Executive Intelligence zeros in on leadership smarts and notes that in all lists compiled by leadership experts, head hunters, and boards of directors the one and only trait that appears in all is intelligence. Obvious? No, because typically leadership savvy regularly trumps smarts. That is unfortunate because it obscures the cultivation and development of how leaders think, speculate, conceive, and problem solve their own firms and the way they lead. Executive intelligence like emotional intelligence acts like an advanced scout sizing up situations, identifying mine fields, creating contingencies, developing last minute ways out, and then acting like the artful dodger. In the process, the leader develops a special kind of intelligence tied to and defining the kind if leader he or she is; and that ultimately generates the leader's edge and comparative advantage.
