Smart is not an endgame...not for a child prodigy, a freshman at Princeton, or for a first time manager. As a society, we've been flying under false colors for decades: smarter is better. In previous writings, our column has touched on overwhelming evidence supporting the premise that Emotional IQ is now measurable, meaningful, and documented by America's leading business schools. In fact, says Career Journal, nine out of 10 business schools consider communication and interpersonal skills highly underrated as differentiating factors for students. Speaking for people who function in the ethereal world of a consulting practice, long ago I signed-off on the realization that much of what we do has more to do with interpersonal skills than our curriculum vitae.

"Being smart" is a very admirable and even enviable attribute, but it cannot be a guarantor of fame or fortune. There are C students in law school, mid-pack graduates at Wharton, and John McCain, scion of one of the most illustrious families in the annals of the U.S Navy finished 894^th, fifth from the bottom of his class at Annapolis. Consider also a recent ranking by the Wall Street Journal, listing the traits recruiters look for in business school candidates: communication and interpersonal skills, original and visionary thinking, leadership potential, the ability to thrive in a team setting, and analytic problem-solving skills. Nowhere on the Journal's list do we find "class rank." The real message here is an easy read. Let's shift our adoration for raw IQ and class-standing, to balance with the importance of skills that belie traditionally measured intelligence. Social skills, interpersonal effectiveness, and acknowledgement of the need to work well with others transcend most everything else within an organization.

As people who regularly enter clusters of radio programming persona, our firm has established some simple rules of self-conduct. Among them, the need to always pay attention to little red flags; those natural warnings that tell you things are not always as they appear. We've come to accept that it's our burden to veer outside a cut-and-paste relationship, looking for signs of misplaced personal ambition, or questions of emotional intelligence within the flow of situations we engage. Today's motivation is more submerged, far more personal in nature, and certainly not exclusively linked to someone's IQ. Trying to understand these vagaries is a key to moving your organization forward.

The old system we held close lasted out of convention and not much more. Today's business goals are less forgiving while the selection process for the people who comprise our core leadership lives or dies by the mistakes we make in recruitment. This is certain and irrespective of age, bloodline, or class rank.

Among our epiphanies comes this realization: it's often necessary to give someone more than they can handle, to find out if they can handle it. Usually when you hand someone more responsibility, the more they act responsibly.

Sincerely,