Future of Work: Workplace belongs to whom Book Smarts or Street Smarts?

The question today is not about #IQ or #EQ? It is also not about which is more important and relevant? The real question is how effective a #leader is in understanding the context and being able to leverage his/her skills as the situation demands to drive people/team or organization towards the aligned goal.

The #workplace realities have evolved significantly in last few years, and the factors seen to make a disproportionate difference in the fortunes of the organization are the softer elements like #agility, dealing with #ambiguity and managing #change which are not easy to quantify or replicate. The organizational leadership and culture have a critical role to play as organizations have become networked, boundary-less, flat and lean, indicating a visible shift in the ways of working and, and how power dynamics are determined. Today leaders authority and ability to influence others are not determined by seniority/ level but by how swiftly one can gauge and manage the changing priorities within the context of how people react/ would respond to these changes.

While, we discussed an organizational dimension focusing on #culture, #leadership, and talent, there is an equally important dimension and focuses on its ability to anticipate the changes which would determine its future relevance in the marketplace The success of this dimension largely depends on the cognitive and technical capability of the organization and can be attributed to the IQ intelligence of its employees.

Yes, one can argue a high IQ does give one an edge to analyze & synthesize data and identify solutions, but it is EQ which helps to determine the best approach to deliver the identified solution. The approach chosen could vary depending on numerous factors like organizational culture, work dynamics, people involved and motives for engagement.

The growing influence of 4th #industrialrevolution is redefining our fundamental ways of existence and redefining how we interact with things around us making EQ far more important and critical for success in future.

In summary, if you are aiming for success… IQ is just the qualifying factor and EQ is the determining factor as future of work changes.