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By Debra Doroni, PsyD, MBA, PCC
The 5 Intelligences of Exceptional Leaders & Organizations
The 5 Intelligences of Exceptional Leaders & Organizations: A Book Abstract
Business trends are creating what has recently been described as an across-the-board human capital crisis at a time when the environment requires constant adaptation and nimbleness. The complex, adaptive challenges facing today’s leaders and organizations are tied to deep patterns and dynamics that require people to learn new ways of being in order to solve them. Such “wicked” problems require a long-range, system-wide perspective, and the ability to rapidly create, acquire, and transfer knowledge to navigate unpredictability and change.
Organizations need to create processes, structures, and cultures that prioritize human interests and outcomes. Leaders must acquire and employ not only technical knowledge and skills, but also develop the embodied skills to create environments that support relationship-centeredness, effective communication, reflection and learning, and promote resilience and well-being.
My research spanning five years and over 650 books, peer-reviewed articles, and research studies uncovered and distilled into five “intelligences” the mindsets, qualities, skills, and behaviors that lead to exceptional individual and organizational results and promote individual, team, and system-wide transformation.
Execution Intelligence
Execution Intelligence is about practicing the mindsets and behaviors of implementation. Execution intelligent people cultivate an action and achievement orientation, and set goals and expectations that are challenging and meaningful, but also realistic. They are strategic and engage in systems thinking, advocacy and stewardship. They synthesize and deploy the knowledge, ideas, and perspectives gained from Self Intelligence, Relational Intelligence, and Communication Intelligence to foster innovation, adaptiveness, and change. Rather than imparting judgements, excessive direction, rules, commands, or coercion, they derive influence by catalyzing and empowering others to generate action, results and impact.
Relational Intelligence
Relational Intelligence is about intentionally deploying Self Intelligence and being aware of, acknowledging and prioritizing other people’s needs, preferences, responses, and feelings when interacting with others. It involves being approachable and creating connection with others by being accessible, affable, non-judgmental, authentic, sincere, credible, reliable, and accountable and showing vulnerability. Relationally intelligent people are intellectually and relationally humble and culturally competent. They display attitudes of collaboration, altruism, caring, acceptance and objectivity. Relational Intelligence is built upon and promotes mindsets, behaviors, structures, and cultures that support inclusivity, minimize hierarchy, and are guided by morality, ethics, and fairness.
Self Intelligence
Self Intelligence involves having deep awareness of your values, strengths, core needs, biases and triggers, as well as physical and emotional self-awareness. Knowing one’s self in this way supports accurate self-appraisal and a positive sense of self, confidence, and courage, which create a sense of self-efficacy. People with Self Intelligence engage in intentional self-investment, continuous learning, self-care, and self-leadership to be the best versions of themselves. Self Intelligence is the prerequisite intelligence for effectively deploying the next three intelligences.
Communication Intelligence
Communication Intelligence involves deploying a “coaching stance” by asking open-ended questions, listening actively, acknowledging feelings and emotions (one’s own and others’), inviting others’ questions and responses, and responding with empathy and compassion. People who are communication intelligent foster joint agenda-setting, encourage, value and align others’ contributions, think and reflect with others to expand perspectives and develop mutual understanding, and promote shared decision-making. They are mindful, intentional, transparent, open, empathic, and compassionate, and respectful. Communication Intelligence generates trust and engages, motivates and inspires others towards collective action.
Neuro Intelligence
Neuro Intelligence involves creating the conditions for “happy brains” by minimizing people’s fight, flight, or freeze responses and maximizing their sense of motivation, inspiration and reward. Neuro intelligent people attend to people’s basic needs for a sense of self-worth, certainty, control, belongingness, and fairness. They promote cognitive complexity and flexibility by allowing sufficient time, resources, and emotional support to engage people in brainstorming, perspective-taking, reflection, and scenario planning. They cultivate positive emotions through humor, fun and play, and through recognition, appreciation, and celebration. Deploying Neuro Intelligence promotes trust, trustworthiness, and psychological safety and creates the conditions to optimize human creativity, productivity, and well-being. Neuro Intelligence is the foundational intelligence on which the other four intelligences are built.
Exceptional Outcomes
My research found that The Five Intelligences are associated with important individual and organizational results including better quality and safety, customer and team satisfaction, physical and mental health, resiliency, thriving, engagement, learning, career success, efficiency, innovation, productivity, successful change, social change, reputation, market share, and profit. In healthcare settings, these intelligences also reduce burnout, medical errors, adverse events, patient mortality, length of stay, and malpractice suits, among other important individual, team, and organizational outcomes.
The Five Intelligences are independent of professional discipline, role, position, or title― anyone can practice these behaviors, mindsets, and skills to increase effectiveness, break down hierarchies, eliminate professional silos, and promote participation by all team members. The Five Intelligences are the foundation for leaders, coaches, and organizational development practitioners to address complex issues and create whole-system transformation in teams, organizations, families, communities, and our society at large.
About the Author: Debra Doroni
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Dr. Debra Doroni is an organizational and leadership psychologist, certified executive coach, and leadership educator whose mission is to inspire leaders to create human-centered and resilient organizations. Through keynote speaking, organizational consulting, individual and team coaching, and leadership education, she supports professionals to elevate their impact, improve their professional and personal relationships, success, and satisfaction and be leaders others want to follow.
Deb teaches leadership in graduate and continuing education programs at Harvard Medical School, the Mass General Institute of Health Professions, and Harvard University Division of Continuing Education. For more than 25 years, she was a healthcare executive in physician practice, academic hospital, and for-profit healthcare organizations. Having been compelled in the aftermath of cancer treatment and professional burnout to transform her own professional and personal life, Deb has a particular interest in supporting leaders to cultivate joy in their work, to thrive personally and professionally, and to promote human-centeredness in their teams and organizations.
Deb completed her Doctor of Psychology in Organizational and Leadership Psychology at William James College, where her area of emphasis was the Neuroscience of Leadership. Debra completed her coaching training at the Gestalt International Study Center and earned the Professional Certified Coach designation from International Coaching Federation. She is Certified in the Team Emotional Intelligence Survey® and is a Conversational Intelligence® for Coaches Enhanced Skills Practitioner. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from the College of the Holy Cross and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Boston College.