Positive Intelligence (2012) provides a way to unlock your true potential by helping you identify and conquer common mental blocks. It also shows you how to tap into your deeper wisdom to live a more balanced, productive, and happy life.

Recommendation

Merging theories from science, positive psychology and coaching, neuroscientist Shirzad Chamine defines your “Positive Intelligence Quotient” (PQ) as “the percentage of time your mind acts as your friend rather than as your enemy.” He explains how to increase your PQ to achieve higher performance, greater happiness and less stress. Your PQ score depends on which mental forces dominate – your “Saboteurs” or your “Sage.” Although many self-help books advocate the power of positive thinking, Chamine repackages the idea for practical application, even if he indulges in special jargon. We recommend his insights and guidance to those who wish to think more optimistically and to managers who need to turn around underperforming teams.

Take-Aways

• Your mind can work for you or against you. You can learn to make it work for you.
• A high “Positive Intelligence Quotient” (PQ) leads to better performance, greater achievement, less stress and more happiness.
• Invisible “Saboteurs” and your inner “Sage” fight for supremacy in your brain.
• Your various Saboteurs, like the “Controller” and the “Stickler,” use different tactics to achieve the same goal: preventing you from taking action.
• Your Sage uses five powers to overcome the Saboteurs: “empathy, exploration, innovation, navigation and decisive action.”
• To build PQ, strengthen your Sage and “PQ Brain muscles” by doing “PQ reps” – spend 10-second intervals being aware of your body and the input of your five senses.
• Weaken your Saboteurs by doing a PQ rep each time you sense their presence.
• Hug your pet or loved one while being “fully present for 10 seconds.”
• Heeding your Sage instead of your Saboteurs can increase your PQ score.
• When individuals strengthen their PQ scores, they can raise their team’s collective PQ.

Introduction: Learn to make your mind work for you

Ever felt like you were your own worst enemy? Remember those times you had something sorted and ready to execute, but you kept worrying about it till you bumped it?

Or maybe you had a brilliant idea and suddenly got on the defensive when a friend or colleague tried to give you feedback. Everyone has these experiences every day , but such anxiety can be crippling in extreme cases.

The good news is, most of these confrontations happen inside your mind. With the right approach, you can train your mind to work for you – by applying the concept of positive intelligence.

We’ll give positive intelligence a fancy name. Let’s call it PQ.

PQ is simply the percentage of time your brain behaves like your best buddy rather than your worst enemy.

In this summary to Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine, you’ll learn how to sidestep your Saboteurs, those internal obstacles that stand in the way of your journey through life. You’ll also train the parts of your brain that help you tap into your inner wisdom, and build your PQ brain muscles.

This accessible formula will improve your mental health, elevate your performance and transform you into a person people want to be around.

Understanding your Saboteurs

Meet Peter, a smart entrepreneur who’s figured out exactly what he needs to enjoy an early and happy retirement. $10 million. But then he rejects a $125 million offer to sell his business. Why? His college mate already sold his business for $330 million.

Peter might have had high stakes, but his story is everyone’s story. Money, status and accolades won’t satisfy you because the targets keep shifting. To be truly happy is to be happy despite your circumstances, and the only place you can achieve that is inside your head.

This starts by tackling your Saboteurs, those entrenched thoughts and habits that fuel your anxiety. These Saboteurs inhabit your Survivor brain, the part of your brain you rely on to keep you safe. It’s the Saboteurs that guide your survival instincts to run when you sense danger or find food when you’re hungry.

As you grow into adulthood where rational decisions matter more, these primal instincts can get in the way of progress.

So what are these Saboteurs?

Chief among the ten Saboteurs is the Judge. Your Judge consistently beats you up for not doing enough. You’ll set a target and achieve it, then the next minute you’re thinking about the next milestone.

Another source of anxiety comes from the Stickler who’s always craving perfection. The Stickler has this constant drive to do things better even at the cost of your health and wellbeing. And then we have the Pleaser. The Pleaser tries to humor everyone, eventually becoming resentful in the process. Meanwhile the Hyper-achiever Saboteur convinces you that working yourself to the ground will earn you validation.

People with a Victim Saboteur believe displaying their suffering will earn them sympathy. And a Hyper-rational Saboteur will consistently dismiss emotional considerations, insisting instead on fact after fact.

There’s more. Many people are governed by a relentless pursuit of excitement. This is the Restless Saboteur at play. On the other side of the spectrum we have the Hyper-vigilant Saboteur, who’s always alert to the next pitfall, and the Controller, who resorts to micromanaging everything and every situation around them. Finally we have the Avoider Saboteur. This Saboteur consistently seeks only the positive and dodges any and all conflicts in the hope that their problems will go away.

Everyone of us deals with a combination of these ten Saboteurs on a daily basis. But there’s good news. These habits can actually be tamed into submission with some clever techniques. Hang on to your hats!

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Embracing your Sage

A Chinese parable tells the story of a farmer whose disinterested reaction to fortune and misfortune stuns his neighbors. From losing his prize stallion to having it return with a few mares, or having his son miss conscription because the kid fell off one of the mares and broke his leg, the farmer offers the same boring reaction: “No one really knows what’s good or bad.”

This farmer is cruising on the right side of his brain – where his inner Sage resides.

The Sage isn’t passive to life’s circumstances. Rather, the Sage sees things for what they actually are, acknowledging that while we can’t program the future, we can approach a problem solely on its merits, and without the interference of anxiety.

