Do Smart People Make the Best Managers?
Everbody's talking about IQ testing and the importance of raw intelligence. A 1999 article in Scientific American said that only the top 5% of Americans (those above an IQ of 125) are even potentially capable of doing senior roles. The bottom 5% (those below IQ of 75) are unlikely to be able to work and will form an underclass in society.
Company's have always recognised the importance of straightforward "academic smarts" both through specific graduate recruitment programmes and more generally in the way they select and recruit people.
There is an opposing point of view though. Some psychologists have criticised the whole idea of IQ. They either claim it doesn't actually exist or that it is simply a measure of how good you are at doing IQ tests! Others claim that it is biased against certain groups OR that it doesn't predict work success (work "smarts" are not the same as "academic brilliance"). Some theorists have claimed its too narrow a concept; that "intelligence" is in fact a bundle of different attributes from understanding language and manipulating numbers to being able to get on with people. Different jobs require different sets of skills.
In management terms, a lot of recent thinkers have questioned the whole idea of "manager as the best thinker in the team". The Emotional Intelligence movement and team theory suggests that not only does being intelligent not ensure someone will be a good manager; it might sometimes make them a bad manager. Belbins team role theory shows that the person acting as chairman or leader of a group should not be the brightest one; if he or she is cleverer than the rest he will swamp the group dynamics that create ideas more fertile than any individuals. Equally, management jobs are not all the same - in fact they're extremely different and its unlikely that one sort of person would, for instance, be equally good at running the technical side of a nuclear power plant as well as organising a touring ballet company.
So which is it? Manager as smarty-pants or manager as personally gifted leader figure.
Of course there' some truth in both, as you and I working in industry have always known. Folk psychology - how you and I judge people - is being shown to be very accurate about certain things.
The provisional answer to "Do Smart People Make the Best Managers?" is NO! We all know very clever people who are not just bad managers but are socially totally ineffective; people who seem almost lopsided.
Yet intelligence as defined in IQ is important. IQ is often defined as being able to deal with increasingly complexity - and most managers do have to do that.
Intelligence seems to be a hurdle you have to jump over. You need a certain amount of intelligence to get into a management role. The more senior you get, the more different management jobs get and therefore the wider the variety of skills you'll need.
Think about Dulewicz and Higgs IQ/EI % contribution to management success.
Think about the different combinations of personal attributes you may need for different management jobs.
Think about particularly changes in fast track graduate schemes. There is a collapse in confidence that degrees and other academic qualifications measure what they were measuring even 5 or 6 years ago: and the evidence is that this is in fact the case. Thus many graduate recruiters are doing ancillary measures of high level reasoning to check who are the real high fliers. But the real trick is not only to measure raw cognitive intelligence but those other attributes which may lead to success later on in careers.
Warm regards
Sujeet Kumar
Strategist: HR, Training & Develpment
From India, Pune
5Everbody's talking about IQ testing and the importance of raw intelligence. A 1999 article in Scientific American said that only the top 5% of Americans (those above an IQ of 125) are even potentially capable of doing senior roles. The bottom 5% (those below IQ of 75) are unlikely to be able to work and will form an underclass in society.
Company's have always recognised the importance of straightforward "academic smarts" both through specific graduate recruitment programmes and more generally in the way they select and recruit people.
There is an opposing point of view though. Some psychologists have criticised the whole idea of IQ. They either claim it doesn't actually exist or that it is simply a measure of how good you are at doing IQ tests! Others claim that it is biased against certain groups OR that it doesn't predict work success (work "smarts" are not the same as "academic brilliance"). Some theorists have claimed its too narrow a concept; that "intelligence" is in fact a bundle of different attributes from understanding language and manipulating numbers to being able to get on with people. Different jobs require different sets of skills.
In management terms, a lot of recent thinkers have questioned the whole idea of "manager as the best thinker in the team". The Emotional Intelligence movement and team theory suggests that not only does being intelligent not ensure someone will be a good manager; it might sometimes make them a bad manager. Belbins team role theory shows that the person acting as chairman or leader of a group should not be the brightest one; if he or she is cleverer than the rest he will swamp the group dynamics that create ideas more fertile than any individuals. Equally, management jobs are not all the same - in fact they're extremely different and its unlikely that one sort of person would, for instance, be equally good at running the technical side of a nuclear power plant as well as organising a touring ballet company.
So which is it? Manager as smarty-pants or manager as personally gifted leader figure.
Of course there' some truth in both, as you and I working in industry have always known. Folk psychology - how you and I judge people - is being shown to be very accurate about certain things.
The provisional answer to "Do Smart People Make the Best Managers?" is NO! We all know very clever people who are not just bad managers but are socially totally ineffective; people who seem almost lopsided.
Yet intelligence as defined in IQ is important. IQ is often defined as being able to deal with increasingly complexity - and most managers do have to do that.
Intelligence seems to be a hurdle you have to jump over. You need a certain amount of intelligence to get into a management role. The more senior you get, the more different management jobs get and therefore the wider the variety of skills you'll need.
Think about Dulewicz and Higgs IQ/EI % contribution to management success.
Think about the different combinations of personal attributes you may need for different management jobs.
