High IQ Doesn’t Equate to High Performance
Video Transcription
You should never forget. You’ve learned everything that you need to learn about leadership in the military, the military has given you the foundation for leadership principles. Of course, you’re going to grow upon those as you get older and gain more experience.
I was an unruly kid when I joined the Marine Corps, I had a 2.9 GPA in high school. It’s not because I lacked the aptitude, it’s just because I wasn’t focused, and in less than five years in the Marine Corps, they sent me back to school and something called the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program, and I graduated college with 3.7.
Now just because somebody has a high IQ, doesn’t mean that they are a high performer.
I assure you I did not get smarter over the last five years, but I learned determination, I learned discipline, commitment, and tenacity, and I knew that I wanted to graduate with a high GPA, which would increase my probability of getting into the SEAL teams, and it worked out.
You have that same potential. There are two forms of intelligence, there’s your IQ, and then there’s something we call effective intelligence. Now just because somebody has a high IQ, doesn’t mean that they are a high performer. In fact, data has shown that past a certain point, at different functions an IQ score above the minimum bar doesn’t necessarily equate to higher performance.
You have to gain situational awareness you have to become very astute. Situational awareness is having the ability to look at real-world problems for which no book solution exists, assess the information you have, make a decision.
If that decision doesn’t work out first iterate, iterate, iterate until you solve that problem. That’s effective intelligence and each of you has that. You just need to focus on applying it in a very productive manner.
Alright, guys. Hope that helps. Mike Sarrialle out.