How To Harness Your Experiential Intelligence

“Experiential Intelligence provides a new lens from which to view what makes you, you—and what makes your team and organization unique,” says Soren Kaplan, author of the book, Experiential Intelligence.

Kaplan explains that over 100 years ago, we established IQ (Intelligence Quotient) to predict success. Then we explored Emotional Intelligence (EQ), the theory of multiple intelligences, and mindsets that broaden the definition of smarts.

“Today, Experiential Intelligence (XQ) expands our understanding of what's needed to thrive in a disruptive world. While you can't change the past, your unique experiences and stories contain hidden strengths and untapped potential for the future,” explains Kaplan.

Experiential Intelligence is the combination of mindsets, abilities, and know-how gained from your unique life experiences that empowers you to achieve your goals. It allows you to get in touch with the accumulated wisdom and talents you have gained over time through your lived experience.

Digging deeper:

Mindsets: Your attitudes and beliefs about yourself, other people and the world.
Abilities: Your competencies that help you integrate your knowledge, skills, and experiences so you can respond to situations in the most effective way possible.
Know-how: Your knowledge and skills.

“Many organizations haven’t fully tapped into the mindsets, abilities, and know-how that inherently exists across their people and teams. Leaders first need to recognize that the reality of life, including in business, is that everyone brings the whole of who they are with them wherever they go, including both their strengths as well as self-limiting beliefs. Until companies embrace this fact, they’ll never reach their full potential.”

“For example, we may need to help people overcome their limiting mindsets, or help them uncover their hidden assets derived from their full set of life experiences, not just their work experience."

"Developing XQ helps people become better leaders. Teams that harness their collective XQ achieve greater collaboration and innovation. Organizations that recognize XQ as a strategic imperative can more fully leverage their talent and transform their cultures by scaling the assets that exist across their people,” explains Kaplan.

With powerful personal narratives, Kaplan reveals how XQ can be leveraged to help anyone to:

Become a better leader.
Increase team collaboration, innovation, and results.
Hire and develop talent using more strategic criteria.
Transform organizational culture.
Enhance personal growth.

Book chapters 1—3 outline what Experiential Intelligence is, why it’s so important today, and how it relates to IQ and EQ.

Chapters 4—8 describe specific strategies and tools that you can use to further develop your XQ by growing it in yourself, amplifying it in your personal and professional relationships and assessing it over time.

Chapters 9—13 highlight how XQ applies in different contexts, including organizations, leadership, teams, and communities.

Be sure to note the QR codes at the beginning of each chapter. Those will take you to videos where Kaplan provides an overview of what you will read in the chapter, and he shares personal thoughts and ideas about the various chapter topics.

Additionally, toward the end of the book, Kaplan offers you a link to his XQ Toolkit – a practical set of digital tools that you can use to develop your Experiential Intelligence and apply it to your team and organization.

Soren Kaplan

Kaplan shares these insights with us:

Question: Please further explain Experiential Intelligence?

Kaplan: Experiential Intelligence, or XQ for short, is your combination of mindsets, abilities, and know-how gained from your unique life experience.

Just like memorizing facts doesn't give you a high IQ, your Experiential Intelligence isn't merely what you've learned over time. It's how you perceive challenges, view opportunities, and tackle your goals.

Your XQ includes the beliefs and attitudes you hold about yourself, other people, and the world in general, along with the unique abilities that you’ve developed that make you, you.

Question: What can help advance one's XQ awareness and abilities?

Kaplan: Experiential Intelligence exists on three levels. The most tangible is your know-how, which includes your practical knowledge and skills. The second level involves your abilities, which guides how you apply your knowledge and skills to use them in the most effective way possible. Abilities can include higher order things like pattern recognition or managing uncertainty. Your mindsets are your attitudes and beliefs about yourself, other people, and the world, which can be conscious or subconscious.

Gaining greater self-awareness of your mindsets, abilities, and know-how plays a big part in developing your XQ. When you understand what led you to adopt certain mindsets for example, you increase your ability to consciously change them, which can lead to growth in your abilities and know-how.

Question: What is the role of Experiential Intelligence in business, i.e., for leadership, teams, and organizational culture?

Kaplan: Companies including Google, Apple, Tesla, IBM, Home Depot, Bank of America, Starbucks, and Hilton no longer require a university degree for an interview. These organizations understand that future success relies on way more than diplomas.

So, the first big opportunity is to recognize the value of experience beyond just formal education and training. Hiring managers, team leaders, and talent and leadership development needs to seek out the higher order mindsets and abilities needed for the future versus pigeonhole people into narrow boxes.

Soren Kaplan, PhD, is an award-winning author, an affiliate at the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California (USC), a former corporate executive, founder of three Silicon Valley startups, and a columnist for Inc. magazine. He is an international keynote speaker and has led professional development programs for thousands of executives around the world, including Disney, NBCUniversal, Visa, PayPal, Colgate-Palmolive, Kimberly-Clark, Medtronic, Roche, Hershey’s, Red Bull, and many others.

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book..

Comments

How To Build Lasting Customer Relationships Using The Triple Fit Strategy

“It’s time for companies to rethink their growth logic and strategy,” according to Christoph Senn and Mehak Gandhi , authors of the new book, Triple Fit Strategy: How To Build Lasting Customer Relationships And Boost Growth . The authors affirm that there would be much more value if companies no longer operated in a transactional buyer-seller relationship, but instead as a singular team. A team where buyer and seller can collaborate on decisions around planning, execution, and resources like they were one company. “Today’s business customers don’t just buy products and services; they buy expectations,” explain Senn and Gandhi. “What the customers want is the commitment of and access to the supplier’s total operation. They want problem-solving and creative thinking to keep their business ahead of competition. They want partners.” In the book, Senn and Gandhi forge an entirely new path for business that embraces a 360-degree customer-centric approach, and they ...