Of course, there are situations where dispassionate investigation is impossible, like when you’re grieving over losing a relative. You’re also going to have moments of anger and disappointment. What the Sage can achieve here is to put things in perspective so that such events don’t dominate your life.

The Sage is an efficient multiplier of positive intelligence. It accomplishes this through its five powers.

The first of these powers is empathy. Treating yourself with kindness will save you from the constant judgment you subject yourself to. It will also help you to empathize with other people. One clever way to achieve this is to visualize yourself as a child or look at your own baby pictures.

The second Sage power, your ability to explore, will open up your curiosity about life and its endless wonders. Exploring will help you understand a problem before taking action. Become a fascinated anthropologist of your own life who sees things just as they are, without any bias.

Once you’ve fully explored a situation, you’re ready to use the next Sage power: innovating. Now you can propose new ideas where old solutions no longer work. Take note, you’re not analyzing any ideas at this point. Analyzing while you generate ideas will limit the number of solutions you can come up with. You’re just letting ideas flow.

Once you’ve done this, and you have several different paths laid out before you, the Sage’s fourth power – navigation – takes over. This is when you analyze and compare the alternatives. To achieve peace and fulfillment, you should only choose paths that are consistent with your values and purpose. Your choices should add meaning to your life. Imagine you’re at the end of your life, looking back – would you be happy you chose this path?

Once you’ve made a decision that aligns with your values as a person or team, this will spur you into the realm of the fifth Sage power, activation. Being convinced of your purpose and your path inspires intense focus. Moving into action doesn’t have to be turbulent. That being said, it’s always good to address the Saboteurs that try to sow doubt in your mind. Your Sage is in total control, so dismiss the noise and move forward.

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How to improve your PQ

Now you’ve learned about Saboteurs and the Sage that counters them. Let’s put that knowledge to action and improve your PQ.

The first step to improving your PQ is to weaken your Saboteurs. It’s so easy. Once you identify a source of anxiety – say a judge, a tendency to avoid or that urge to be perfect – give it a name. By consciously labeling a particular Saboteur, you expose it as a lie and reduce its grip over you.

Giving your Saboteur a name also puts some distance between you and that particular worry. When you give the Judge a name, say Darth Vader, it becomes easier to see it as something that happens to you rather than something that defines your whole personality. This makes it easier to empathize with yourself.

If weakening Saboteurs reduces their power and improves PQ, operating in Sage mode takes it to the next level. Empathizing with yourself, exploring events, innovating, mentally navigating possible paths to a better life and matching these paths to your core values will steer you into conscious and decisive action.

This applies to individuals as well as groups. In any group, each individual manifests their particular Saboteurs and dominant Sage powers. The resulting interaction produces a group PQ. Now, if the group is able to tap into their collective Sage and act accordingly, the team PQ will improve. One way to do this is to have well defined values that everyone can adhere to.

Some of these tips might seem easier said than done. Luckily, there are concrete exercises you can do to build your PQ muscles. Let’s find out what they are.

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Thriving in Sage mode

In 1996, Harvard-trained brain researcher Dr. Jill Taylor suffered a severe and rather peculiar stroke. The stroke shut down the left side of her brain – where survival mechanisms reside, and left her relying on her right side, where the PQ brain is found.

You’d expect someone in that condition to be miserable, but she felt calm and uplifted despite seeing her life and career go up in flames. After recovery, she realized her PQ brain needed to run the firm while the Survivor brain acted as an assistant.

The good news is, you don’t need a stroke to get you to this place. Instead you can use the following workouts to build your PQ muscles.

The principle is simple. Focus as much of your attention as possible on your body. Feed your five senses for at least 10 seconds. 10 seconds covers about three breaths. This equates to one fitness rep at the PQ gym.

Aim for 100 PQ reps every day for 21 days. If you stay consistent, you’ll start shifting towards greater mindfulness and control over your anxiety.

Here are a few tips to build these exercises into your daily activities.

When you brush your teeth, focus on the vibrations of the brush against your teeth for 10 seconds. Smell the toothpaste and feel the grip of your hand on the brush. Same trick when you shower. Pay undivided attention to the sound of water splashing on your skin and how it makes you feel.

When you go out on a run, zone in on the way your feet feel against your shoes. Feel the breeze rush over your skin. Study the movement of your muscles while you lift weights.

When you sit down to eat, take your time to appreciate the flavor of the food. Pay attention to the taste of each spice and how they blend in your mouth. Time with friends or family should be spent being fully aware of their expressions, the vibe they exude, their subtle movements and facial expressions. Plant your feet firmly on the ground as you experience these sensations.

The idea is to be present so that your Saboteurs can’t slip in through the back door. When they do sneak in, use them as a reminder to focus, transforming their deceit into a PQ rep and a chance to boost your positive outlook.

Life will always come up with surprises. What matters is how you turn these events into opportunities. If you can’t find any positives, try to put the disappointment behind you.

Sticking to these exercises, overcoming your Saboteurs and living in the Sage mindset will eventually take your PQ above 75 percent. This is the threshold at which you become fully performant and happy despite all the noise around you.

Let’s look a bit deeper at how you can put all that PQ into action.

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Practical applications of positive intelligence

Now you’ve learned the benefits of positive intelligence and how to achieve it, how do you apply it to yourself and your relationships? Here are two examples to show you how it works.

