utterly and comprehensively engaged lives. Those people don’t have it all—they are making it all happen for themselves by running on the curl of the big wave of all of their human assets. What’s their secret?
In order to be an effective influencer, forward-thinking leader, or change agent, you must tackle today’s problems in a very different way than was required even twenty years ago. Today there is no room for being one-dimensional, because today’s challenges are three-dimensional and require three-dimensional approaches. Life and business were simpler back in the day, but with the technological revolution and the global economic downturn, today we are experiencing high-definition, 3-D challenges, and you don’t have to wear those funky glasses to notice both the plentitude of opportunities andthe complicated challenges we face. Gone are the days where business could be tackled without empathy. Gone are the days where technological innovation could exist without the prioritization of human psychology. Contemporary geniuses today are tackling problems by connecting the unlikely assets within themselves and bringing them to the solution, meshing all that contributes to their genius capital.
An article in the Harvard Business Review discussed a study that showed that “strategic thought entails at least as much emotional intelligence as it does IQ.” Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure brain activity in a study of managers in a Wharton executive MBA program, they found that the best strategic performers showed less neural activity in the prefrontal cortex than in the areas associated with “gut” responses, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Call me crazy, but I see this as proof that integrating the heart and mind does indeed produce better strategists, problem solvers, and bottom-line geniuses.
How many times have you heard “I work to live rather than I live to work” or my other favorite, “I do what I am good at rather than what I love to do.” To find your other G-spot, the place where practical genius is born, you have to let go of those ideas and begin to bust out of those limited boxes. How can you do this? You take all your human assets and combine them to form your new currency, your new operating system, and your new way of understanding what you do, how you do it, and why you do it. This is your path to practical genius.
Do you think this kind of a life is a fantasy? Is it a pipe dream to find fulfillment and financial success in the world of work today, especially in these challenging economic times? I’m here to tell you that it’s not impossible. In fact, I’m telling you that it’s imperative that you integrate these different parts of yourself into a unified whole. All it requires is a bit of reprogramming.
Living a life at the intersection of who you are—professionally and personally—and meshing both worlds into one requires newapproaches toward your work and your life. Operating from a place of practical genius requires you to bring all of yourself to everything you do, whether it be running an organization, parenting, or community organizing. It’s a multidimensional approach, which will enable you to use your divine perspective right alongside your technological abilities. It will allow you to use humor right alongside your management abilities. It will allow you operationalize complex processes with the aid of nuanced creativity. Energy, passion, personality, intimacy, and many other personal attributes that were looked upon as inappropriate in your professional existence will not only be proper, but will become some of your most effective tools.
THE FORMULA
By now you are probably wondering, how am I going to find that sweet spot? Here is my practical three-step plan to get you there.
First, you have to make the decision to marry the hard and soft sides of who you are. Second, once that commitment is made, you need to quit cheating on any of
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