I’m convinced that if the leader develops the capacity to think in convictional terms, he will lead followers to do the same.

Start talking about intelligence, and you are likely to incite a controversy, and this is because, it is inseparable from all kinds of other issues. During the middle of the last century, educators thought that unlocking the secrets of I.Q., would be the key, in determining who would be successful, and who would not. It did not work!

The idea of intelligence as merely an intellectual ability and knowledge, turned out to be unhelpful, as stating the obvious, there are many intelligent people, who are not successful and some very intelligent people, who have virtually no ability to lead. What has however been helpful, is the theory of multiple intelligences, introduced by behavioural scientist Howard Gardner who identified several of these abilities and capacities as intelligence and called them musical intelligence, spatial intelligence, logical intelligence and linguistic intelligence. In more recent years the discussion has led to E.Q or emotional intelligence and its ability to predict social success.

Daniel Goleman, in studying more than two hundred companies, established that whilst intellect, cognitive skills, and long-term big picture thinking, was a huge driver of outstanding performance, emotional intelligence proved to be twice as important as the others at all job levels. As it turns out, the ability to lead people, depends on the leader’s capacity to develop and deploy, what Goleman identified as, self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skill. Convictional intelligence is not an innate capacity… you have to develop it, and it is the product of learning, knowledge, accompanied by commitments and capacities.

Charisma is a great gift but it cannot substitute for conviction. Humans operate predominantly out of habit, reflex and intuition – three realities that point to the need for convictional intelligence. Whilst we all know about operating out of habit, we also operate out of habit of mind. We dig intellectual ruts that our minds grow accustomed to following, and whilst our habits of action may not say much about us, our habits of mind, certainly do. These mental habits start early, and therefore, the importance of convictional intelligence in the life of the leader, comes down to the basic fact, that our intellectual habits must be aligned with truth and knowledge. If not, we maintain that we believe one thing, and operate from mental habits, that are totally opposite to that confession. If the reflex is wrong, the leader is in danger, and it can be disastrous for the followers.

Lastly, we operate out of what we call intuition. Some of the decisions we make, are explainable only by the fact that something greater, than a mere recognition of facts, is at play. As a leader, you will often know why one alternative is right and one wrong.

Sometimes, you will have full intellectual justification for making a decision that is right and explainable, whilst others, are not so easily understood or explained, particularly when it comes to people, where often we have to become less rational, and more intuitional. Sometimes, we have to just do what is right, even when we are not sure that any intellectual argument fits.

The leader will have to lean into intuition every day, and depend on convictional intelligence and not just intelligence.