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.
He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from
Claremont Graduate University and lives in Los
Angeles.
MOST REQUESTED TOPIC:
Executive Intelligence
Everything you didn’t learn in school:
1. Why train for a sprint when you’re running a
marathon?
2. The memorization trap.
3. Speed kills- how creativity gets lost in the
shuffle.
4. Parrots don’t soar with eagles.
What we consistently don’t
do . . . but should:
1. A question a day keeps failure away.
2. The up-side of arguing.
3. Want a winning team? Hold tryouts.
Putting the lead back in
leader:
1. You don’t need a crystal ball to see the future.
2. Behind every good leader is a….
3. You can see more from 50 feet than 50,000.
About the book:
[from http://executiveintelligence.com]
Executive Intelligence:
What All Great Leaders Have
Wall Street Journal Best-Seller by Justin
Menkes
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 improved. 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.