How to Develop Leadership Intelligence in a Corporate Context

Introduction  

Although there is a common belief by many scholars and researchers that leadership is inborn and that great leaders possess some factors in their genetic make that make them spring into leadership position without or with little struggle, it cannot be ruled out that leadership can be made. The world has witnessed many individuals who became leaders or improved their leadership skills after rigorous training. Development of leadership intelligence is a gradual process. Even those who are widely spoken for setting records of their leadership skills admit that it took them years before they realized their leadership potentials. Many scholars have put forward theories and findings that try to unveil the dilemma behind the biology of leadership. This paper therefore, seeks to re-examine various resources regarding leadership in an attempt to explain how to develop leadership intelligence in an international corporate context.  

Definition of Leadership Intelligence  

In order to be able to explain how best to develop leadership intelligence in an international corporate context, it is best to first start by establishing the real meaning of the term leadership intelligence. Different scholars define leadership intelligence differently and so far there is no consensus in its definition. This is because each scholar approaches the definition of leadership intelligence from different contexts, such as cultural contexts, social contexts, and institutional contexts (Hanges, 2011) . For example, Magi Graziano (2017) approaches the definition of leadership intelligence from the cultural point of view and argues that leadership intelligence relies on one’s ability in growing, learning and mastering new ways of governing people (Graziano, 2017). Boosting leadership intelligence entails consideration of three tenets; responsive agility, self-awareness, and executive functioning of the brain (Graziano, 2017). This implies that the measure of leadership intelligence within an individual is determined by the ability of the person to demonstrate high levels of self-awareness, his or her ability to optimize their executive brain functioning, and one’s ability to think before reacting.  

In another context, John Mattone (2017) proposes his own definition of leadership intelligence from the potentiality point of view. Mattone (2017) argues that intelligent leadership may not be demonstrated by ordinary people, but by a class of exceptional individuals who go beyond the “largely self-imposed” borders that limit them from attaining their full potential. Thus, leadership intelligence is not just taken for granted, but it comes as a result of one’s intentional choices and endeavor to unlock opportunities that are seemingly beyond reach (Mattone, 2017). Therefore, Mattone (2017) tries to assert that leadership intelligence is cultivated at heart, mind, and arises from within one’s soul. Intelligent leadership erupts from one’s inner-core strengths and one’s outer-core competencies and as opposed to traditional leadership, intelligent leadership is usually vision-oriented (Mattone, 2017). This means that leadership intelligence is highly triggered by one’s desire to achieve particular goals.  

While this paper acknowledges the definitions given by both Graziono and Mattone, this paper approaches the definition of leadership intelligence by considering the actual parameters used to measure the intelligence of a transformational leader. This paper uses the word intelligence to refer to the ability of a leader to use his or her brains for comprehending and applying critical thinking in digging out a vital solution to a particular issue (Garcia, 2012). Intelligence makes the focal point for transformational leadership. However, it is worthy to note that leadership intelligence is not just determined by one’s mental capacity alone. This is because a person could be having excellent mental capacity, but still harboring awkward behaviors that disqualify him from becoming a transformational leader (Garcia, 2012). Leadership intelligence is therefore, determined by a combination of four factors of intelligence; wisdom intelligence, character intelligence, social intelligence, and spiritual intelligence (Garcia, 2012). These four factors of intelligence therefore, define the leadership intelligence in any leadership context.  

Wisdom intelligence is the measure of one’s ability to demonstrate deep understanding of other people’s realities, how and why particular events occur, and the trends in which certain situations happen (Garcia, 2012). Wisdom intelligence appears in two dimension; short-term wisdom (as demonstrated by young children due to their limited life experience); and long-term wisdom (as demonstrated by old people who have mature brains that can make future planning due to their life experience) (Garcia, 2012). In any case, wisdom intelligence is a vital tool for leadership, because it aids leaders in making critical decisions.  

