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Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential AND HOW YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOURS Kindle Edition

4.6 out of 5 stars 2,199

New York Times Bestseller!   In his popular Stanford University lectures, Shirzad Chamine reveals how to achieve one's true potential for both professional success and personal fulfillment. His groundbreaking research exposes ten well-disguised mental Saboteurs. Nearly 95 percent of the executives in his Stanford lectures conclude that these Saboteurs cause "significant harm" to achieving their full potential. With Positive Intelligence, you can learn the secret to defeating these internal foes.

Positive Intelligence (PQ) measures the percentage of time your mind is serving you as opposed to sabotaging you. While your IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence) contribute to your maximum potential, it is your PQ that determines how much of that potential you actually achieve.

The great news is that you can improve your PQ significantly in as little as 21 days. With higher PQ, teams and professionals ranging from leaders to salespeople perform 30-35 percent better on average. Importantly, they also report being far happier and less stressed.

The breakthrough tools and techniques in this book have been refined over years of coaching hundreds of CEOs and their executive teams. Shirzad tells many of their remarkable stories, showing you how you too can take concrete steps to unleash the vast, untapped powers of your mind.

DISCOVER HOW TO:

* Identify and conquer your top mental Saboteurs. Common Saboteurs include the Judge, Controller, Victim, Avoider, and Pleaser.
* Measure the Positive Intelligence score (PQ) for yourself or your team--see how close you come to the critical tipping point required for peak performance.
* Increase PQ dramatically in as little as 21 days.
* Develop new brain "muscles," and access 5 untapped powers with energizing mental "power games."
* Apply PQ tools and techniques to increase both performance and fulfillment. Applications include team building, mastering workload, working with "difficult" people, improving work/life balance, reducing stress, and selling and persuading.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

New York Times bestselling author Shirzad Chamine is Chairman of CTI, the largest coach-training organization in the world. CTI has trained coaches and managers in most of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as faculty at Stanford and Yale business schools. A preeminent C-suite advisor, Shirzad has coached hundreds of CEOs and their executive teams. Prior to running CTI, he was the CEO of an enterprise software company. His background includes PhD studies in neuroscience in addition to a BA in psychology, an MS in electrical engineering, and an MBA from Stanford, where he lectures.
Popular Highlights in this book

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Positive Intelligence can change your life and transform your business. A real game-changer.”
—James D. White, Chairman and CEO, Jamba Juice

“Positive Intelligence ranks in the top three most influential business books I have ever read. If I could give only one book to the thousands of team members in my organization to enhance their performance, it would be this book.”
—Lisa Stevens, Region President, Wells Fargo Bank

“I’ve worked closely with Shirzad and experienced him walking the PQ walk. Most change initiatives fizzle because of our mental “Saboteurs.” Shirzad gives us the tools to conquer them and create positive change that lasts. This is a must-read for any individual or team serious about unleashing peak performance.”
---Dean Morton, former COO, Hewlett-Packard (HP)

“Shirzad delivers a simple, doable, groundbreaking set of exercises that can help you develop your ‘performance’ muscles, increase your PQ score, and gain access to previously untapped mental resources. Working out was never so rewarding or so much fun! So if you’re ready to get even better, get this book—today.”
—Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times bestselling author, Mojo and What Got You Here Won't Get You There

“Developing a personal leadership model is one of the most practical, energy-saving, and stress-reducing things that anyone can do for themselves. Leaders at every level can use the PQ approach to get, and stay, on a more ‘winning’ trajectory. This is such a usable, lively, and compelling book.”
—Douglas R. Conant, former CEO, Campbell Soup Company, and New York Times bestselling author

“ I have worked with Shirzad personally and seen him work with many other Presidents and CEOs. His impact is often game-changing for a team and life-changing for the individuals. Positive Intelligence is a must-have for anyone who leads or coaches a team.”
—Jed York, President and CEO, San Francisco 49ers

“The PQ model provides a solid basis for bringing meaning and significant change to one's life. If you want to create major positive change in yourself, your team, or loved ones, read this book.”
—Crittenden E. Brookes, MD, PhD, Stanford University, and Distinguished Life Fellow, American Psychiatric Association

"Working with Shirzad has had a profound impact on me. The tools and techniques to raise PQ are simple, concrete and pragmatic, yet incredibly effective. They help me remain focused on what truly matters and grounded amidst the swirl of daily life. This book is a gift. Make sure you share it.
--Jim Lanzone, President, CBS Interactive (CBS Corporation)