Think about particularly changes in fast track graduate schemes. There is a collapse in confidence that degrees and other academic qualifications measure what they were measuring even 5 or 6 years ago: and the evidence is that this is in fact the case. Thus many graduate recruiters are doing ancillary measures of high level reasoning to check who are the real high fliers. But the real trick is not only to measure raw cognitive intelligence but those other attributes which may lead to success later on in careers.
Warm regards
Sujeet Kumar
Strategist: HR, Training & Develpment
From India, Pune
SUJEET,
IT was a good eye opener on the subject of an effective
manager.
Whether a good manager has high IQ or not , the investors/
promoters
SEEK RESULTS at the end of the day.
Here are some more useful thoughts on the same subject.
EFFECTIVE MANAGER
If IQ was the answer for effective / competent manager,
then Dr. ALBERT EINSTIEN would have been a great
manager and not a brilliant scientist.
IQ , as a subject, has been discussed/ researched for a
long time, without a conclusive / final result.
Based on a number of studies/ research programs, the
characteristics of an effective / competent manager
were found to be:
1.KNOWLEDGE COMPETENCIES
-specific knowledge base.
2.EMOTIONAL MATURITY
-self control
-spontaneity
-perceptual objectivity
-accurate self - perception
-physical energy
-adaptability
3. ENTREPRENEURIAL ABILITIES
-efficiency orientation
-goal setting
-planning
-productivity
-proactivity
-problem solving ability
- information seeking
-decision making
-concern for unique achievement.
4.INTELLECTUAL ABILITY
-perceive cause / effect
-deductive thinking
-inductive thinking
-conceptual ability
-political judgement
5. INTERPERSONAL ABILITIES
-social sensitivity
-self presentation
-counselling skills
-expression impact
-compliance producing skills
-alliance building skills
-language skills
-respect for others
-effective team builder
6.LEADERSHIP SKILLS
-presence
-persuasive skills
-negotiation skills
-positive bias
-taking initative
-communication [ oral / or written ]
-presentation skills
-sales ability
A GOOD / EFFECTIVE MANAGER WOULD HAVE A
COMBINATION OF MANY OF THESE CHARACTERISTICS.
regards
LEO LINGHAM
From India, Mumbai
IT was a good eye opener on the subject of an effective
manager.
Whether a good manager has high IQ or not , the investors/
promoters
SEEK RESULTS at the end of the day.
Here are some more useful thoughts on the same subject.
EFFECTIVE MANAGER
If IQ was the answer for effective / competent manager,
then Dr. ALBERT EINSTIEN would have been a great
manager and not a brilliant scientist.
IQ , as a subject, has been discussed/ researched for a
long time, without a conclusive / final result.
Based on a number of studies/ research programs, the
characteristics of an effective / competent manager
were found to be:
1.KNOWLEDGE COMPETENCIES
-specific knowledge base.
2.EMOTIONAL MATURITY
-self control
-spontaneity
-perceptual objectivity
-accurate self - perception
-physical energy
-adaptability
3. ENTREPRENEURIAL ABILITIES
-efficiency orientation
-goal setting
-planning
-productivity
-proactivity
-problem solving ability
- information seeking
-decision making
-concern for unique achievement.
4.INTELLECTUAL ABILITY
-perceive cause / effect
-deductive thinking
-inductive thinking
-conceptual ability
-political judgement
5. INTERPERSONAL ABILITIES
-social sensitivity
-self presentation
-counselling skills
-expression impact
-compliance producing skills
-alliance building skills
-language skills
-respect for others
-effective team builder
6.LEADERSHIP SKILLS
-presence
-persuasive skills
-negotiation skills
-positive bias
-taking initative
-communication [ oral / or written ]
-presentation skills
-sales ability
A GOOD / EFFECTIVE MANAGER WOULD HAVE A
COMBINATION OF MANY OF THESE CHARACTERISTICS.
regards
LEO LINGHAM
From India, Mumbai
As I see it, the issue today is not being a smart manager. We have too many of them. What makes for a good leader?
Srinivasan
http://management-thoughts.blogspot.com
From India, Coimbatore
Srinivasan
http://management-thoughts.blogspot.com
From India, Coimbatore
nice message and article, this will help us in our MBA research!!!! thanks a lot marisse aranas Manuel S. Enverga University Lucena City, Phillippines
From Philippines, Manila
From Philippines, Manila
Hi ! Dear Sujeet Kumar,
I want to know that, what HR executies do exactly do in training,
Do they give class presentation,
I am currently working as Hr executive and would like to know how to become Training and development expert as i love publilc speaking, i like to keep people mtivated , i too feel gr8 after public speaking , i enjot that,
Tell me the courses available at institutes or anywhere ,
plz do tell me
will be waiting for ur reply,
plz guys help me
Rohini
From India, Pune
I want to know that, what HR executies do exactly do in training,
Do they give class presentation,
I am currently working as Hr executive and would like to know how to become Training and development expert as i love publilc speaking, i like to keep people mtivated , i too feel gr8 after public speaking , i enjot that,
Tell me the courses available at institutes or anywhere ,
plz do tell me
will be waiting for ur reply,
plz guys help me
Rohini
From India, Pune
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