It takes a lot to get to the top of an organization: a high IQ, emotional intelligence, technical competence, and a variety of personal characteristics, such as fortitude and resilience. Even with those qualities, many leaders fail at the top job — often because they don’t know how to get the organization to do what they want.
Good Leadership Hinges on “Organizational Intelligence”
IQ and EQ aren’t enough.
June 15, 2020
Summary.
The qualities that help managers rise in the organization — emotional intelligence, high IQ, technical competence, and so forth — don’t necessarily make them effective once they’re in a leadership position. For that, they need organizational intelligence (OQ), or the ability to get the organization to do what they want it to do. Those with organizational intelligence have the following competencies: they can effectively communicate the top strategic priorities, foster an organization-wide sense of “how we do things here”, get things done even in the absence of consensus, stage moments of theater, and rebel from the top.
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Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Business Plan Development. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
Learn how to create a winning business plan.