The Four Intelligences of the Business Mind: How to Rewire Your Brain for Business Success

"The Four Intelligences of the Business Mind" explores an approach that bridges the gap between intuitive and analytical thinking, so you can achieve what Nazemoff calls "Transformational Intelligence."

This "whole brain" approach uses four interlinking types of intelligence: financial intelligence, customer intelligence, data intelligence, and mastermind intelligence.

Valeh Nazemoff is senior vice president of Acolyst, a technology and business consultancy company that counts Lockheed Martin, CACI International and various government agencies among its clients. She also coaches students in business skills at George Mason University, the University of Mary Washington, the University of Phoenix, and Marymount University.

Throughout "The Four Intelligences," she illustrates her theories with real-life scenarios drawn from her experience, which add interest and understanding.

The book gives detailed, step-by-step advice for developing the four business intelligences, finding your vision for the future, and then building a strategy to make it happen. It draws upon an interesting combination of ideas, ranging from studies of neuroeconomics and neuromarketing (a new one on us) to data reporting and analytics.

At various points, the author offers scientific explanations of how the brain processes information. But don't worry if biology wasn't your strong point at school. You don't really need to know, for example, which part of your brain processes visual information, in order to create good designs.

The book is aimed mainly at executives and business leaders, but Nazemoff emphasizes the benefits of creating a company culture where everyone uses transformational intelligence – not just the people at the top.

In fact, the whole book promotes an inclusive attitude toward business development. In the chapter on financial intelligence, for example, the author stresses that this is not just a matter for the chief financial officer. It's important for anyone affected by the organization's strategic goals, objectives, and initiatives. In short, everyone!

Nazemoff often emphasizes how improving communication and collaboration can benefit a business – especially when that leads to better links between different departments. She describes a sort of domino effect. For example, the marketing department might bring insights that IT hasn't considered, and this might trigger a different issue, which HR and legal need to address, and so on.

So, keep listening to find out how technology can transform your relationships with customers, how "reporter questions" can turn data into innovation, and how Mastermind Intelligence can move your organization from surviving to thriving.

The first of the four intelligences the book covers is Financial Intelligence. Nazemoff approaches this subject from the angle of emotional response. She focuses on trust, fear and reward. But love gets a mention, too.

What does love have to do with financial decisions? According to the author, it's all connected to brain chemistry and the formation of habits. When you feel a positive connection to something, it triggers the release of the "love hormone" oxytocin. This makes us feel good, and builds up a positive association, which encourages us to seek out that person or product again.

The opposite is true of fear-based reactions. When we're afraid, the brain releases chemical messengers that make us feel bad. Eventually, we learn to avoid whatever prompts those negative feelings, and, over time, our responses become automatic. When we act out of habit, we fail to analyze all the available information first. And this can lead to missed opportunities.

Nazemoff believes that the key to making good decisions is to train our "business minds" away from avoiding negative outcomes and to focus on rewards, instead. She explains that, because looking forward to a positive outcome, however distant, makes us feel good, it's intrinsically motivating, and clears the path for innovation. While avoiding something that feels bad has the opposite effect.

Of course, sometimes a habit can be beneficial – especially where your customers are concerned. The book explores this theme in its section on Customer Intelligence. Having explained how to identify your ideal customers, Nazemoff goes on to discuss how to attract them, engage with them emotionally, and earn their trust using interaction, for example through social media, forums, or trade shows.

She then builds upon this by exploring how you can use rewards to shape customers' habits, and bring them back again and again. Technology plays a large part in this strategy, and Nazemoff outlines principles for designing company websites and apps, and creating opportunities for customers to connect with friends and like-minded people through managed online communities.

Sticking with technology, she explains some of the ways that retail businesses can enhance their customers' experiences through their smartphones. In one example, she describes a scenario where GPS tracking is used to monitor when regular customers are near an outlet, and send them special offers customized to their own particular purchase history, to entice them into the store.

In another example, she describes the use of in-store cameras with facial-recognition software, which reads your mood and predicts your next move while shopping. For Nazemoff, behavior and predictive analytics are a key source of information for transforming relationships with customers and partners.

She goes on to describe how to use various other sources of data – both traditional and digital – to build up a picture of your customers' characteristics and preferences, so you can give them an even better service.

Interestingly, Nazemoff advises us to look at the customer relationship from both sides. Yes, we need to consider how our customers feel. But we should also make sure we're happy with the kinds of customers we have. Her rationale is that, if you don't find it rewarding to do business with a particular sort of client, you'd probably perform better doing business with somebody else.

The next "intelligence" covered in the book is Data Intelligence. In keeping with Nazemoff's inclusive philosophy, this is all about how information is shared and communicated.

We particularly like the section on data confusion. We get bombarded with so much information these days that it's often a struggle to separate the most important bits from the rest of the "noise." This is especially difficult when people cherry-pick statistics to prove a point. But even with the best of intentions, people can interpret the same information differently, leading to disagreements, confusion and conflict.

