Question 3.2

3.2 Being a human being means coming with some level of intelligence. Some, more than others, possess more levels of intelligence. Gardner (1983) identifies the levels of intelligence as thus:

 

• Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

This is the ability to calculate, quantify, analyse, and carry out complete mathematical problems. These types of people enjoy thinking about abstract ideas, conducting scientific experiments and working with complex computations. In the context of business, this level of intelligence is very important because there are situations that need you to use your reasoning capacity. Even in seeking out opportunities, one needs to analyses the environment and consider what steps to take to make that opportunity profitable.

 

• Interpersonal Intelligence

Interpersonal intelligence is the ‘’ability to understand and interact effectively with others.’’ Leaders with this level of intelligence are usually good at communicating and they possess the ability to see things from different perspectives and are always willing to create positive, lucrative relationships with others. Besides the ‘’bottom-line’’, what drives business is the relationships that one has. Now for the leader to form relationships that will be beneficial to him/her to the business, the interpersonal intelligence will have to be utilised in this point of time. As mentioned before, this would mean seeing things from the perspective of those people you are trying to form relationships with and applying empathy toward others.

 

• Linguistic Intelligence

Linguistic intelligence is the ability to ‘’think in words and to use language to express and appreciate complex meanings. Linguistic intelligence allows us to understand the order and meaning of words and to apply meta-linguistic skills to reflect on our use of language.’’ These people or leaders are very good in terms of their construction of words, they enjoy reading and writing and they are good at explaining things. In the business context, this is a very significant level of intelligence to have because there will be instances where other people present complicated information using jargon from all sorts of fields, so this intelligence comes into play when the leader deciphers the meaning and is able to explain whatever is said perfectly to the next person who is in the does not understand.

 

• Spatial Intelligence

Spatial intelligence is the ability to think in three dimensions. This includes mental imagery, spatial reasoning, image manipulation, graphic and artistic skills an active imagination. These people are good at solving puzzles, are good with directions on the map, enjoy drawing and painting and recognise patterns easily. In the context of business, it is important to think in more than one dimension. Generate more ways to solve a particular problem and imagine solutions that are unconventional and creative.