Leadership means allowing yourself the privilege to serve others, he says
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Growing up, Mastercard chairman Ajay Banga learned that a person’s intelligence quotient, or IQ, was a key to their success.
As he entered the business environment, ascending at multinational corporations including Nestlé, PepsiCo and Citigroup, other elements essential to leadership became more clearly defined, Banga told Dean Bill Boulding of Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business as part of the school’s Distinguished Speakers Series.
Banga and Boulding both believe that great leaders possess a combination of IQ, EQ and DQ.
IQ, of course, means intelligence quotient. Leaders have to be smart. EQ stands for emotional quotient, the ability to understand others’ emotional states and to validate them. And DQ stands for decency quotient, or the disposition of a person to make ethical decisions, Banga explained.
When you bring your decency quotient to work, “people will follow you to the ends of the earth because you’re worth following, because you have your hand on their back and not in their face,” Banga said. “You will give them a level playing field, and then allow them to run to win.” (see video clip)
[This article has been reproduced with permission from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. This piece originally appeared on Duke Fuqua Insights]