{"id":678,"date":"2015-12-02T10:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/?p=678"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:20:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T17:20:23","slug":"how-high-is-your-xq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/how-high-is-your-xq\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHow High Is Your XQ?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, Eliza Gray, a staff writer for Time magazine, wrote an article about the \u201cera of optimized hiring.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>In it, she explains that many companies today are requiring job applicants to submit to personality tests.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And we\u2019re not talking about just applicants for upper management jobs, we\u2019re talking about <\/span>everybody<\/span><\/span><\/em> from the executive suite to the loading dock.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>According to proponents of such testing, if we can understand the psyche of job applicants . . . their likes and dislikes, fears, aspirations, motivations, etc. . . . we can select those who will be the happiest and most successful in the jobs we have to offer, and who will thrive in our environment (our company\u2019s culture).<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>As a result, so the argument goes, employee turnover will go down while both productivity and customer service will go up.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Sounds reasonable, doesn\u2019t it?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>After all, it\u2019s in keeping with business guru Jim Collins\u2019 admonition to get the right people on the bus (people who fit the company culture) and to put them in the right seats (jobs).<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But is it really that simple?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Maybe not.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Maybe there\u2019s another side to this personality stuff we ought to take a look at.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>If you want to take that look, please continue reading below.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow High Is Your XQ?\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the question posed by the Time magazine cover story.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cXQ\u201d is a term coined by Eliza Gray for her Time article.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>If IQ tests measure intelligence and EQ tests measure emotional stability and sensitivity, then there should be a term for tests that measure someone\u2019s fitness to perform well in certain jobs.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Finding none, Gray decided to call it \u201cXQ.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the interest of full disclosure, I myself have written many times about the benefits of looking beyond a person\u2019s skill sets and taking a close look at their behavioral and personality traits . . . benefits in terms of job satisfaction, retention, productivity, and so on.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And I am an ardent believer in getting the right people on the bus and putting them in the right seats.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The problem comes in defining who these \u201cright\u201d people are.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>How high an \u201cXQ\u201d does someone need to be considered \u201cright?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If by \u201cright\u201d we mean someone who thinks and acts just like us . . . if in fact we want clones of ourselves . . . that can be a real problem.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>As General George Patton once said, \u201cIf everybody\u2019s thinking alike, somebody\u2019s not thinking.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>If we hire people who are just like us, where will innovation and creativity come from?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Who will be the maverick who will shake us out of our comfort zones once in awhile?<\/span><\/p>\n

So how do we balance our need to hire people who \u201cfit\u201d our culture with our need to bring in innovation, creativity, and fresh ideas?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s a conundrum.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Either we want people who think and act like us or we don\u2019t, right?<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer lies in how we define our company culture.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Done correctly, our culture is defined by our values and by what behaviors we tolerate or don\u2019t tolerate.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>It doesn\u2019t say anything about <\/span>what<\/span><\/span><\/em> we do, only about <\/span>how<\/span><\/span><\/em> we do it.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>For instance, if our culture requires that we treat everyone with dignity and respect, that doesn\u2019t do anything to screen out people who think differently or who bring fresh, creative ideas.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But it does screen out people who would try to push their own ideas by belittling others who may disagree with them.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>What vs. how.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>We don\u2019t want to restrict what ideas people bring to the table, only how they bring those ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n

What vs. how.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>We\u2019ve all seen it happen.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Someone could have an absolutely brilliant idea, but presents it in a way that is so repugnant to the organization\u2019s cultural norms, the idea gets lost, and everybody suffers.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The individual bringing the idea loses the opportunity to see his or her idea implemented, and the organization loses whatever benefit the idea may have brought.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>When we keep the what vs. how in balance, the exact opposite happens and everybody wins.<\/span><\/p>\n

So is all this XQ testing worthwhile?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Yes, but only if it\u2019s aimed at the way people behave, not at the way they think . . . only if it is focused on <\/span>how<\/span><\/span><\/em>, not <\/span>what.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this year, Eliza Gray, a staff writer for Time magazine, wrote an article about the \u201cera of optimized hiring.\u201d\u00a0 In it, she explains that many companies today are requiring job applicants to submit to personality tests.\u00a0 And we\u2019re not talking about just applicants for upper management jobs, we\u2019re talking about everybody from the executive<\/p>\n

Read More\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,36,33,32,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions\/679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rocksolidbizdevelopment.com\/ourblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}