About the Author

Shirzad Chamine is chairman of CTI, the largest coach-training organization in the world. A preeminent C-suite advisor, Shirzad has coached hundreds of CEOs and their executive teams; prior to running CTI, he was the CEO of an enterprise software company. Chamine holds a PhD neuroscience, to a BA in psychology, an MS in electrical engineering, and an MBA from Stanford.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B007R0IQ70
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Greenleaf Book Group Press (April 2, 2012)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 2, 2012
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1524 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 241 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 2,199

About the author

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Shirzad Chamine
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Shirzad Chamine is Chairman Emeritus and former CEO of the largest coach-training organization in the world, having trained coaches and managers in most of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as faculty at Stanford and Yale business schools. A preeminent C-suite advisor, Shirzad has coached hundreds of CEOs and their executive teams. Prior to running CTI, he was the CEO of an enterprise software company. His background includes PhD studies in neuroscience in addition to a BA in psychology, an MS in electrical engineering, and an MBA from Stanford.

Shirzad lectures at Stanford on Positive Intelligence and has also been a visiting professor at the University of San Francisco. He has been speaker at the Commonwealth Club and a regional board member for Young President's Organization. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children.

Find Shirzad's blogs, keynotes, and free assessments of your Saboteurs and your Positive Intelligence score (PQ) at www.PositiveIntelligence.com.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
2,199 global ratings
It helped me be a better wife, mom, and leader.  I'm less stressed and more productive.
5 Stars
It helped me be a better wife, mom, and leader. I'm less stressed and more productive.
I highly recommend Positive Intelligence (book and 6-week program). Here’s why…I hold a Master's in Mental Health Counseling and am an ICF Certified Coach. I’ve lost count of the number of programs, approaches, books, workshops, etc. that I’ve experienced…and I can honestly say Shirzad’s Positive Intelligence (PQ) model is the simplest yet most powerful approach to personal and professional development. The reason is that he gets to the root cause through factor analysis (factor analysis is a technique that is used to reduce a large number of variables into fewer numbers of factors). For example, all colors are created from the three primary colors, right. So Shirzad has used top learnings and discoveries from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, positive psychology, and performance science to synthesize the essence of our core operating system (only 10 factors are responsible for our self-sabotage and 5 core powers that create peak performance and happiness). Think of our brain as the hardware and Positive Intelligence is an upgrade to our operating system – so that every application we run works better.You may have heard this before:An old Cherokee Indian chief was teaching his grandson about life.He said, "A fight is going on inside me," he told the young boy, "a fight between two wolves.The Dark one is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The Light Wolf is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you grandson…and inside of every other person on the face of this earth.”The grandson ponders this for a moment and then asked, "Grandfather, which wolf will win?"The old Cherokee smiled and simply said, "The one you feed".This is a great example of the two areas of the brain Shirzad focuses on the Sage area (light wolf) and the Saboteur area (dark wolf). We all have both “wolves” in our brains because we all essentially have the same “hardware” in the brain. What Positive Intelligence does is train our brain to “feed” the light wolf, while recognizing that while we can’t eliminate the dark wolf, we can learn to work with it differently.The way we “feed” the Sage in our brain is by intercepting the saboteurs, building up our self-command muscle, and use one of the 5 core sage powers.My favorite part is that we can change our brain in just short 2-minute practices called PQ reps (sort of like mini-mindful moments based on using one of our senses). I do PQ reps while driving, in meetings, before big presentations, with my kids, anytime! For a technical explanation, the PQ rep is activating our parasympathetic nervous system (the rest and digest system) while calming our sympathetic nervous system (the fight and flight system). This balancing of the nervous system promotes greater health, improved immune functions, feelings of relaxation, clearer focus, just to name a few.In short, this book changed my life by calming my saboteurs and activating my sage. It closed the gap between my knowing what I need to do to actually doing it.
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2021
I highly recommend Positive Intelligence (book and 6-week program). Here’s why…

I hold a Master's in Mental Health Counseling and am an ICF Certified Coach. I’ve lost count of the number of programs, approaches, books, workshops, etc. that I’ve experienced…and I can honestly say Shirzad’s Positive Intelligence (PQ) model is the simplest yet most powerful approach to personal and professional development. The reason is that he gets to the root cause through factor analysis (factor analysis is a technique that is used to reduce a large number of variables into fewer numbers of factors). For example, all colors are created from the three primary colors, right. So Shirzad has used top learnings and discoveries from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, positive psychology, and performance science to synthesize the essence of our core operating system (only 10 factors are responsible for our self-sabotage and 5 core powers that create peak performance and happiness). Think of our brain as the hardware and Positive Intelligence is an upgrade to our operating system – so that every application we run works better.

