Is smarter better?

In her book Multipliers – How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, Liz Wiseman points to research that shows that extremely smart people often feel the need to strut their stuff, to parade their gifts of IQ.  Her research indicates that these uber intelligent do so with an apathetic ear to the group wisdom of those around them.  They get an approximate 30% to 50% of the potential output of their stakeholders.

Her argument is that those, who draw out the wisdom of their stakeholders, be it employees, or even one’s own family, get a 2X output.  That is saying the employer with 100 workers, gets output equal to 200.  All from a leader who coaxes out the aptitude’s, motivation, and smarts of their peers and subordinates.

With IQ’s increasing (about 100 years ago an IQ of 73 was the norm compared to todays intelligence), her call for leveraging these increasing brain capabilities is a moral imperative.

Over the weekend, the church that I am associated with made a couple of teeth rattling changes.   These changes focus more on listening, and lifting, and less on reporting and administering.  Revolutionary.

With IQs going up, and the trend of empathy skills declining, the bright future will belong to those who respect others, who listen authentically, and have the wisdom to know when to “stay out of it”, or when to contribute and assist.