The Science of Success

In the past, IQ, intelligence, and technical skills were your ticket to success. If you had a degree and worked hard you had job security and a steady paycheck. Today, having a degree and being smart provides no such guarantees. This is because computers and AI can do IQ jobs faster, better, and cheaper than any human.

What computers and AI can’t automate are soft skills

Human skills like creativity, team work and collaboration, empathy, grit, problem solving, and initiative.

Research shows that 75% of long-term success is predicted by three simple variables:

Mindset

Emotional Intelligence

Stress Management

Mindset

When people work with a positive mindset performance on nearly every
level—productivity, creativity, engagement— improves.

- Shawn Achor
Harvard Business Review, 2016

Mindset is the quality of how you communicate with yourself. Having the 'right mindset' means knowing how to respond to adversity and pick yourself up when the chips are down. It also means being proactive, resilient, adaptable, and resourceful, while believing that your abilities and talents are not fixed but can grow and develop over time. (i.e. a growth mindset). A small upgrade to your mindset can have an enormous effect on your world, your work, and your life outcomes.

Tell Me More

Emotional Intelligence

A survey of over 500 executives found that emotional intelligence was a betterpredictor of success than either relevant previous experience or IQ.

- Forbes 2018

“Emotional intelligence is the single best predictor of performance in the workplace and the strongest driver of leadership and personal excellence. It accounts for 58% of performance in all types of jobs.” (Travis Bradberry, Emotional Intelligence 2.0)

Emotional intelligence means managing and being aware of your emotions as well as the emotions of others. EQ is therefore essential for building relationships, preventing conflict, and learning how to interact with people, influence, lead, and persuade. Business success has always depended on relationships, and now we know that engineers, technologists and STEM professionals need EQ skills just the same.

Google, for example, a company predicated on STEM skills, found that seven of the eight top skills that predicted a team’s success and performance were not hard skills, but soft skills. (Project Oxygen 2013, and Project Aristotle). Similarly, a 2018 IBM study found that the top skills in the workforce are behavioral skills, not technical or hard skills.

Tell Me More

Stress Management

80% of workers feel stress on the job, nearly half say they need help in learning how to manage stress and 42% say their coworkers need such help.

- The American Institute of Stress

Stress is an inevitable and necessary part of life. In fact, you wouldn’t be able to grow, develop mastery or proficiency in a subject, or assume responsibility without some amount of stress. Stress management is therefore essential to navigating the challenges of life. Unfortunately, most young professionals today lack stress management skills and it’s hurting their performance and company’s bottom line. Among university students, studies have shown that “stress is more likely to hurt grades than drinking or loss of sleep” while in the corporate sector, ‘workplace stress costs employers $300 billion a year’ (BusinessInsider.com) due to sick days and lack of productivity.

Claude Silver, a leader at VaynerMedia in New York has seen this first hand. In an interview in SHRM she explains “I have seen a lot of anxiety with this younger generation just coming out of universities and into the workforce. I've also noticed the number of people who are on antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications. It's astonishing how many of these young people are medicated." (SHRM)

Tell Me More

Why Soft Skills Are King

Soft skills are foundational. They are the most in-demand skills for employers in 2020.
(Future of Jobs Report, the World Economic Forum)

Roughly 33% of Millennials say employers are falling short in developing soft skills.

256% return on investment for every $1 spent on employee soft skills training.
Managers who incorporate soft skills into their leadership approach increase their team’s performance by as much as 30 percent. (The Hay Group / Korn Ferry)