Ceci: For career success, it's 'social intelligence'

On May 25, Stephen Ceci, the Helen L. Carr Professor of Developmental Psychology at Cornell, delivered an address at the Ph.D. recognition ceremony in Barton Hall. Here is an abridged version of that address:

I had a graduate student once -- let's call her Amy. Amy was remarkably proficient in academic tasks. But when it came to understanding herself and others, and especially how she came across to others, she was a loser. When she went on the job market, she regaled the interviewers with story after story detailing how she was, in fact, smarter and more accomplished than they were. Basically, she communicated to a colleague I knew at one of these universities that she knew everything, and they knew nothing.

Well, one thing they did know is that they weren't going to hire Amy. She failed to get a job, even at universities she considered "beneath her ability." Today she works at a job that has little to do with her graduate training at Cornell and nothing to do with people!

Each of you has excelled throughout your academic lives. However, the type of intelligence that has taken you this far is not sufficient to take you the rest of the way. Academic-analytic intelligence, at which you clearly excel, is not enough to bring you a continuation of the success you have enjoyed so far in the academy.

The reason is that the world of work that lies ahead requires a very different type of intelligence in addition to the type that has been responsible for much of your academic success. This "social intelligence" refers to the kind of intellectual skills you need to manage your own emotions, to motivate others and to manage the organizations where you will work.

It turns out that social intelligence is statistically different from the types of intelligence that got you to the top of the class and helped secure high GREs. In statistical analyses, social intelligence makes an independent contribution to job success. What this means is that, for people with equal levels of traditional academic intelligence, success is a function of the amount of social intelligence you possess.

Research shows that it is common for someone to have a lot of one type and little of the other. And if you are one of the unlucky ones to possess too little social intelligence, then it can be damaging to your career. Basically, it is possible to be analytically strong, verbally facile and yet be socially stupid. No matter how academically oriented work may be, social intelligence will be extremely important to your success.

Wendy Williams, a professor here at Cornell, and Bob Sternberg at Yale have developed a social intelligence battery. They have given these questions to hundreds of leaders in the worlds of business, academia and the military. They have shown that answers can predict how successful they are at their jobs. So, let's see how much social intelligence you have.

Chance guessing would get you two to three correct out of five, and I am certain that some of you will get four to five correct, and others will do reliably worse than chance. OK, here goes. What do successful professionals in the fields of business, academia and the military say to these statements:

• As long as I am busy, I don't worry about how many tasks I am finishing.
  
• I try to work on one project at a time and wait until it is finished before starting another project.
  
• I don't act on most issues or make most decisions on my own without consulting my boss.
  
• When my boss makes a rule that I disagree with, I tell my employees that I think the boss is wrong but that we have no choice except to follow the rule.
  
• I do not act until I know every fact and figure.

(Key: Successful professionals disagree with all these statements.)

So, now that I have made you radioactive with fear about your lack of social intelligence, I feel it is only fair to give you a few rules of thumb for developing and maintaining this essential ability. Research by Williams and Sternberg shows that you can train social intelligence and that there are three things you should do as you enter the world of professional work:

• Find a good mentor in your organization. In doing this, scope the terrain, consider everyone's standing in the workplace. Avoid picking as a mentor someone who polarizes, because sooner or later she may take you down with her.

• Recognize that every story has two or more sides to it. Train yourself to take the perspective of others around you, posing as your own devil's advocate. Learn to generate the opponent's side of a story spontaneously; realize that people's positions are more complex than black-and-white arguments.

• Learn what is driving someone's resistance to do something you wish they'd do. If their resistance is not based on cognitive reasoning, but on emotional feelings, then all of the cognizing in the world will not succeed in bringing them around to your view. Instead, you'll end up frustrated, and they'll conclude you just don't get it.

A final rule of thumb: If you hear the same criticism from two or more independent sources, then you should probably stop believing your excuses and start listening to the criticism. More than anything else, it is the inability to profit from criticism that derails the careers of promising people. Remember that a trip to the woodshed can be a valuable chance to collect more wood!

In closing, allow me to dredge up the obligatory metaphors about graduates beginning a voyage. Here is my feeble attempt: As you embark on your maiden voyage through the straits of professional development and impression management, which leads you away from the becalmed shores of Cayuga to the potentially treacherous open seas of egotism, insecurity and competitiveness, keep in mind that the knowledge you gained in your books and lectures will not provide the navigational charts. For that you need to develop social intelligence.

Godspeed and may your voyage be smooth!