Meet Frank, the CEO of a company whose stock took such a beating in the 2008 recession he broke down in tears in front of his daughter. A bit skeptical of the Sage’s capacity to reap rewards off routine activities, it took him time to embrace PQ exercises.

He kept suffering at the hand of his Judge. Then one day he sat down to eat a turkey sandwich and decided to give positive intelligence a shot.

Closing his eyes to concentrate on the experience, he felt the sponginess of the bread. For the first time he experienced the lettuce crunch between his teeth. This motivated him to try other PQ exercises with his staff.

Note that the PQ of a team is not the average PQ of every member. People can feel more positive while they’re in a team and lose that spark when they step out. Ideally you should build each member’s PQ before proceeding to work on the group PQ.

This will generate a group dynamic, or a PQ Channel for that team. From here you can measure and grow the group’s PQ.

When Frank applied the powers of the Sage to his team, the results were spectacular. They found that they had drifted from the company’s principles. They navigated their way back and the company’s stock rebounded to previous levels within 18 months!

It’s this same principle that helped restore Patrick and Susan’s marriage. Patrick was doing well as the CEO of a global financial services company. Susan, his wife of 21 years, had given up her career to raise their kids.

Over time this arrangement started to raise tension between the pair. Patrick couldn’t understand why his wife disapproved when he missed family commitments, and Susan felt she wasn’t getting any support from her husband.

They agreed to explore their problems by attentively listening to each other without blame. Each person repeated the other’s stated anxieties to ensure the message was the same, and got politely reminded if they’d missed anything.

This led Susan to empathize with Patrick’s hard work and disappointment with having to miss family outings. Patrick, on his part, said he now understood how hard it must have been for a person as independent as Susan to count on him financially. She’d been excelling at work before quitting to take care of the kids.

With their issues laid out on the table, Patrick worked on a plan to spend time with his family. He set boundaries between family life and work. If he was going to be away, he decided, he would inform his staff way in advance. Susan decided to get in touch with her old school friends. She was going to start exploring flexible work opportunities. They also adopted PQ regimes to negate their anxieties.

These two examples demonstrate how positive intelligence can be applied to work and life balance, but that’s just scratching the surface. Once you start committing yourself to your own PQ, you’ll see just how far it can take you!

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Summary

Introducing the “Saboteurs and the Sage”

In Greek mythology, King Sisyphus “fell from grace” and, as punishment, had to push a heavy boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, again and again for all eternity. Like Sisyphus, individuals and teams secretly sabotage themselves by getting stuck in repetitive behavior and never achieving their true potential. Your brain is locked in a battle between your Saboteurs and your inner Sage. Saboteurs are leftover remnants of primitive urges and instincts, such as your “flight or fight” response mechanism. Saboteurs’ negativity can destroy your happiness and performance; conversely, your Sage works to build positivity. Building “Positive Intelligence” helps individuals and teams harness the power of positive thinking and overcome their Saboteurs.

“The reason so many of our attempts at improving our success or happiness fizzle is that we sabotage ourselves. More precisely, our minds sabotage us.”

A high “Positive Intelligence Quotient” (PQ) score correlates to higher performance and happiness. For example, if your score is 70%, your mind works for you 70% of the time and against you 30% of the time. Individuals with high PQ live longer, healthier lives.

Saboteurs

Everyone has her or his own unique mix of the following 10 Saboteurs:

1. “Avoider” – This inner force focuses only on positive experiences, avoids conflict and unpleasant situations, worries about others’ feelings, wants to be a peacemaker, and suppresses anger, which eventually festers and boils over.
2. “Controller” – This Saboteur must be in charge, control others and win competitions, jobs and challenges. Controllers are prone to high anxiety and impatience. They push to get tasks done no matter what and may upset other people.
3. “Hyper-Achiever” – This inner workaholic needs constant validation, is competitive and goal-oriented, and avoids emotion. Any self-acceptance is temporary.
4. “Hyper-Rational” – This cold logistician analyzes problems from a distance, wants to master knowledge, disdains emotion, can be cynical and has limited flexibility.
5. “Hyper-Vigilant” – This anxious, suspicious, intense Saboteur is constantly vigilant and sensitive to danger, suffers burnout, and drives other people away.
6. “Pleaser” – This negative force does want to help other people, but yearns for their acceptance, needs frequent encouragement and affection, becomes easily offended by lack of recognition, and eventually becomes resentful of the burdens of being helpful. Pleasers make the people they depend upon feel manipulated or guilty about saying no to them.
7. “Restless” – This sabotaging aspect of a personality needs to stay busy, can’t sit still, seeks new experiences, quickly gets bored and frustrated when new experiences grow stale, thinks “life is too short,” and resists long-lasting relationships.
8. “Stickler” – The self-critical perfectionist is highly organized, thinks in black-and-white terms, believes others are lazy, criticizes everybody, and makes others resent his or her impossible standards.
9. “Victim” – This “martyr” seeks attention based on painful experiences and has both a mentality and a “poor-me,” “no-one-understands-me” self-image. Victims swim in negative feelings and make others feel helpless for not alleviating their pain.
10. “Judge” – This is the universal “master” Saboteur; the other nine are accomplices who help the Judge keep you mired in negative thoughts. Your Judge is responsible for most of your disappointment, regret, anger, guilt, shame and anxiety.

The Sage

Your Sage steps in to defeat your Saboteurs. The Sage lets you explore and keep an open mind, show compassion and sympathy for others and yourself, innovate, and ignore the siren call of your Saboteurs.

“Most people have far more potential than they have tapped.”

With your Sage, you can “choose a path that best aligns with your deeper underlying values and mission.” To increase your PQ, you must “strengthen your Sage” and “weaken your Saboteurs” – and that you can do.

Silence Your Inner Critics

The Judge is so destructive because it causes you to criticize yourself, those around you and your life situation. After author Shirzad Chamine discovered his own Judge, he wrote a five-page letter that described his insecurities and self-doubt, and distributed it to 320 of his MBA classmates. He expected his peers to ostracize him, but instead they thanked him and said they felt relieved that they were not alone in their feelings.

“Unless you tackle and weaken your own internal enemies – we’ll call them Saboteurs – they will do their best to rob you of any improvements you make.”

His experiences leading a CEO retreat years later solidified his theory that the Judge is universal. Chamine asked the executives to write anonymously about something they had “never shared with others for fear of losing credibility, acceptance or respect.” They were relieved to discover common guilt, fear and shame.

“One minute of being fully present with a loved one has a deeper and more lasting impact on your relationship than spending a whole day together while you have a scattered mind.”

At work, team members either openly or secretly try to sabotage each other. A collective group of Judges is more damaging than a single Judge. Workplace Judges cause employees to lose time and productivity and to experience anxiety and stress. A Judge’s most dangerous and pernicious lie is “You will be happy when…” because “when” never arrives. Your inner Judge may say you will be happy when you make your first million or when your children go off to college, but, sadly, you will feel every bit as unfulfilled when the supposedly magical event occurs.

“The Judge is the universal Saboteur, the one we all have: a predisposition to exaggerating the negative and assuming the worst is actually good for survival.”

The Judge activates the other Saboteurs. Your unique motivations and style affect which Saboteurs come into play. Saboteurs work by convincing you that they’re helping you. Every time you notice your Saboteurs in action and you challenge their behavior, they lose power. You weaken them when you expose their lies.

Strengthen Your Inner Wisdom

Activating your Sage means accepting whatever happens as a gift or opportunity. Both the Sage and the Judge provide a “snowballing, self-reinforcing perspective” and “self-fulfilling prophecy.”

“The Sage perspective is about accepting what is, rather than denying, rejecting or resenting what is.”

Only you can choose between your positive Sage and your negative Judge. Listen to your Sage with the “Three-Gifts technique”: Think of three situations where your problem could actually be an opportunity to gain something better. The gains might not be immediate – they may take days, months or years to reach fruition.

“All stress is Saboteur generated. Under the Sage’s influence, you focus on doing what needs to get done, but you don’t sweat the outcome.”

Let the past go without sadness or regret. Use the Sage’s wisdom to activate five powers that will help you overcome Saboteurs and strengthen your positive emotions. Those powers are:

1. “Empathy” – This power lets you connect with your feelings and help others overcome their difficulties. To energize your empathy, “visualize the child.” Remember how excited and curious you were as a child? Everything was new and beguiling. Nourish that sense of childlike wonder and caring in your life.
2. “Exploration” – Pretend that you are a “fascinated anthropologist, a keen observer and discoverer of what simply is, without trying to judge, change or control the situation.”
3. “Innovation” – Saboteurs interfere with your ability to innovate. Generate as many new ideas as you can and don’t reject any of them. Let your ideas gain traction. Strengthen your power of innovation by playing the “Yes…and…” power game, which involves saying yes to one idea and permitting another to immediately follow.
4. “Navigation” – If you find yourself in a rut, use this fourth power to follow your internal compass, which always guides you in the right direction. Choose a path that is meaningful for you.
5. “Decisive action” – To prevent Saboteurs from thwarting your plans, reflect back on your life choices. What changes would you make? When you have a calm attitude and a quiet, focused mind, you’re ready to use the Sage’s fifth power: take action.

“Saboteurs do far greater damage when they do their work while hiding under the radar, pretending they are your friend or pretending they are you.”

Your Saboteurs will use different tactics to achieve the same goal: to prevent you from taking action. The Avoider and Restless Saboteurs will try to get you to duck any pressing issue. Hyper-Vigilant will waste your time and energy on needless side tasks. The Controller and Stickler will slow you down by unleashing your inner perfectionist. Anticipate the Saboteurs’ power plays before they strike.

“Build Up Your PQ Brain Muscles”

Your Saboteurs feed your “Survivor Brain,” while your Sage feeds your “PQ Brain.” The Judge and Saboteur accomplices helped humanity’s primitive ancestors survive danger from predators and natural disasters. But exercising the same survivalist instincts today can trap you in a negative cycle of stress and anxiety.

“Empathizing is about feeling and showing appreciation, compassion and forgiveness. Empathy has two targets: yourself and others. Both are important.”

To strengthen your PQ Brain muscles, do 100 mental “PQ reps” a day. A PQ rep is an exercise that calls for repeatedly devoting 10 seconds to awareness of the physical sensations in your body and your five senses. Think about your physical reactions. Slow down and smell the food you eat, notice the sensation of touch as you brush your hair, and listen closely to the sounds of nature as you walk outside. Be “fully present for 10 seconds” when hugging a loved one or pet.

“The set of beliefs and assumptions that we operate under form the walls of your own box.”

When you first start a new routine, staying on track can be difficult. Your Saboteurs will berate you for forgetting or will claim you don’t have time to exercise instead of work. Don’t let them deter you from your mental and physical goals. Do not let them interfere. You can easily accomplish your PQ reps by incorporating them into your normal daily routine or executing a PQ rep for 10 seconds each time you sense a Saboteur’s presence.

“Your PQ Brain muscles have remained underdeveloped over the years while your Survivor Brain muscles have been on steroids.”

Breaking old habits and forming new ones takes three weeks. After studying patients with amputated limbs, plastic surgeon Dr. Maxwell Maltz concluded that it took 21 consecutive days to develop new brain pathways and replace old ones. To achieve lasting results, do 100 PQ reps each day for 21 consecutive days.

Measuring PQ

Your PQ ranges from zero to 100 percent and represents the percentage of time you think positively versus negatively. When you think positively, your Sage holds the power. The opposite is true when you think negatively – that empowers your Saboteurs. Learn your PQ score by taking a short test at PositiveIntelligence.com. Take the test on different days to ensure accuracy.

“The fastest and most efficient way to increase achievement and performance is to increase PQ, not potential.”

Researchers who investigated the power of positive thinking – Marcial Losada, Barbara Fredrickson, John Gottman and Robert Schwartz, among others – found that a “tipping point” occurs when your ratio of positive to negative thinking is 3:1. To reach this point, you will need a PQ score of 75. The tipping point applies to both individuals and teams. Bosses and strong team members can pull their teams up or down. Negative thinking is often more powerful due to the brain’s hardwired survivalist tendencies.

Applying PQ to Life

Balance work and life issues by using your PQ with yourself, and with your children, mate, supervisors and co-workers. In the office, your PQ will affect your team. When individuals strengthen their PQ scores, they can raise their collective team PQ.

“Your mind is your best friend. But it is also your worst enemy.”

When you spend time with your spouse and children, pay attention to them and not your smartphone. Spending an hour or two of quality time together often is better than taking a week’s vacation together and incessantly checking your email. When your Sage is in control, you won’t need as much time off as you do when Saboteurs are zapping your energy. Teach your children how to label their own Sage and Saboteurs so they, too, can increase their PQ and be happier. Instead of focusing on your children’s outer accomplishments, help them turn inward to identify their feelings.

Individuals with high PQ enjoy lower stress and healthier lifestyles. Obesity is common because many people overeat for psychological reasons, including boredom, sadness, anxiety or restlessness. You will eat less once you employ your PQ Brain, because you will slow down and savor every bite. You can also use PQ to improve in sports. Athletes who are “in the zone” are able to focus precisely, because they take time to notice the sensations around them.

Conclusion

Your brain is wired to protect you from danger, but as you grow older your survival instincts start sabotaging you with their reactionary responses. Thankfully there are ways to overcome them and improve your positive intelligence.

By identifying and labeling your Saboteurs you loosen their grip over you. By tapping into your inner Sage you find exciting new ways to live your life. Your Sage will help you attain fulfillment by empathizing, exploring, innovating, navigating and activating solutions that align with your values.

To amplify your PQ, consistently use mental and physical hacks to engage your senses, blocking out anxiety to the point where you start to thrive as a fully focused person. Your friends, family and colleagues will start to mirror these positive vibes as you make progress. Everyone wins!

About the author

Shirzad Chamine is the chairman of the Coaches and Training Institute, an international coach training organization, and holds a PhD in neuroscience and a master’s degree in electrical engineering.

Shirzad Chamine is Chairman of CTI, the largest coach-training organization in the world. CTI has trained coaches and managers in most of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as faculty at Stanford and Yale business schools. A preeminent C-suite advisor, Shirzad has coached hundreds of CEOs and their executive teams. Prior to running CTI, he was the CEO of an enterprise software company. His background includes PhD studies in neuroscience in addition to a BA in psychology, an MS in electrical engineering, and an MBA from Stanford, where he lectures.

Genres

Psychology, Productivity, Business, Nonfiction, Self Help, Leadership, Personal Development, Management, Philosophy, Success, Motivation, Self-Esteem, Relationships, Personal Growth, Business Culture

Table of Contents

Introduction 1
Part I What is Positive Intelligence and PQsm?
Chapter 1 Positive intelligence and PQ 5
Chapter 2 The Three Strategies to Improve PQ 15
Part II First Strategy: Weaken Your Saboteurs
Chapter 3 Self-Assessment of the Ten Saboteurs 31
Chapter 4 Judge, the Master Saboteur 55
Part III Second Strategy: Strengthen Your Sage
Chapter 5 The Sage Perspective 71
Chapter 6 The Five Sage Powers 83
Part IV Third Strategy: Build Your PQ Brain Muscles
Chapter 7 PQ Brain Fitness Techniques 101
Part V How to Measure Your Progress
Chapter 8 PQ Score and PQ Vortex 121
Part VI Applications
Chapter 9 Work and Life Applications 137
Chapter 10 Case Study: Leading Self and Team 155
Chapter 11 Case Study: Deepening Relationships Through Conflict 167
Chapter 12 Case Study: Selling, Motivating, Persuading 185
Chapter 13 Conclusion: The Magnificent You! 205
Appendix: PQ Brain Fundamentals 209
Acknowledgments 219
Endnotes 223

Overview

In his popular Stanford University lectures, Shirzad Chamine reveals how to achieve one’s true potential for both professional success and personal fulfillment. His groundbreaking research exposes ten well-disguised mental Saboteurs. Nearly 95 percent of the executives in his Stanford lectures conclude that these Saboteurs cause “significant harm” to achieving their true potential. With Positive Intelligence, you can learn the secret to defeating these internal foes. Positive Intelligence (PQ)SM measures the percentage of time your mind is serving you as opposed to sabotaging you. While your IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence) contribute to your maximum potential, it is your PQ that determines how much of that potential you actually achieve.