How To Be A Learn-It-All Leader

“Great leaders are great students, and the world is their classroom,” says Damon Lembi , author of the new book The Learn-It-all Leader . “Learn-It-All leaders are constantly creating and re-creating themselves, their companies, and their leadership. They are information extractors. They pull what they learn about everything—be it product innovation or how to inspire a team—from their lived experience,” adds Lembi. These types of leaders also model and directly encourage a culture of learning inside their organizations. This attracts higher-quality workers, improves their performance over time and holds onto them longer. The book is divided into two parts: Part 1: Being – explores how Learn-It-All leaders think . Part 2: Doing – examines what Learn-It-All leaders do differently . Damon Lembi Some of my favorite takeaways (including some quotes) from the book include: Quote : “Live as if you were to die tomor...

Effective Listening: Do's And Don'ts

Here are some great tips from Michelle Tillis Lederman's book, The 11 Laws of Likability . They are all about: what to do and what not to do to be a leader who's an effective listener : Do : Maintain eye contact Limit your talking Focus on the speaker Ask questions Manage your emotions Listen with your eyes and ears Listen for ideas and opportunities Remain open to the conversation Confirm understanding, paraphrase Give nonverbal messages that you are listening (nod, smile) Ignore distractions Don't : Interrupt Show signs of impatience Judge or argue mentally Multitask during a conversation Project your ideas Think about what to say next Have expectations or preconceived ideas Become defensive or assume you are being attacked Use condescending, aggressive, or closed body language Listen with biases or closed to new ideas Jump to conclusions or finish someone's sentences

How To Coach Rather Than Supervise Employees

Bill Berman and George Bradt , authors of the book, Influence and Impact , explain the importance of helping your employees to understand what their jobs entails, and what the culture expects, so they can do the work you need from them the most. More importantly, they say that it is better for you as a leader to coach employees rather than supervise them. And, as you coach, they recommend you: Ensure the employee fully understands their job responsibilities. Pave the way for the employee to be successful. Given them the time, resources and encouragement they will need. Help them know themselves better. Consider a personality assessment by a trained evaluator so they understand their styles and preferences. Help them know the business. Ensure they know the organization’s mission, vision and purpose, business strategies and cultural norms. Help them know you. Help them to really understand what you really need from them to make you and the organiz...

How To Lead A Family Business

Julie Charlestein is the author of the book, How To Lead Your Family Business: Excelling Through Unexpected Crises, Choices, and Challenges . Charlestein is also the fourth-generation leader of an incredibly successful family-owned enterprise, and she’s seen it all firsthand, including family drama in the workplace and the office politics that come with any corporation. Her book features her unique set of strategies for navigating the distinctive challenges and choices facing family businesses. In her highly personal storytelling style, Charlestein shares her experience as an emerging leader and ultimately CEO, who has worked to earn her colleagues’ respect. She details her leadership adventure, offering actionable strategies for those leading and working within their own family businesses. The book is ideal for anyone leading a family business or starting a family business. It’s also good for anyone taking over an existing (or new) business. More about Charleste...

When Women Lead

Prepare to be inspired by and to learn from the stories of more than 60 highly-successful female CEOs and leaders who are featured in Julia Boorstin ’s book, When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, How We Can Learn From Them . Boorstin shares that whether you’re a woman looking to rise in your organization or taking on a new leadership position, or a male leader looking to empower women in your organization this book is for you. The book is divided into three sections: The first section includes: A focus on how and why women tend to build strong companies, staring with the structural challenges they must overcome to raise venture capital and scale their businesses. An Impetus for women to structure their businesses in a more purpose-drive way. How women build smart teams by embracing a growth mindset and welcoming varied perspectives. The second section primarily includes: How women tackle complex probl...

Great Business Quote

Here's a great quote from author and speaker Harvey Mackay : "When a person with money meets a person with experience, the person with the experience ends up with the money, and the person with the money ends up with the experience."

How Achieving Balance Makes You A More Successful Leader

In his highly authentic, sincere and personal book, Balancing Act , author Dr. Andrew Temte, CFA , shares candid insights and timely lessons about the balance needed to succeed as a leader. “I wrote this book in the hope that others will learn from my triumphs and failures. Those who can recover more rapidly from periods of imbalance will have an advantage over those cannot,” says Temte. He firmly believes that leaders who strive toward balance can more readily identify and curtail organizational entropy, facilitate a culture of trust, and foster diverse organizations and cultures that inspire everyone to bring their “whole sell” to work . “Success without balance is often more disastrous than failure with balance,” explains Temte. “When the unbalanced achieve victory, it often serves to further destructive habits. When the balanced suffer defeat, resilience and perseverance grow.” Tempte further explains that leaders today often struggle for balance between : St...

5 Tips For Generating Ideas From Employees

Your employees have lots of ideas. So, be sure you provide the forums and mechanisms for your employees to share their ideas with you. Hold at least a few brainstorming sessions each year, as well. And, when you are brainstorming with your employees, try these five tips: Encourage ALL ideas. Don't evaluate or criticize ideas when they are first suggested. Ask for wild ideas. Often, the craziest ideas end up being the most useful. Shoot for quantity not quality during brainstorming. Encourage everyone to offer new combinations and improvements of old ideas.

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog