It's time for KI over IQ and EQ

It's that time of the Quadrennial when the World is watching one event over everything else, celebrating the spirit of Citius, Altius, Fortius i.e Faster, Higher, Stronger. There's typically a lot of post event press and bylines on why an individual or a team won over everyone else, or better still, why certain nations do well and many others struggle. Being an ardent sports lover, I thought I should pencil my thoughts on something very unique to the World we live in, where an inch gained and an inch lost, could be the difference between being crowned a champion or not. Just ask Tennis Superstars Federer and Djokovic after the epic 2019 Wimbledon Final or more recently, Noah Lyles and Kishane Thompson, after the 100m race for the ages, which separated the best from the rest by 5 Milliseconds. Beyond the factors of chance, circumstance and endurance, there is one thing that has always separated the best from the rest in any field from Sports to the Corporate World, and surprisingly, there is very little written about it. Let's Talk Killer Instinct!

In the Corporate World, we have gotten addicted to hiring based on the Skills, IQ or EQ of individuals, but very rarely do we spend time assessing an individual's KI or Killer Instinct. Having done a fair bit of recruiting over the last two odd decades for folks in my teams, I can safely say that beyond the three aspects we all look at, it is his/her killer instinct that takes the individual/team to the highest levels of excellence. The Oxford Dictionary defines KI as a ruthless determination to win. I look at it, as individuals and teams, who never settle at being second best and want to win, against all odds. Despite being a die-hard fan of Roger Federer in Tennis and Lee Chong Wei in Badminton, more often than not, they ended up being second best against the marauding Rafa/Djoko and Lin Dan, respectively, especially in Summit Clashes. Both Fedex and Lee Chong Wei one can argue were comparatively, better off technically and had all the skills in the game to counter everything that was thrown to them. Despite all their successes and their own claims to being "the GOAT", even a die-hard Fedex or LCW fan would agree that a Djoko or a Lin Dan have the first right to that sobriquet!

Sports for me, was always a way to show skill, humility and class on and off the field and most of my heroes were folks who embodied it. That the 80s and 90s had many to celebrate in the fields of Football, Cricket, Tennis, Badminton, Hockey and Athletics, meant that I was always spoilt for choice, as a sports-buff. Moving on to the late 2000s, let's talk of one superstar, who has redefined the way the sport is played. Have never been a fan of a Virat Kohli, despite all his class on the cricketing field purely because of how he presented himself on and off the field, but I must say that there is one thing about him that I just have to bow my head to. He has something that most other Indian Cricketers of the past, didn't seem to have. A raw instinct to win, and never give-up. That there are countless examples of it in the last few years, is testimony to why one can argue that he has always had an abundance of KI beyond the class and IQ/EQ he anyway possesses. Beyond Kohli, any Cricket follower the world over would attest to how Aussie teams of the past, have always come up trumps when down in the dumps, with their sheer will to win.

In the Corporate World, especially in Entrepreneurship and Sales, there are countless stories of individuals and teams, who end up repeatedly being the Entrepreneur or Sales Person or Sales Team of the Year, regardless of the region, market they focus on. It takes that little bit extra, that separates out the best from the rest, even in the cut-throat Enterprise World, that most of us are part of! These same individuals change teams, companies, markets, and sometimes even their Jobs, but they still end up being the best in that domain or market. I can safely say that it is that instinct to go for the kill, when the opportunity presents itself that takes them to where they end up going. Just ask an ardent Indian Hockey Fan of the 90s, when they would lose every close match to their perennial rivals, Pakistan, despite being on top for most parts of the game. The equation has completely changed in the last decade or so, because of the attitudes of players from both teams, where the roles have reversed. This is true in Cricket as well, where their rivalry is unparalleled in all of Sport.

So the question really then is, how do we assess KI of an individual, while hiring your next key Individual to your team. I am sure there are many more accomplished and tenured than I am, who can share deeper insights on what has worked for them, but I for one, typically like to push aspirants out of their comfort zones to get to situational questions and look at how they respond to it, their thought processes, approaches, emotions while they walk me through the scenario that is playing out in their minds. As a Manager or a Leader, I have had my fair share of successes and failures, and I do acknowledge that like it is with life, sometimes, your gut is never smarter than reality and you do make mistakes. I also believe that Skills can be taught, situational awareness can be taught, but it is extremely difficult to teach folks KI. That is something which is a combination of Nature and Nurture and you need to be born with it!

As the Paris Olympics comes to a close, let's acknowledge that the true spirit of sport, is in competing against the best and to give it your all, win or lose. Killer Instinct is for another day and more specifically, for the hiring manager or the sports connoisseur in us ??