Character intelligence refers to one’s ability to demonstrate high levels of self-mastery, which is championed by the moral values of a potential leader (Garcia, 2012). Thus, leaders of high character intelligence have the principles that distinguish them from any other ordinary person. Character intelligence is an important tool of leadership intelligence, as it helps to keep one free from making avoidable mistakes (Garcia, 2012). Character intelligence therefore, acts towards making a leader gain and maintain high levels of integrity, as it acts towards making leaders endeavor to always do the right thing at the right time.  

Social intelligence is another crucial component of leadership intelligence. Social intelligence promotes both social awareness (one’s perception about others) and social faculty (one’s actions guided by social awareness) (Garcia, 2012). Leaders who have social intelligence are always positive, activated, are effective in communication, are empathetic, and easily win others people’s hearts (Garcia, 2012). Such leaders therefore, relate well with others, easily make long-lasting friendships, and are highly respected in both their institutions and the rest by the world.  

Spiritual intelligence on the other hand is used to refer to the character of a leader that enables the leader to pursue and sustain his or her good relationship with God (Garcia, 2012). A leader whose spiritual intelligence is strong is believed to easily manipulate God to act towards his or her favor. Such a leader therefore, easily finds his or her leadership desires fulfilled by God. The fear of God, as demonstrated by spiritually intelligent leaders, helps such leaders demonstrate acceptable behaviors, such as humility, empathy, and love for others (Garcia, 2012). Spiritual intelligence therefore, forms the framework for leadership intelligence.  

Difference between Intelligent Leadership and Traditional Leadership  

Leadership is an essential element of any given institution and it determines the well-being of the institution. For the sake of this paper, the term leadership will be used to refer to all the activities of an institution that constitute to giving certain directives to a particular group of people or a particular organization or both (Raza, 2017). Leadership has been in existence since the ancient world. For instance, history has kept reliable records of ancient leaderships, such as the famous Pharaoh leadership and the Biblical King David’s leadership. Based on this concept, this paper classifies leadership into two main groups; the traditional leadership and the intelligent leadership. In both cases, leadership is goal-oriented (Mattone, 2017). This implies that both traditional and intelligent leaderships are established with a purpose of accomplishing particular goals, whether good or bad goals. However, there are various ways in which intelligent leadership displays outstanding characteristics that distinguish it from the ordinary traditional leadership.  

The main difference is that intelligent leadership is highly vision-oriented, as opposed to traditional leadership (Mattone, 2017). Intelligent leadership seeks to work on the current situation regarding a particular institution, how the institution may be run in order to yield best possible outcomes, and how best to reallocate the available resources and strengths towards achieving the organizational goals. While traditional leadership may be operated by any leader, intelligent leadership is operated by highly skilled leaders who are talented in setting goals and defining solid strategies that work effectively towards achieving the organizational goals and vision (Mattone, 2017). Intelligent leadership has therefore, realistic strategies applicable in the management of its workforce towards achieving positive results and keeping the organization running now and in the future. In summary, the main outstanding feature of intelligent leadership is that intelligent leadership operates at a more expansive level as compared to traditional leadership.  

Overview of the world’s Great Leaders  

The world has been producing a diversity of leaders for centuries. Some of these leaders are remembered for their outstanding positive changes they make or they made while on earth, while others are remembered for their inhuman acts. In his article titled, “Famous Leaders,” Tejvan (2017) gives a list of great leaders of their time who not only changed their countries, but also the rest of the world. One of the famous leaders is Mahatma Gandhi who relentlessly fought for Indian self-determination and independence (Tejvan, 2017). Besides, Gandhi’s non-violent protests caused inspiration to millions, hence today Gandhi is remembered for his peaceful ways of doing things (Tejvan, 2017). Another famous leader is the former South Africa’s president, Nelson Mandela. Mandela is remembered for his anti-apartheid leadership and his leadership ushered South Africa out of apartheid era (Tejvan, 2017). Today, Mandela is remembered for his peaceful means of leadership. Martin Luther King Jr. is also remembered for his outstanding characters as a non-violent civil rights leader (Tejvan, 2017). King’s leadership qualities helped greatly to promote peace and equality in both the United States and the rest of the world.  

