A new book by Sir Ken Robinson presents an interesting challenge to the HR profession. The book is The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.  The challenge is aligning individual passion with corporate mission, vision and purpose.

Robinson defines “the element” as the point where the things we love to do and the things we are good at intersect. The book presents a number of stories of people who have found their element and the changes that happened when they did. Many of the examples come from people with a passion for or a talent for art, music or other “creative” areas. However, the author also introduces many examples that come from science, mathematics, economics and education. In fact, there is a section toward the end of the book where he proposes a shift in thinking about education in general.

Early in the book, he makes an interesting point about intelligence. He asks “people to rate their intelligence on a 1-to-10 scale, with 10 being the top.” He goes on to say, “Invariably though the bulk of any audience puts itself at 7 or 6.” The point he makes is that almost everyone will rate themselves on intelligence. We all take for granted a common definition of intelligence. We all believe we have some degree of intelligence, and we all think the degree of that intelligence is some value that was assigned to us when we were born. He goes on to say that our definition of intelligence causes us to underestimate our true intellectual abilities and to fail to find our Element.

After a great explanation of how our current IQ measurements were created, he points out that measuring our intelligence as a score causes us to miss a much more important question. The question isn’t “How intelligent are you?” but rather “How are you intelligent?” The difference in the two questions is profound. He goes on to point out that there are multiple intelligences: linguistic, musical, mathematical, spatial, kinesthetic, interpersonal and intra-personal. He argues that these types of intelligence are more or less independent of each other.

What if, as HR professionals, we could help each member of our organization think in terms of how they are intelligent? What if we could engage people in the organization to apply their unique intelligence to their job? What if we could help each individual discover their unique intelligence and how to use that intelligence to do their present job better, for themselves as well as for the organization? Do you think they would go for that?

Are you in a position to reframe the intelligence question?

Ask your coworkers and your employees today, “How are you intelligent?” Begin to search for clues to help them appreciate their unique intelligence and help them use that intelligence to enjoy their present job more. I’m not talking about manipulating people or tricking them in any way. But if people can apply their own unique intelligence, they may find a key to their own energy level and their contribution to the bottom line will increase. In any case, you will have helped them create their greatest value, either for your present organization or for their next one.

There is much more to The Element and I highly recommend it to anyone in the people business. But until you read it, you can begin to energize your relationships by simply changing the question. How are you intelligent?

Mike Henry Sr. is the Founder of the Lead Change Group which is s a global, virtual community dedicated to instigating a leadership revolution.  They specialize in  leadership development and motivation for middle and emerging managers.  His passion is to help leaders grow leaders.

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