A Micro-, Small and Medium Enterprise Day special
This Micro-, Small and Medium Enterprise Day, we wanted to give you the opportunity to reflect on your skills and mindset, and how you can become a creative leader!
Below is a thought piece by Mark Huxley, Senior Warden at The Company of Entrepreneurs, on the difference between being clever and being smart and how he has experienced the difference throughout his career.
Why being able to blend being both clever and smart can be a real differentiator for an SME
I joined the world of work nigh on 50 years ago and as the years have progressed I’ve become increasingly aware of how it is the blend of differing mindsets that drive genuine high performance teams and the businesses they lead.
We didn’t have a word for it then but using today’s language it is about embracing true neurodiversity and those from different social contexts that become the brain which optimises the organisation. It can be defined in this simple way. We’ve all heard of high Intelligent Quotient (IQ) and how it has always been used to measure intellect, more latterly being aligned to Emotional Quotient (EQ), where empathy drives a deeper understanding of intelligence, but fewer have really considered Culture Quotient (CQ) and how it is the ability to really understand the business’s culture and values that really defines the ability for EQ to thrive alongside IQ.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is a total score derived from a set of standardised tests or subtests designed to assess human intelligence.
Emotional Quotient (EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathise with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.
Cultural Quotient (CQ) is the skill to relate and work effectively in culturally diverse situations. It’s the capability to cross boundaries and prosper in multiple cultures.
Why do I tell you this? Because that was the fine balance that I came to understand some years back and the thing that has driven me, my own businesses and those that I help.
Unpacking this a bit further, the City workplace I joined lacked a lot of what we would define as diversity markers today, however it definitely had a much higher level of neuro- and social diversity. If you can forgive yesterday’s language, there was a real mix of “clever” people, usually tertiary educated and professionally qualified, who kept businesses on the straight and narrow and “smart” people who came from a wide range of social backgrounds and levels of education. These smart people were typically much better problem solvers, didn’t accept the status quo and were generally the inventors who helped drive change and the constant innovation that has come to define the City globally.
Me, I was definitely a smart thinker and from my early years someone who thought differently to others. This being noticed early on helped demarcate me as a problem solver, an innovator and ultimately saw my career fast track.
Move the clock forward to now and I’m proud to say that I am someone who is defined by others as being a successful entrepreneur. A skill I now use to help others.
Whether dealing with a successful founder who’s scaled a big business, an SME, or a talented start up founder, it’s amazing to see when I work with them how much they sit on the smart end of the spectrum and not just the clever. I meet far too many like this for it to ever be a coincidence. They are heaped with EQ, definitely have lots of CQ, but not all relying on IQ. They are natural problem solvers, see things from entirely different perspectives, are generally sociable, optimistic people with an interesting lived experience where they built resilience. Their cleverness is then shining through in an entirely unique manner. It is perhaps interesting to note at this point that there is a high prevalence of dyslexia amongst entrepreneurs. Likewise, many suffer from attention deficit disorders and others correlating. For me, I’ve always seen these as superpower in disguise.
Again, why tell you this? I have learned from my own experience that in the universe of clever and smart people, us smart thinkers are hugely outnumbered. Worse, that in today’s workplace there are all sorts of glass ceilings that can hinder the smart thinkers from fully developing themselves, unless they decide to become clever thinkers. Clever people are driven much by IQ, with less natural EQ and a lot less CQ. In this context, is it any wonder that the majority of big companies have come to a place where they now need formal diversity, inclusivity and equality programmes? Clearly a historic lack of CQ being manifested.
They’ve wholly failed to recognise the power of smart thinking. Knowing that most of you reading this will be running SMEs, I’d love to impart a bit of my wisdom that when it comes to looking at your own business, really look to develop a broad skill set to meet your business needs. It has always been the balance of smart and clever people in the business that has defined the strong leadership team that drives success. Smart inventors do that, they invent, but like any creative they often lack the attention to detail, rather living in a world of big pictures. The opposite can often be true of your clever people. They will see all the devils in the detail and will have an innate inability to see the big pictures.
Obviously, the world isn’t as binary as this, and all this becomes blurred in the day to day operations. However, this is where your own EQ and CQ needs to become honed. My first business grew quickly and had a lot of people in it. I learned early on that not everybody was on the same journey as me. Some wanted careers, others just a secure job and nice place to work. I spent a lot of time becoming more self-aware and developing my EQ to ensure I could fully empathise with every individual that worked for me. I found that a lot harder than I might admit, but ultimately it changed me in so many good ways. It was also the trigger to the start of my own CQ journey, where I came to fully celebrate the entire spectrum of those I worked with and, I’d like to think, built a business where everyone felt equally empowered.
I’m sure all of this sounds great as you read it but am equally sure you’re thinking about all the day to day challenges you face. There is a truism that states a good entrepreneur will work on the business rather than in the business. Tough if you’re at the smaller end of being an SME with that head full of today’s problems, but something to train your brain to dial into and then definitely worth the investment in carving out time to step back from the day to day to reflect upon.
This is where a trusted friend or mentor is invaluable. Being a business owner can too often be a lonely experience with all issues ending up with you. It’s then tough to rationalise all those problems when you’re in the midst of them. Simply sharing them in real time gives perspective and another point of reflection, listening to the thoughts and counsel shared by those you trust then providing alternative perspectives of a problem shared. Do this well and I guarantee that the returns will be truly invaluable.
My closing thoughts therefore: Be Smart Clever. Fill yourself with IQ, EQ and CQ and fully open your mind to all that then offers. Fill your life with trusted thinkers, smart and clever, and if you can truly harness both mindsets you will have revealed a true superpower.
*We strive to do our best when supporting small business and their growth. Our business databases can give you information and data that can help you with advertising, market research, company information, and industry factsheets. If you have already taken the plunge, we would love for you to join us at a seminar, our workshops cover digital marketing, business model canvas and planning, demystifying taxes and intellectual property to name a few. Visit our events page or website for more information.
Small Business Research and Enterprise 