All the great leaders in history have several characteristics in common. First, they fought relentlessly for the rights of other people and hence ended up becoming envied by their subjects. Secondly, they acted towards promoting peace and equality and thus they earned great respect from all people. In addition, all great leaders lived simple and exceptional life; and their main purpose was to promote the well-being of the others. In fact, some leaders like Nelson Mandela went on to suffer in order to bring deliberation to the rest. They were therefore, guided by the principle of self-denial and service to others was their driving force.  

Best Leadership Qualities  

There are several leadership qualities that can be drawn from great leaders of all time. However, it is worth to note that no single world’s recognized leader is able or was able to display all the best leadership qualities at the same time. More notably is that the world’s famous leaders are or were able to display most the best leadership qualities. Peter Economy (2018) summarizes a study conducted by leadership development consultants Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, who carefully observed behaviors of at least 300,000 successful businessmen leaders. In his summary, Economy (2018) ranks the best ten leadership skills displayed by any transformational leader. To start with, great leaders demonstrate inspirational and motivational spirit to others (Economy, 2018). They achieve this through creating vivid visions that are compelling to the followers; making everyone feel the urge to associate with them.  

Next, successful leaders display high levels of integrity and honesty (Economy, 2018). Their habit of truthfulness makes them gain trust from all people and hence they are highly respected by the society. Great leaders also have the ability to deploy creative and critical thinking in analyzing issues and solving problems (Economy, 2018). Such leaders always drive for results, in that they often make sound changes even where they experience difficulties (Economy, 2018). Great leaders demonstrate powers in communications and are prolific (Economy, 2018). They communicate effectively with both one person and a group of people. Transformational leaders are quick in building long-lasting relationships (Economy, 2018). Great leaders have outstanding technical and professional expertise (Economy, 2018). They keep building and expanding on their professional skills in every circumstance. Such leaders keep laying strategic perspectives that keep them flourishing in every moment of their lives (Economy, 2018). In addition to developing themselves, great leaders also anticipate developing others (Economy, 2018). Lastly, great leaders are innovative (Economy, 2018). They keep coming up with new ways of doing things in order to remain competitive in the society.  

The Biology of Leadership Intelligence  

Having looked at the various great leaders of the world, the best leadership qualities, types of leaders, and the parameters used to measure the intelligence of leadership; one would now wonder if there exist certain genes that make some individuals easily clinch to leadership positions while others remain struggling to become leaders. Many theories and research findings have been put forward in an attempt to unveil the dilemma behind the Biology of leadership. Goleman and Boyatzis (2012) suggest that effective leadership is triggered by powerful social circuits located within the brain and they contribute greatly towards enhanced one’s emotional and social intelligences (Goleman & Boyatzis, 2012). The implication here is that leadership is inborn. Recent salient discoveries also reveal that the particular things leaders do influence their level of empathy and affect both their own chemistry of brain and the brain chemistry of their followers (Goleman & Boyatzis, 2012). This suggests that leadership can be enhanced by certain practices, hence leadership can be made.  

Besides, a research by Liu, Jing and Gao (2015) establishes that there is a correlation between leadership behavior and brain activity. Study has established that there is likelihood that brain activity is the antecedent variable of leadership behavior (Liu, Jing, & Gao, 2015). In addition, research has indicated that certain behaviors and stimulations triggers brain activities and thus they may affect leadership intelligence (Liu, Jing, & Gao, 2015). These findings imply that leadership is both inborn and made. Further research by Chen et al. (2019) establishes that peoples’ behavior and decision making are in line with the kind of the environment surrounding them (Chen et al., 2019). This implies that leadership skills of a person are too affected by the environment an individual is placed in. Finally, the theory of “ The Trickle-Down Effect of Leaders’ Pro-social Rule Breaking” suggests that leaders possess powerful behaviors that may be inherited by their followers (Chen et al., 2019). This implies that leaders may empower their followers towards gaining their own leadership skills. 

Further findings by Goleman and Boyatzis (2012) indicate that on average, women are more sensitive to other people’s emotions than men. On the other hand, men tend to display more social confidence than women at workplace (Goleman & Boyatzis, 2012). However, there exists no significant difference between most successful men and women in terms of leadership intelligence (Goleman & Boyatzis, 2012). This implies that gender may not ultimately affect leadership intelligence.  

The recent scientific discoveries also indicate that the brain has a wide range of dispersed mirror neurons which operate like neural Wi-Fi, and play an important role in helping individuals monitor their social world (Goleman & Boyatzis, 2012). This implies that through detection of other people’s emotions, whether consciously or unconsciously, the mirror neurons may be triggered to reproduce similar emotions; and the implication is that these neurons may trigger people to experience shared emotions.  

Discussion  

The knowledge gained from the neuro-scientific studies and findings can be extended to come up with various conclusions regarding the biology of leadership. First, leadership intelligence is inborn. This is best explained by the way some people easily clinch onto power and lead effectively. People are therefore, born with certain factors called genes that play a vital role in controlling the both social and emotional intelligence of each particular individual. The fact that each individual is born with a varying degree of the genetic make-ups that control both emotional and social intelligence, this may be used to explain why some people emerge to be excellently talented leaders and easily form leadership intelligence. 

Secondly, the idea that leadership can be made may not be ruled out. For example, if a person who is born with quality genetic make-ups which enhance personal social and emotional intelligence is not exposed to leadership position in time, such factors may eventually disappear and the person may not be able to make leadership intelligence in the future. The implication here is that the intelligence of leadership may be affected by external environmental factors. Parents and guardians may therefore, be responsible for affecting the leadership skills of their sons and daughters, either positively or negatively based on the kind of environment they expose their children to at an early age. A child who is raised in good environment is therefore, likely to develop leadership intelligence in future; and the reverse is true. 

Besides, the idea that men are better leaders as compared to women is not scientifically proven. Statistically, the world has recorded more transformational men leaders than women. This may have triggered most people’s perception that men are more leadership intelligent than women. However, this may not be true as far as scientific findings are concerned. Perhaps, the reason why there are more men leaders than women is because while women are more socially intelligent than men, men are more socially confident than women. This could be used to conclude that leadership is more affected by social confidence than social intelligence. Women are generally weak by nature. Women are therefore, influenced by their mentality that they are incapable of becoming successful leaders and hence rarely step into leadership positions in the fear of being intimidated by their counterpart men. 

Best Practices for Developing Leadership Intelligence  

It is now clear that leadership is both inborn and made. This implies that some individuals are born with genes that make them to be adaptive leaders. However, these genes may remain dormant within such individuals and if one does not put his leadership skills into practice, they may lose the power of leadership in them. It is therefore, vital for all individuals to be exposed to leadership positions while they are young in order to help them unlock their leadership potentials (Castano et al., 2014). Learning leadership skills is a gradual and continuous process. No one should therefore, expect to become a great leader within a short span of time. Acquisition of best leadership skills requires rigorous training and practices. Even individuals who are found to harbor natural leadership need to be trained in order to learn new ways of doing things. It is worthy to note that what works best today may not work tomorrow (Castano et al., 2014). Parents and guardians have the moral responsibilities to ensure that their sons and daughters are exposed to good environment in order to help them unlock and develop their leadership skills. 

There are various practices in which leaders may undertake in order to develop their leadership intelligence. Leaders should anticipate leading authentic life (Castano et al., 2014). Leading authentic life may involve certain practices such as speaking to others authentically, listening to others authentically, leading authentically, and socializing authentically (Castano et al., 2014). Leading authentic life is necessary as it helps leaders to spend less energy in their leadership duties, hence find leadership beautiful and interesting. Besides, leading authentically is a vital tool in leadership and it helps one to become a transformational leader. 

Another way of developing leadership intelligence is leading a truthful life ( Hetland & Sandal, 2003) . Honest leaders are usually trusted by their followers and hence are regarded with high integrity. Truthful leaders rarely experience misunderstanding with their followers and hence lead a happy life and find leadership a nice trail in life. They therefore, find things happen to their expectations and in the right direction. Acting with humility is another key practice to developing intelligent leadership. Humble leaders usually cultivate high commanding power to their followers ( Hetland & Sandal, 2003) . They are easily and readily followed in what they do. Therefore, whenever they ask their followers to perform a certain activity, they meet less or no resistance from their followers, as opposed to proud leaders who meet a lot of resistance from their followers. 

Leadership intelligence is about setting goals and having a vision to achieve in life ( Hetland & Sandal, 2003) . Therefore, for leaders to develop leadership intelligence in them they need to challenge themselves in achieving the seemingly difficulty task s( Hetland & Sandal, 2003) . This helps the leaders to remain focused on achieving their tasks. Furthermore, setting tangible targets and achieving them helps leaders to keep working towards their institutional vision and mission ( Hetland & Sandal, 2003) . Thus, it is always necessary for leaders to go the extra mile and do what the other ordinary people may not do. Besides, leadership intelligence is all about living up to dreams ( Hetland & Sandal, 2003) . Leaders should therefore, have dreams and act towards achieving them. Working towards achieving one’s dreams makes a person an exceptional leader. Exceptional leaders in turn make the leadership intelligence. 

Leaders wishing to develop their leadership intelligence should practice showing love and compassion for others ( Arias-Bolzmann, 2017) . This involves being ready to listen to other people’s problems and act towards helping them have their problems solved. Great people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela became transformational leaders because they had love and great passion for others. They fought relentlessly for the rights of others and were even ready to suffer in order to bring deliberation to them. Leaders who show love and compassion for others are loved by their followers and are highly respected; hence they are easily and readily followed by their subjects ( Arias-Bolzmann, 2017) . Having a grateful heart is another practice that any leader wishing to develop leadership intelligence ought to adapt to ( Arias-Bolzmann, 2017) . Transformational leaders are always grateful and take life on the positive side. They avoid complains and they are always ready to take responsibility of the outcome of their institutional leadership; regardless of whether the results are positive or negative. Therefore, having a grateful heart is a step towards forming leadership intelligence. 

Leaders wishing to develop leadership intelligence ought to practice patience and perseverance ( Arias-Bolzmann, 2017) . Leadership intelligence endures always, as life does not have to run smooth always. Patience and perseverance is an integral part of life, and leaders need to be ready to accept failures and use their failures as stepping stones towards success. In order for leaders to be successful, they must be ready to accept their mistakes and work towards turning their failures to success. 

Associating with successful people is another practice that leaders ought to undertake in order to develop leadership intelligence (Ardichvili & Kuchinke, 2002) . According to the leadership theories discussed in this paper, it became clear that leadership can be made. One way of making leadership is emulating other great leaders (Ardichvili & Kuchinke, 2002) . This implies that one can develop leadership intelligence through interacting with great leaders. Conversely, associating with wrong people may kill one’s ambitions of becoming a transformational leader (Ardichvili & Kuchinke, 2002) . Leaders should therefore, endeavor to associate with people associated with transformational leadership in order to learn how to develop leadership intelligence from them. However, having the desire to learn from others does not mean that leaders should follow others blindly. Leaders should instead be guided by their principles to copy what is right while neglecting all poor habits from the other people. 

Finally, leaders should read articles and books written by great people about best leadership practices in an endeavor to enhance their leadership intelligence (Ardichvili & Kuchinke, 2002) . Good leaders are researchers. They always try to identify what others did in order to become great leaders. There are many books and articles written by great leaders that are available in internet and in different libraries. Leaders anticipating to become great leaders should therefore, seek to read the best of the articles and books written by great leaders in order to borrow the best leadership practices which may help them develop and advance their leadership intelligence. 

In addition to all the practices that leaders should adopt in order to develop leadership intelligence, Mattone (2017) proposes three integral components that makes up intelligent leadership and any leader need to understand in order to work towards developing leadership intelligence. Thus, leadership intelligence is build under three leadership competencies of commitment to excellence, inner-core strengths, and outer-core competencies (Mattone, 2017). John Mattone (2017) goes further to present the competencies of leadership intelligence in a model, as in figure 1 below.

