Snoopy once told Charlie Brown the only reason he was let into a class was so that the top-two thirds could feel good about themselves. Do you ever feel that way?
Today Rowan Manahan in 
From a Business Week survey on workplace attitudes – Rowan pointed out that 90% of 2000 surveyed middle managers ranked their performance in the top 10%. Executives too, placed themselves very near the very top. Would you agree from where you stand?
Similarly, American Management Association surveys came back with 90% senior managers hailing themselves Effective or Highly effective communicators. The problem was, only 30% of their employees scored managers in this high rank.
Apparently Steve Salerno blames this factor on the negative effect of all the self-help materials over the past 30 years. Do you?
Personally, I’m thrilled that people no longer see themselves as average … and glad to see more people buck flawed systems that label them mediocre.
In fact 3 flawed facts about the tests too often diminish most mental abilities…
1. Tests or surveys are rarely intelligence fair. In 1999 I wrote a book … … Student Assessment that Works – A Practical Approach … to show how many secondary school and university tests today lack accuracy as instruments that measure multiple intelligences. Test an eagle and deer for running skills and the eagle comes up dumb every time. Or measure a squirrel and fish for swimming skills and guess who loses? You see where this is going….
2. We ask the wrong question regarding intelligence. We ask … “How smart are you? … when the real question is ... “How are you smart? Do you see the difference between these two questions? Survey your brainpower in the workplace and see where you show more strengths. What does this survey suggest your work on to stay above average?
3. Daily we grow or shrink brain cells. It all depends on what you do in a day. This accordion routine of growing or shrinking output - marks our intelligence ranks far more accurately than outmoded IQ tests. Stay in stressful situations, for instance, and watch cortisol shrink your brain and dumb you down daily. On the other hand, watch highly successful people nudge their dendrite brain cells to the competitive edges of intelligence.
So how can we tell who really is smart and who is average? The answer lies more in creative solutions you bring to work, and in talented projects you create… than in any isolated scores on flawed tests.
Intelligent people develop and use their full range of intelligences – in ways that create and sustain growth for any firm. Reflect and you’ll see that you likely are well above average. Ask others and you’ll spot places that need your unique mix of intelligences – even those that remained hidden or unused because of flawed tests that failed to stir these up.
The key to higher intelligence is to use what you have - in ways that grow what you don't - and there's nothing average about those who do that. How are you smart?
Hello Ellen:
A solid manifesto. When are you going to write some multiple intelligence self help books?
Posted by: Galba Bright of Tune up your EQ | August 23, 2007 7:27 PM | Permalink to Comment