The great news is that you can improve your PQ significantly in as little as 21 days. With higher PQ, teams and professionals ranging from leaders to salespeople perform 30 to 35 percent better on average. Importantly, they also report being far happier and less stressed. The breakthrough tools and techniques in this book have been refined over years of coaching hundreds of CEOs and their executive teams. Shirzad tells many of their remarkable stories, showing how you too can take concrete steps to unleash the vast, untapped powers of your mind.

Discover how to

• Identify and conquer your top Saboteurs. Common Saboteurs include the Judge, Controller, Victim, Avoider, and Pleaser.
• Measure the Positive Intelligence score (PQ) for yourself or your team—and see how close you come to the critical tipping point required for peak performance.
• Increase PQ dramatically in as little as 21 days.
• Develop new brain “muscles,” and access 5 untapped powers with energizing mental “power games.”
• Apply PQ tools and techniques to increase both performance and fulfillment. Applications include team building, mastering workload, working with “difficult” people, improving work/life balance, reducing stress, and selling and persuading.

Review/Endorsements/Praise/Award

“Positive Intelligence can change your life and transform your business. A real game-changer.” —James D. White, Chairman and CEO, Jamba Juice

“Positive Intelligence ranks in the top three most influential business books I have ever read. If I could give only one book to the thousands of team members in my organization to enhance their performance, it would be this book.” —Lisa Stevens, Region President, Wells Fargo Bank

“I’ve worked closely with Shirzad and experienced him walking the PQ walk. Most change initiatives fizzle because of our mental “Saboteurs.” Shirzad gives us the tools to conquer them and create positive change that lasts. This is a must-read for any individual or team serious about unleashing peak performance.” —Dean Morton, former COO, Hewlett-Packard (HP)

“Shirzad delivers a simple, doable, groundbreaking set of exercises that can help you develop your ‘performance’ muscles, increase your PQ score, and gain access to previously untapped mental resources. Working out was never so rewarding or so much fun! So if you’re ready to get even better, get this book—today.” —Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times bestselling author, Mojo and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

“Developing a personal leadership model is one of the most practical, energy-saving, and stress-reducing things that anyone can do for themselves. Leaders at every level can use the PQ approach to get, and stay, on a more ‘winning’ trajectory. This is such a usable, lively, and compelling book.” —Douglas R. Conant, former CEO, Campbell Soup Company, and New York Times bestselling author

“ I have worked with Shirzad personally and seen him work with many other Presidents and CEOs. His impact is often game-changing for a team and life-changing for the individuals. Positive Intelligence is a must-have for anyone who leads or coaches a team.” —Jed York, President and CEO, San Francisco 49ers

“The PQ model provides a solid basis for bringing meaning and significant change to one’s life. If you want to create major positive change in yourself, your team, or loved ones, read this book.” —Crittenden E. Brookes, MD, PhD, Stanford University, and Distinguished Life Fellow, American Psychiatric Association

“Working with Shirzad has had a profound impact on me. The tools and techniques to raise PQ are simple, concrete and pragmatic, yet incredibly effective. They help me remain focused on what truly matters and grounded amidst the swirl of daily life. This book is a gift. Make sure you share it. –Jim Lanzone, President, CBS Interactive (CBS Corporation)

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Chapter One
POSITIVE INTELLIGENCE AND PQ
Frank, the CEO of a publicly traded company, entered the greatest despair of his illustrious professional career when his company’s stock lost two-thirds of its value during the recession of 2008. He was so devastated by his own failure that he broke down crying when his ten-year-old daughter asked why he looked so sad. He could not stop blaming himself for the company’s downward spiral, and he often woke up in the middle of the night with his mind racing for a way to get the company back on track.

Frank’s senior management team was also experiencing high stress levels, feeling guilt, and pointing fingers over what had gone wrong. They worried about the impact on themselves, on the thousands of others working for them, and on their families. They had been working impossibly long hours to turn things around, without much success. That’s when Frank reached out to me for help.

When I met Frank, I suggested that his best bet for a sustainable turnaround of his company was to raise the Positive Intelligence levels of himself and his team. Using the principles of Positive Intelligence, we devised a core question to reframe and redirect the team’s perspective and redirect its efforts: “What do we need to do so that within three years we can say this current crisis was the best thing that could have happened to our company?”

Frank’s senior leadership team was skeptical when he posed the question during one of their weekly team meetings. But their skepticism subsided and their enthusiasm grew gradually as Frank opened each subsequent weekly team meeting with that same question. By contemplating the question and utilizing many tools of Positive Intelligence, they were able to shift their entire mind-set from anxiety, disappointment, guilt, and blame to curiosity, creativity, excitement, and resolute action. I predicted that within a year they would discover how they could turn their collective failure into a great opportunity. It took them less than six months.

Over the next year and a half, the company consolidated and streamlined its product offerings. It doubled down on its bet on the original value proposition of the company, which had been lost over years of chasing tempting but unrelated growth opportunities. During this time, the company’s stock slowly recovered its value. Each month Frank and his team became more convinced that their “new” company would be far more dominant and successful than it had been in its prime.