Figure 1 : Intelligent Leadership Sweet Spot.  

Through the inner-core strengths, one is able to display the leadership intelligent traits such as having emotional positivity, acceptable character traits, positive beliefs, ethical values, and self-concept (Mattone, 2017). Outer-core competencies on the other hand implies that a leader endeavoring to develop leadership intelligence should work towards attaining personal capabilities, have high level of commitment, and establish a wide range of connectedness (Mattone, 2017). Both inner-core strengths and outer-core competencies unite to make leaders be able to recognize what they are capable of doing, what they ought to do, and what they must do; and these are the values that qualify leadership intelligence to be both goal-oriented and vision-oriented. 

Importance of Leadership Intelligence  

Developing leadership intelligence is a hard task and requires a lot of commitment from the involved parties. Just like this paper has established, developing leadership is a gradual process. Again, leadership intelligence is usually vision-oriented and involves setting long-term goals whose benefits are expected to be realized in the future. Only visionary people are therefore, capable of developing leadership intelligence. However, despite the efforts needed to make, develop, and sustain leadership intelligence, its benefits are disproportionately exemplary when compared to the efforts needed to develop it ( Schmitz , 2012). Leadership intelligence therefore, comes with numerous benefits. 

The fact that intelligent leaders are consistent, trustworthy, loving, and passionate translates to good continuous results for the institution they are leading for some reasons. First, leadership intelligence allows for good flow of information within the institution and this facilitates sharing of ideas and thus, leads to innovations within the institution; keeping the institution competitive with the related institutions for high profitability of the institution ( Schmitz , 2012). Secondly, leadership intelligence ensures that there is well laid down strategies for human resource management ( Schmitz , 2012). This ensures that all employees are satisfied with the organizational operations and hence there are maximum results from the available workforce. 

Thirdly, leadership intelligence ensures that there is good organizational culture (Tsai, 2011). All employees relate well and there is transparency within the organization. Besides, leadership intelligence with a particular organization assures employees of job security and the staff work under laid down strategies with the aim of achieving the well set organizational goals (Tsai, 2011). Leadership intelligence ensures that the organizational rules are constant and they are never altered to suit or disapprove some individuals within the organization. Thus, workers put in their full potentials in serving the institution resulting in optimum profits of the organization. 

Another key benefit of leadership intelligence is that it is time saving. Leadership intelligence usually has well defined goals and vision accompanied by the strategies laid down to explain how the organizational goals are going to be implemented ( Schmitz , 2012). Consequently, all workers report to job every morning knowing what is expected of them at work. This avoids mix up of duties and allows each staff to stick properly to their areas of duty; thus forming a self-sustaining system within the organization (Tsai, 2011). The outcome of formation of a self-sustaining system of workforce is that the system always ensures that all goals are accomplished at the right time. 

Dangers of Failure to Establish Leadership Intelligence in an Organization  

Poor leadership qualities are characterized by lack of or unclear ways of communication. Bad are usually emotional and hence rarely pass clear information to their followers. Most of their communication is usually accompanied by quarrels or unwelcoming voice. Such leaders therefore, lack good communications skills are not respected hence meet with a lot resistance from their subjects. Poor communication in an institution is dangerous to the institution (Tsai, 2011). There is no flow of information within the organization and hence no sharing of ideas within the organization. Consequently, poor leadership discourages innovation within the organization; leading to poor performance and finally failure of the organization due to lack of competitive power in the global market ( Schmitz , 2012). Poor leadership is also characterized by its inability to make clear goals and institutional expectations. Workers therefore, operate aimlessly and lack motivation in at work as they are not sure of the future of the institution. This leads to poor organizational productivity and finally failure of stagnation of the organization output. 

