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Justin Menkes. Executive Intelligence: What All Great Leaders Have. New York: Collins, 2006, 293 pages, $27.95 hardcover.
What is it that makes people like Jack Welch or Lou Gerstner ace CEOs? Menkes would argue that it is executive intelligence, which he defines as "a distinct set of aptitudes that an individual must be able to demonstrate in three central contexts of work: the accomplishment of tasks, working with and through other people, and judging oneself and adapting one's behavior accordingly."
The book is divided into four major sections. Section I is on what executive intelligence is. The section has five chapters covering different aspects of the construct, such as the role of critical thinking and the uses of executive intelligence in the workplace. Section II, with just two chapters, discusses why executive intelligence is so rare. Presumably, what the author really means is that "high" levels are rare, rather than that any levels are rare. The two chapters are on the rarity of executive intelligence and the role of connectionism. The section on connectionism does not seem to refer to connectionism as it is technically referred to in the psychological literature but rather seems to be a more "pop psychological" interpretation of the construct. Section III is on intelligence as "the key." In its eight chapters, it covers things such as how measures of intelligence are created, how looking at leadership just from the standpoint of charisma or personality is a mistake, how interviews can be misleading,...