When I checked in with Frank recently, he reported that he valued his increased sense of peace and happiness even more highly than his impressive professional and financial gains. This is a typical reaction, as increased Positive Intelligence impacts both. What Frank found most fascinating was that he began having more success once he finally stopped believing that his happiness depended on his success.

WHAT ARE POSITIVE INTELLIGENCE AND PQ?

As I’ve already suggested, your mind is your best friend, but it is also your worst enemy. Positive Intelligence measures the relative strength of these two modes of your mind. High Positive Intelligence means your mind acts as your friend far more than as your enemy. Low Positive Intelligence is the reverse. Positive Intelligence is therefore an indication of the control you have over your own mind and how well your mind acts in your best interest. It should be relatively easy to see how your level of Positive Intelligence determines how much of your true potential you actually achieve.

To illustrate, when your mind tells you that you should do your very best to prepare for tomorrow’s important meeting, it is acting as your friend. When it wakes you up at 3:00 a.m. anxious about the meeting and racing in a loop for the hundredth time about the many consequences of failing, it is acting as your enemy; it is simply generating anxiety and suffering without any redeeming value. No friend would do that.

PQ stands for Positive Intelligence Quotient. Your PQ is your Positive Intelligence score, expressed as a percentage, ranging from 0 to 100. In effect, your PQ is the percentage of time your mind is acting as your friend rather than as your enemy; or, in other words, it is the percentage of time your mind is serving you versus sabotaging you. For example, a PQ of 75 means that your mind is serving you about 75 percent of the time and is sabotaging you about 25 percent of the time. We don’t count the periods of time when your mind is in neutral territory.

In chapter 8, I will show you how PQ is measured for both individuals and teams. I will also share compelling research indicating that the PQ score of 75 is a critical tipping point. Above it, you are generally being uplifted by the internal dynamics of the mind, and below it you are constantly being dragged down by those dynamics. Eighty percent of individuals and teams score below this critical PQ tipping point. And that is why 80 percent of individuals and teams fall far short of achieving their true potential for success and happiness. You can measure your own PQ, or your team’s, by visiting www.PositiveIntelligence.com.

RESEARCH EVIDENCE

Current breakthrough research in neuroscience, organizational science, and positive psychology validates the principles of Positive Intelligence and the relationship between PQ and both performance and happiness. As mentioned, PQ measures the percentage of time that your brain is working positively (serving you) versus negatively (sabotaging you). Though different researchers have used different methods to track positivity and calculate positive-to-negative ratios, the results have been remarkably consistent. For consistency and simplicity, I have translated various researchers’ findings into their PQ-equivalent interpretations:

• An analysis of more than two hundred different scientific studies, which collectively tested more than 275,000 people, concluded that higher PQ leads to higher salary and greater success in the arenas of work, marriage, health, sociability, friendship, and creativity.

• Salespeople with higher PQ sell 37 percent more than their lower-PQ counterparts.

• Negotiators with higher PQ are more likely to gain concessions, close deals, and forge important future business relationships as part of the contracts they negotiate.

• Higher-PQ workers take fewer sick days and are less likely to become burned out or quit.

• Doctors who have shifted to a higher PQ make accurate diagnoses 19 percent faster.

• Students who have shifted to a higher PQ perform significantly better on math tests.

• Higher-PQ CEOs are more likely to lead happy teams who report their work climate to be conducive to high performance.

• Project teams with higher-PQ managers perform 31 percent better on average when other factors are held equal.

• Managers with higher PQ are more accurate and careful in making decisions, and they reduce the effort needed to get their work done.

• A comparison of sixty teams showed that a team’s PQ was the greatest predictor of its achievement.

• In the U.S. Navy, the squadrons led by higher-PQ commanders received far more annual prizes for efficiency and preparedness. Squadrons led by low-PQ commanders ranked lowest in performance.

Groundbreaking research in psychology and neuroscience upends the common assumption that we need to work hard so we can succeed so we can then be happy. In reality, increasing your PQ results in greater happiness and performance, leading to greater success. Success without happiness is possible with low PQ. But the only path to greater success with lasting happiness is through high PQ.

Besides impacting both performance and happiness, higher PQ can also literally impact your health and longevity:

• Research has shown that higher PQ results in enhanced immune system functioning, lower levels of stress-related hormones, lower blood pressure, less pain, fewer colds, better sleep, and a smaller likelihood of having hypertension, diabetes, or strokes.

• Catholic nuns whose personal journals in their early twenties showed higher PQ lived nearly ten years longer than the other nuns in their group. Higher PQ can literally help you live longer.

We could spend an entire book splicing and dicing research data on this topic. As a matter of fact, many excellent books already do. Several books by pioneering scientists Barbara Fredrickson, Martin Seligman, Shawn Achor, and Tal Ben-Shahar provide insightful analysis of the rigorous academic research in this field in recent years. In this book, I’ll focus on giving you specific tools to actually sharpen your Positive Intelligence and raise your PQ score in the midst of your busy work and life.

HOW POSITIVE INTELLIGENCE AND PQ WERE BORN

They say “necessity is the mother of all invention,” and that was definitely true in the birth of the Positive Intelligence framework. I originally developed this framework in an attempt to achieve both greater success and greater peace and happiness in my own life. All of the tools and techniques of Positive Intelligence were things that I tried out on myself first, long before realizing that countless others could benefit from them as well.