Lack of intelligent leadership in an institution leads to low emotional intelligence (Washington, Boal & Davis, 2008). Low emotional intelligence translates to intimidation of team work within the institution due to poor institutional culture. Poor institutional culture is highly toxic to the institutional growth for a number of reasons. First, members lack incentives at work, as they are not certain of their future within the organization (Washington, Boal & Davis, 2008). Lack of incentives at work can be dangerous to the institutional growth because workers rarely take their initiative at work. They wait to be pushed in order to perform particular duty. Secondly, toxic culture limits innovation within an institution (Washington, Boal & Davis, 2008). Given that one measure of organizational growth is its ability to be able to advance with technology, organizations ought to embrace innovation in their operations (Washington, Boal & Davis, 2008). It is necessary to note that what works today may not work tomorrow. Therefore, lack of innovation within an organization ruins its competitive power and such an organization may fail terribly. 

Finally, presence of toxic culture within an organization limits exchange of knowledge from the outgoing baby boomers to the incoming millennial (Ardichvili & Kuchinke, 2002) . For an organization to be successful now and in the future there should be a smooth exchange of knowledge from the outgoing baby boomers to the incoming millennial. This is because the baby boomers are experienced and have full knowledge in the organizational operation and culture (Ardichvili & Kuchinke, 2002) . Baby boomers are conversant with organizational areas of strength and areas of weaknesses. They should therefore, be engaged to help in promoting the well-being of the organization even after retirement; a situation that is only possible with good organizational culture. Failure to establish organizational intelligent leadership therefore, limits good organizational culture and the reputation is the organizational crack-down. Therefore, there is the need for organizations to be founded under leadership intelligence in order to be successful in their operations. 

Developing Leadership Intelligence at the Global Context  

The twenty first century is characterized by the era of diversity and inclusion. Every single leader is thus working towards taking a new challenge as a global leader. In order for leaders to act at the global level, they require respective global intelligence. For leaders to develop global intelligence, they need experience and ability in acquiring unique experiences that help them deal effectively with diversified cultures, customs, and languages (Gourani, 2019). Global leaders need to have six elements that greatly boost their success. These are adaptability, awareness, curiosity, alignment, collaboration, and empathy (Gourani, 2019). These elements of success help to boost global leadership in various ways. 

Adaptability enables leaders to be able to clearly understand the world and accurately predict the changes that are likely to happen in the future (Gourani, 2019). The success of global leadership is therefore, measured in terms of the leaders’ ability to adapt properly and easily to the immediate global changes and demands. Self-awareness on the other hand is essential, as it enables leaders to quickly identify their areas of strengths and weaknesses regarding global demands. It helps leaders be able to predict how best one should react to cultural differences in order to yield significant economic growth. Curiosity is also necessary in developing global intelligence, as it helps one to have the desire to learn new cultures and be able to accept and adjust to the cultures accordingly (Gourani, 2019). Therefore, curiosity eliminates one’s resistance to cultural changes, thus fostering one’s leadership skills. 

Global leaders should always be ready to align to different cultural norms and customs of the global institutions they are required to operate. Alignment is thus one of the best qualities of global leaders and it serves to make leaders be able to lead at the global level. The ability of a leader to collaborate on the other hand helps leaders to easily close gaps and establish paramount networks across geographical borders (Gourani, 2019). Finally, empathy facilitates leaders’ humility and fosters the leaders’ ability to engage people at different cultural contexts (Gourani, 2019). Empathy is an essential element of global intelligence as it enables leaders to connect excellently with others. 

Leadership Intelligence and the Global Economy  

Globalization has seen the world of leadership take on new twist. Many institutions are competing at the global market level. For each institution to remain relevant at the global market, they have to adapt to better ways of producing quality goods. Production of quality goods requires that institutions are governed by the best leadership possible. For instance, institutions require adopting cross-cultural and global types of leaderships ( Schmitz , 2012). Some leadership theories suggest that leadership is dynamic ( Schmitz , 2012). The twenty first century new forms of leadership includes global thinking, appreciation of cultural diversity, development of technological navy, partnerships and alliances building, and sharing of leaderships ( Schmitz , 2012). Thus, institutions that embrace cross-cultural kind of leadership are bound to excel. 

