This week we are interviewing a true practitioner in the area of emotional, spiritual and enhanced mental intelligence.  Irene Becker is a Canadian-based professional coach and one of ten top Canadian business women and professionals chosen by the Federal Development Bank of Canada to setup the first mentorship program for businesswomen in the country.  She was personally selected by Mark Victor Hanson as one of his first one hundred millionaire eagles.  Irene is also a Financial planning consultant, workshop facilitator and speaker for Investors Group Financial Services of Canada. 

Welcome to the Blitz Blog, Irene.

 
Todd:  As the expert on the 3Q Edge(TM), would you give us a little insight into the three Q's? 

Irene:  You start by knowing and appreciating your strengths.  Then, you build your knowledge for using stressors and challenges to build the Q power that can help you survive and thrive.  Your stressors and challenges can be physical, psychological, familial, financial, spiritual, social, academic or clinical training.  Each of us deals with these in our own unique way.  They are not always negative or problematic.  They can be a motivator toward change and growth or a cause of impairment.

The 3 Q's are three quotients/strengths that are critical to success in this increasingly volatile world, workplace and marketplace.  They help you understand how you are handling your challenges and how you can improve it.

IQ refers to the Enhanced Mind and is also called the Power IQ.  Mastery of this element brings enhanced action-ability, creativity, and focus. A high IQ is marked by the development of integrative reasoning that allows you to see more, see differently and see further.  You develop stronger whole brain thinking and an improved ability to live, communicate and lead to purpose.

EQ is the enhanced emotional intelligence quotient.  This refers to your ability to understand your emotions and understand the emotions of others so that you can inspire, engage and lead the best in yourself and others. 

SQ is your Power Within factor.  It relates to how well you are aligned your values.  You might think of it as a focus on the greater good and an understanding of the reality of an interdependent world where the formula for success is timeless and means creating value for others while respecting the spiritual or values driven universal laws that sustain our best selves and best lives.

Todd:  With such difficult times in our current economy, why is the 3Q Edge important?

Irene:  The 3Q Edge is not important, it is critical.  What has worked in the past may be largely irrelevant tomorrow.  The 3Q Edge is learning to survive and thrive, to develop the human, personal and business leadership strengths that drive success.  Survival and prosperity today demands Q power; that is, the ability to use our strengths and challenges to build and sustain the 3Q Edge.

Todd:  There's been a lot of talk for years on Emotional Intelligence.  What makes the other two Qs so critical?

Irene:  Challenge moves at the speed of life. Leadership runs at the speed of change.  Your survival and sustainability in the face of increasing volatility makes these other two Qs critical.  Without them, you can’t build, evolve and grow into our best selves, best work and best organizations.  In short, we cannot live our best lives.

Emotional Intelligence is recognized as the key success factor in business and life, however in order to sustain high EQ, we also need to develop enhanced IQ-the intelligence factors that can help us optimize our human brain power and also further use this brain power to work with others collaboratively to develop and executive powerful solutions.  SQ or values/spiritual alignment is, to me, one of the least talked about powers we have.  It remains the litmus test of whether an organization survives.  What does not create value for others, what does not serve the greater good is ultimately destined to failure.  Developing the ability to tap into our higher selves, combined with the ability to think and act in a way that builds greater SQ, is elemental to human and economic survival.

Todd:  For those who don't know much about the 3Qs, can the Qs be measured and fixed quickly?

Irene:  The first step is awareness and desire.  Awareness is the understanding and acceptance that  building your Q's can change your life and your career.  Desire is the cognitive prime mover to build your 3Q power.  Awareness is where you are now.  Tapping into the 3Qs is igniting the desire to go where YOU want to go.  It is empowerment. It is challenging.  It is highly motivating!  I have developed three modules that will take you to greater level of success.  They were developed around your Career, Life and Leadership Transition.  The fuel that drives all three programs is the development of the 3Q strengths.

There are excellent metrics for testing EQ.  I use Essi Systems EQ map, as it aligns very well with my coaching model and is one of the best EQ metrics available.  Measuring IQ and SQ is possible but my experience suggests it is far better to determine if we are optimizing our intelligence and capacity to live in alignment with our values; thereby, building greater SQ.  Now, you can try to measure these for yourself, but integrating them into a strategy that will unleash the Power of the 3Qs is best left to those who have mastered the art.

Thanks for sharing your time with us, Irene.  Irene can be reached at www.justcoachit.com.