By Richard Levychin, CPA, CGMA
Many factors contribute to professional success. Hard work is one, but it is not enough. Having a high IQ combined with hard work is no longer enough.
Having a high EQ, which stands for emotional quotient and measures one’s ability to connect to people on an emotional level, combined with hard work and a high IQ used to be enough, but it is also no longer sufficient to lead to professional success.
Today’s and tomorrow’s professionals will also have to own a high CQ, a measure of cultural intelligence and the ability to interact comfortably and successfully with other cultures. Studies have shown that people with a high CQ perform better on multicultural work teams than those with a low CQ. A study published in 2011 in the Journal of Social Issues found that cultural intelligence was a stronger predictor of the cross-border effectiveness of Swiss military leaders than either general intelligence or emotional intelligence.
The person deciding whether you get access to your next opportunity, be it a job offer, project, financing, or something else, may have a different cultural background than yours. Do you possess a high enough CQ to engage with him or her in such a way that distinguishes you from your competition and gets you the opportunity?
Read the full article on the Journal of Accountancy website.