At the global economic setting, institutions need to deploy the kind of leadership that is well conversant to the not only the needs of the people they serve, but also their respective wants ( Schmitz , 2012). Leaders of given institutions have the responsibility to shape the culture of their organization in order to suit the needs of their customers. Such leaders ought to be aware of the new cultural shifts in order to adjust their institutional operations to suit the new cultural demands. Institutions need the kind of leaderships that are able to solve both the internal and external cultural conflicts ( Schmitz , 2012). Good institutional culture plays a vital role in ensuring that the institutions offer the best services to both the local and international community. Leadership intelligence is needed to ensure that organizations operate properly to offer the best services to the society; thus promoting the global economic development. Intelligence leadership is therefore, a key driver of the global economic growth. 

The Future of Leadership Intelligence  

The emergence of leadership intelligence has driven the world into a greater economic revolution than before. In fact, the world is approaching the new level of industrial revolution called 4 th era of industrial revolution (Marr, 2019). As the world approaches this new era of industrial revolution, leaders need to go an extra mile in order to readjust to the new demands in leadership positions. Earlier on, this paper established that some leaders are born with innate leadership skills, but as we approach the 4 th era of industrial revolution, leaders need to undergo rigorous training in order to meet the requirements of the 4 th industrial revolution (Marr, 2019). This paper discusses some of the suggested leadership skills vital for facing the future workplace. 

First, leaders will need to be actively agile (Marr, 2019). This means that leaders will need to celebrate the new changes in the workplace in order to avoid seeing the new change as burden to them. Secondly, leaders will need to advance in their emotional intelligence in order to be able to perceive the change and act accordingly (Marr, 2019). Leaders will need to be humble and enhance their leadership confidence as well as building on their accountability (Marr, 2019). Leaders will need to be visionary and focused in order to meet the new industrial demands (Marr, 2019). Leaders will need to be courageous to face difficulties and flexible in order to shift as per the demands of their governing organizations. Since the wake of the 4 th industrial revolution will be fueled by technology, leaders will need to be tech savvy (Marr, 2019). Therefore, technology will form the integral part in the 4 th industrial revolution. 

Intuition and collaboration will be other vital skills needed by all successful leaders as they face the new era of industrial revolution (Marr, 2019). These will enable the leaders to read and understand the demands of their followers without much struggle. This implies that such leaders will also need to be quick learners in order to be able to readily analyze situations as they come. Since the future workplace will be diverse and global, future leaders will need to be culturally intelligent (Marr, 2019). Cultural intelligence is important for enabling leaders to appreciate and leverage the cultural differences of the individuals in their institutions. Finally, authenticity will form the focal point for leadership intelligence in the future (Marr, 2019). Authenticity enables leaders to appreciate others authentically, speak to others authentically, and listen to others authentically. 

Conclusion  

Developing leadership intelligence in an international corporate context is a long and gradual process and it requires the involved parties to go through a series of learning process; it starts at birth and lasts after death. Study has shown that leadership intelligence of an individual is controlled by both innate genetic make-ups and the environmental factors one is exposed to at tender age. Parents, teachers, and other leaders therefore, play a vital role in determining the future intelligent leadership of the children they handle at tender age. All stake holders trusted with the responsibilities of handling children at tender age should act responsibly by helping their young ones unlock and enhance their leadership skills right at tender age. In order to explain well how to develop leadership intelligence at the international corporate context, this paper has discussed various scopes associated with leadership intelligence. For instance, the paper has defined leadership intelligence using the four parameters of intelligent leaders (wisdom intelligence, character intelligence, social intelligence, and spiritual intelligence) and the best practices in developing leadership intelligence. Other main areas of this paper include the biology of leadership, developing leadership intelligence at the global level, leadership intelligence and global economy, and the future of leadership intelligence. While this paper has explained in details how to develop leadership intelligence based on research, it is recommended that neuroscientists should conduct further biological research to establish whether it is possible for the genetic materials controlling the leadership intelligence to be altered during pregnancy in order to come up with a new generation of high leadership intelligence. 

References  

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