The oft neglected elements of success
This is a reprint of a classic blog that I wrote when I first started my company Shiageto Consulting. Enjoy!
Having spent over 20 years working in the corporate, education and development worlds focusing on strategy and management, I have come to realise a lot about what makes the difference between success and failure. I’m not just talking about individual success but also what makes some businesses front-runners over others.
It goes without saying that hard work can be one aspect of this but that’s not really the answer (there are countless examples of individuals and companies that have worked hard and not got the success they deserve — think about your own efforts and the hours/days/weeks/years you have invested to try and achieve something that never quite worked out). Others may say that luck can be the key determinant, and sure lottery winners would agree, but do we all want to put our fate in the hands of chance? Of course, if you have a natural head-start (like rich benefactors, one-of-a-kind technology, political favouritism, etc) you’re more likely to have success but how can the rest narrow the field and increase their own odds of success?
The answer lies in the following equation (for those of you who don’t like Maths, bear with me, it’s not a proper equation — I mean the right hand side and the left hand side don’t properly balance):
SUCCESS = IQ x EQ x FQ
“Cut the acronyms!” or “What the hell does that mean?” you are probably thinking. Well, let me break down the 3 elements on the right hand side of the equals sign:
1) IQ is Intelligence Quotient; this basically represents coming up with a great answer or having smart people on your team or using fact to work out what you should do — without this skill you’re not likely to solve your problems or make improvements
2) EQ is Emotional Quotient; this is the skill to take whatever idea you have or change you want to make and to better connect with others so as to take them along with you on that journey — it doesn’t matter if it’s applying for a job or implementing a new IT solution if you (your leaders or your team) lack EQ it’s going to make it harder to get the result you want
3) FQ is Focus Quotient; the last element that is rarely thought about. You can be smart, you can have everyone on-board the bus (can I get any more analogies in this?) but if you lack focus you just won’t achieve your goal (or it’ll take a lot longer/more cost to do it)
Think about it! You need all three of these elements to be successful and achieve your objectives (you can probably associate this with highly successful people you work with or that you admire from the world of sport, business, politics, entertainment, etc.). Despite this, many people and businesses just don’t think about all three elements equally or if they do they don’t know how to improve their levels across all three elements.
All my work in Strategy Consulting (where much of the focus is on being a hired gun to improve the IQ element), made me realise that the EQ and FQ elements in particular are being neglected by businesses and individuals. If there was some way to support businesses to work on these weaker muscles, they could get just as much (if not more) bang for their buck then just paying for expensive consultants to come up with a new solution (that may just as likely never get implemented).
This is the very ethos on which Shiageto Consulting was founded. A business that can not only sharpen the IQ but predominantly specialises in sharpening the EQ and FQ of businesses and individuals.
How do we do that? What services do we offer? Tune in to the next blog to find out more or drop me a message
For now, as ever, it’s been a pleasure to have you read this far
Faris — CEO of Shiageto Consulting
Faris is the CEO and Founder of Shiageto Consulting, an innovative consultancy that helps firms and individuals sharpen their effectiveness.
Success = IQ x EQ x FQ