I had a tough childhood. I grew up in poverty—a sensitive kid in an abusive environment. Shortly after I was born, my father’s fledging grocery store went belly up and my father went into hiding to avoid his loan-shark creditors, who were hounding us every day. My family was so superstitious that they decided I had brought bad luck to my father’s business. Since it was too late to get rid of me, they decided to at least change my name. My family never again called me by my real name: Shirzad. That event proved to be an apt omen for most of my childhood experiences. Not having many of my physical or emotional needs met, I developed a protective cocoon of depression. Bitter resentment and anger, at myself and at the world, followed me well into my adult years.

I had high ambitions, and as I got older I realized that I needed to figure out a way to stop feeling miserable, angry, and anxious all the time so that I could focus on making something of myself. Initially, my search took me to a study of the inner workings of the mind. A summa cum laude degree in psychology and a year of PhD studies in neurobiology proved equally disappointing in providing answers. I stopped asking deeper questions at that point. I decided instead to find happiness in professional achievements, like so many others seemed to be doing.

I spent the next four years getting a master’s degree in electrical engineering at an Ivy League school and working as a systems engineer at a preeminent telecommunications research laboratory. I studied and worked hard and earned top honors, which I thought would bring happiness. It didn’t, so I decided an MBA would accelerate my progress.

The life-changing turning point that led to my eventual development of the Positive Intelligence framework came when I was sitting in a circle with eleven fellow students in a Stanford MBA class called Interpersonal Dynamics. Our guideline for this group interaction was to be fully authentic and reveal everything we were really feeling and thinking in the moment. At some point, one of my classmates turned to me with some trepidation and said that he had often felt judged by me and was bothered by that. I listened and thanked him politely for his helpful feedback, but in the back of my mind I was thinking, Well, of course you feel judged by me, you idiot! You are the biggest loser in this group. How else could I be thinking of you?

The group was about to move its attention away from me when another person turned to me and said something very similar. Again, I nodded and thanked her politely, while thinking that she was of course the second-biggest loser in the group. Then came a third and a fourth person, repeating the same thing. By now, I was beginning to feel uncomfortable and a little angry. But I was still discounting the feedback. After all, it was coming from a bunch of losers, I thought.

Then the person sitting immediately to my left, whom I admired greatly, got up in disgust and moved to the opposite side of the circle. It turns out that he had seen through my insincerity in acknowledging the feedback. He said he was so frustrated by my unwillingness to truly accept the feedback about my judgments that he couldn’t even bear to sit next to me anymore. He said that he too had felt judged by me, albeit positively. He was upset because he felt I placed him on a pedestal and could never see him for who he really was.

That passionate and honest expression of feelings finally broke through the protective shell of my inner “Judge.” In an instant I recognized that all my life I had seen everything through the lens of this Judge, categorized everything as good or bad, and placed everything in one box or the other. I instantly realized that this was a protective mechanism I began using during my childhood to make life seem more predictable and controllable. That day, sitting in a circle with eleven classmates, I discovered the hugely destructive power of this Judge “Saboteur” that had been hiding in my head-and that I had never even known existed.

That discovery changed everything. It revived my search for the mechanisms of the mind that lead to happiness or unhappiness, success or failure. What I eventually focused on were two related dynamics:

1. Our minds are our own worst enemies; the mind harbors characters that actively sabotage our happiness and success. These Saboteurs can easily be identified and weakened.

2. The “muscles” of the brain that give us access to our greatest wisdom and insights have remained weak from years of not being exercised. These brain muscles can easily be built up to give us much greater access to our deeper wisdom and untapped mental powers.

Exercises that focus on one or both of these dynamics can dramatically improve one’s PQ in a relatively short period of time. The result is dramatic improvement in performance and happiness, in both work and personal life.

PQ IN ACTION

I have been the chairman and CEO of the Coaches Training Institute (CTI). We are the largest coach-training organization in the world. We have trained thousands of coaches around the globe, leaders and managers in most of the Fortune 500 companies, and faculty at both Stanford and Yale business schools. I have personally coached hundreds of CEOs, often their executive teams, and sometimes their partners or families.

Many of the CEOs and senior executives whom I have coached over the years have been type-A personalities uninterested and/or uncomfortable with deep psychological exploration. Taking this into consideration, the Positive Intelligence tools and techniques were designed to generate results without needing to first develop in-depth psychological awareness. These techniques take a direct approach that literally builds new neural pathways in your brain, pathways that increase your Positive Intelligence. Greater insight automatically accompanies the building of these pathways, which equate to building new brain “muscles.”

This book is organized into six parts. Part I, which you are halfway through, provides a general overview of the PQ framework that continues in the next chapter. There are three different strategies for increasing PQ, discussed in turn in parts II, III, and IV. In part V, you will learn how PQ is measured for both individuals and teams so that you can keep track of your progress. Part VI discusses applications of PQ to many work and life challenges, including three in-depth case studies. At the end of each chapter, an Inquiry will prompt you to connect the dots between what you are reading and your own work and life.

Your potential is determined by many factors, including your cognitive intelligence (IQ), your emotional intelligence (EQ), and your skills, knowledge, experience, and social network. But it is your Positive Intelligence (PQ) that determines what percentage of your vast potential you actually achieve.

By raising my PQ, I have been able to convert the considerable difficulties and challenges of my own life into gifts and opportunities for greater success, happiness, and peace of mind. I wrote this book with the belief that you can absolutely learn to do the same.

Inquiry

If you could significantly improve one important thing, personally or professionally, as a result of reading this book, what would it be? Keep that goal in mind as you read this book.

(Continues…)

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