"Data Intelligence" is the author's way of getting everyone in your organization to interpret information in a unified way, so that misunderstandings can be avoided.

Nazemoff explains how planning for data intelligence starts with the "Nine Cs:" collaborating, consolidating, communicating, collecting, connecting, coordinating, changing, conversing, and converting. She combines these with the six "reporter questions": why, who, what, when, where, and how.

For example, when looking at your business data, consider the following:

• Why is there a need to collaborate and consolidate the data?
• Who needs to communicate with the data?
• What data do I need to collect?
• When do I need to connect and coordinate efforts about the data?
• Where do I need to make changes about the data?
• How do I converse about the data and convert to new ways of interacting with it?

This illustrates Nazemoff's principle of combining analytical and intuitive thinking styles. The why, who, what, when, and where questions allow you to hold a magnifying glass up to your organization to identify the changes required. And the how questions create space for creativity, innovation and inspiration.

This is where the next business intelligence comes into play. "Mastermind Intelligence" is an approach that harnesses the best innovations and ideas your people have to offer. It's based on the concept of brainstorming, but with an emphasis on seeking out contributions from all corners of the organization.

Implemented successfully, Mastermind Intelligence creates a pipeline of fresh ideas that will help keep your business ahead of the competition.

Nazemoff believes that Mastermind Intelligence can transform your business like nothing else. She explains that executives often feel uncomfortable sharing creative ideas, because they worry that others will think them ungrounded, or out of touch with the present corporate culture.

Mastermind Intelligence builds a culture of non-judgmental honesty, respect and acceptance, which makes it easier to be inventive. It also fosters a greater sense of ownership across the organization, which can improve the products and services you offer, and create more satisfaction for the people who provide them.

The author recommends implementing Mastermind Intelligence in small, weekly group meetings, and in larger, annual or semi-annual business-wide sessions, where people from all levels and departments are represented.

To be successful, it's important to get the conditions right. Done correctly, mastermind sessions can open minds. But, without the right mix of free-form thinking and structure, they can be a frustrating waste of time.

To encourage people to participate, Nazemoff recommends a pre-meeting warm-up to give everyone a chance to get comfortable with their present companions and surroundings. She suggests starting with a topic that's non-confrontational, such as songs about the weather. Ask people to shout out (or even sing) suggestions. She also recommends giving people a chance to prepare for the session by bringing a few "big ideas" with them.

The main thing is to stay open to unconventional thoughts, as these could lead to the greatest innovations. Self-censorship and insecurity are the biggest barriers to creativity. To foster the right sort of environment, the author shares some advice from corporate coach Cary Bayer.

Bayer encourages the participants at his mastermind sessions to check their skepticism at the door, so they can enter the room without their old and familiar ways of thinking. This allows everyone to contribute freely.

Start the session by generating as many ideas as possible – as wild and off-the-wall as you like. Often, ideas will come in fits and starts, as one idea inspires a host of others, then starts to fizzle out. Be patient here. It won't be long before a fresh line of thought emerges.

Don't evaluate at this stage, but look out for ideas that attract a following around the room. These are often the ones that sprout "legs."

By the end of the session, you should have plenty of ideas to work with, but you're not done yet. The next step is to assemble a small group, or committee, to brainstorm ways to implement the best ideas.

Nazemoff reminds us that the end goal of Mastermind Intelligence isn't just the strategy that your team comes up with. It's the creation of a company culture that actively encourages innovation all the time. That's what makes the difference between a company that survives and one that positively thrives.

The final chapter shows you how to make your plans a reality by developing a strategy map using tools such as SWOT analysis, key performance indicators, and service level agreements.

Although this chapter's short, there's a lot of content here, and it left us feeling a little overwhelmed. As usual, Nazemoff provides examples and scenarios to help us. But we can't help thinking it might have been more useful to apply all four business intelligences to one, single, case study. That way, we could have seen the process in action from start to finish.

In fact, we felt the examples used in the book sometimes range a little too far and wide. The discussion on gender differences in reward-seeking behaviors, for example, seems a little out of place. At one point, the author compares alpha males, who she describes as distrusting and uncompassionate, with engaging and collaborative females. This raises an interesting argument in favor of increasing the number of women in leadership roles, but it's also based on sweeping generalizations, that some readers might take issue with.

However, this doesn't detract from the usefulness of this book. "The Four Intelligences of the Business Mind" is a slim volume, but it's packed with great ideas and information.

Nazemoff's positive outlook and enthusiasm for strategies that seek out "win-win" solutions for everyone, present a brave new world of business that we would like to see more of.

Her dedication at the start of the book says it all. In her words, "The most successful actions are rooted in positive intention, proactive initiation, inspiring innovation, and improvement of self and others. Let's impact the world together!"

So, if you want to find the love in economics, improve your "business mind," and transform your company into a thriving business, we recommend you take a look at this book.

"The Four Intelligences of the Business Mind: How to Rewire Your Brain for Business Success," by Valeh Nazemoff, is published by CA Press.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.