At the bookstore, waiting for a friend, I picked up Mark Sanborn’s book, You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader. “No, you don’t,” I said to myself smiling, as I thought about my Quotidian Leadership workshop. I liked the ideas in Sanborn’s book, and was familiar with his style, having read his “Fred book” before. In any case, I tried to think of how the six leadership principles that Sanborn discusses fit into the LSmarts 5-intelligences framework. (They say when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, but hey, on the flip side, isn’t is also true that when you want to put in a nail, everything looks like a hammer.)

Sanborn’s list includes 6 principles:

(i) Know yourself: good leaders understand their strengths and weaknesses first

(ii) Focus: excellent leadership has a laser-like focus on its goals

(iii) People: leadership must motivate people

(iv) Communication: good leaders use channels of communication that they keep open

(v) Execution: how leaders make the rubber meet the road, and

(vi) Giving: excellent leaders put others above self

Let’s see the 5 leadership intelligences from the LSmarts framework: Analytical, Inventive, Operational, Communicative, and Ethical LSmarts.

Clearly “Know Yourself” comes under the Analytical LSmarts, but so does “Focus” because Analytical LSmarts reflect an ability to monitor performance. “People” and “Communication” very obviously are powered by Communicative LSmarts, “Execution” relies on Operational LSmarts, and “Giving” is governed by Ethical LSmarts. What about Inventive LSmarts–the source of visionary leadership? Missing in Sanborn’s framework? Hmm… interesting.