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Feeling Less

 Interesting article on IQ and the difference between the self-assessment of it by gender.

After statistically controlling for the effects of actual measured IQ, we next examined the strongest predictors of self-estimated intelligence. The results showed biological sex remained the strongest factor: males rated their intelligence as higher than females. However, psychological gender was also a very strong predictor, with highly masculine subjects rating their intelligence higher (importantly, there was no association with femininity).

There was also a strong contribution of general self-esteem to participants’ intellectual self-image. As noted above, males report higher self-esteem than females.

In the workplace women with high self-esteem often come across as abrasive. Have seen this time and again throughout my career. Successful women are able to wrap that into something less challenging to others through their EQ. So they would hold strong opinions, have clarity in vision and ability to execute without appearing to be being the smartest person in the room - which they might very well by and by wide margin.

Two of my female clients come to mind as I write this. Both are C-level and in large global companies and very good at what they do. I cannot imagine either L or E coming across as if they were the smartest person in the room - its just not their style. They are very good at delegation and trust others to do their jobs well. That and being able to get the most value from their teams is their key to success. I am also pretty sure they would both underestimate their IQs.

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