You may have heard this before:
An old Cherokee Indian chief was teaching his grandson about life.
He said, "A fight is going on inside me," he told the young boy, "a fight between two wolves.
The Dark one is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The Light Wolf is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you grandson…and inside of every other person on the face of this earth.”

The grandson ponders this for a moment and then asked, "Grandfather, which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee smiled and simply said, "The one you feed".

This is a great example of the two areas of the brain Shirzad focuses on the Sage area (light wolf) and the Saboteur area (dark wolf). We all have both “wolves” in our brains because we all essentially have the same “hardware” in the brain. What Positive Intelligence does is train our brain to “feed” the light wolf, while recognizing that while we can’t eliminate the dark wolf, we can learn to work with it differently.

The way we “feed” the Sage in our brain is by intercepting the saboteurs, building up our self-command muscle, and use one of the 5 core sage powers.

My favorite part is that we can change our brain in just short 2-minute practices called PQ reps (sort of like mini-mindful moments based on using one of our senses). I do PQ reps while driving, in meetings, before big presentations, with my kids, anytime! For a technical explanation, the PQ rep is activating our parasympathetic nervous system (the rest and digest system) while calming our sympathetic nervous system (the fight and flight system). This balancing of the nervous system promotes greater health, improved immune functions, feelings of relaxation, clearer focus, just to name a few.

In short, this book changed my life by calming my saboteurs and activating my sage. It closed the gap between my knowing what I need to do to actually doing it.
Customer image
5.0 out of 5 stars It helped me be a better wife, mom, and leader. I'm less stressed and more productive.
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2021
I highly recommend Positive Intelligence (book and 6-week program). Here’s why…

I hold a Master's in Mental Health Counseling and am an ICF Certified Coach. I’ve lost count of the number of programs, approaches, books, workshops, etc. that I’ve experienced…and I can honestly say Shirzad’s Positive Intelligence (PQ) model is the simplest yet most powerful approach to personal and professional development. The reason is that he gets to the root cause through factor analysis (factor analysis is a technique that is used to reduce a large number of variables into fewer numbers of factors). For example, all colors are created from the three primary colors, right. So Shirzad has used top learnings and discoveries from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, positive psychology, and performance science to synthesize the essence of our core operating system (only 10 factors are responsible for our self-sabotage and 5 core powers that create peak performance and happiness). Think of our brain as the hardware and Positive Intelligence is an upgrade to our operating system – so that every application we run works better.

You may have heard this before:
An old Cherokee Indian chief was teaching his grandson about life.
He said, "A fight is going on inside me," he told the young boy, "a fight between two wolves.
The Dark one is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued, "The Light Wolf is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you grandson…and inside of every other person on the face of this earth.”

The grandson ponders this for a moment and then asked, "Grandfather, which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee smiled and simply said, "The one you feed".

This is a great example of the two areas of the brain Shirzad focuses on the Sage area (light wolf) and the Saboteur area (dark wolf). We all have both “wolves” in our brains because we all essentially have the same “hardware” in the brain. What Positive Intelligence does is train our brain to “feed” the light wolf, while recognizing that while we can’t eliminate the dark wolf, we can learn to work with it differently.

The way we “feed” the Sage in our brain is by intercepting the saboteurs, building up our self-command muscle, and use one of the 5 core sage powers.

My favorite part is that we can change our brain in just short 2-minute practices called PQ reps (sort of like mini-mindful moments based on using one of our senses). I do PQ reps while driving, in meetings, before big presentations, with my kids, anytime! For a technical explanation, the PQ rep is activating our parasympathetic nervous system (the rest and digest system) while calming our sympathetic nervous system (the fight and flight system). This balancing of the nervous system promotes greater health, improved immune functions, feelings of relaxation, clearer focus, just to name a few.

In short, this book changed my life by calming my saboteurs and activating my sage. It closed the gap between my knowing what I need to do to actually doing it.
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66 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2023
This book provides a wake up call to anyone suffering from thinking in ways that are harmful to the wiser self. The author exposes the childhood survivor thoughts and actions that are in control of our thinking. Those thinking mechanisms have controlled us all our lives and thrive in the negative. The adult thinking part of our brain that can guide us wisely, is weakened from non use. The evidence is in plain view. What is holding us back ? Our thoughts and the actions that move us to social ineptitude, once exposed, can be weakened and the wise person in us can grow stronger. That part of us, long suppressed by strong survivor control thought processes, can then guide us to become the fullness of who that suppressed wise person is capable of being. The premise: expose and weaken the survivor and strengthen our better, wiser selves. How is that done?

This book is one of the best investments I have made towards a healthier mental outlook. There are some fun exercises and it’s all so easy. Nothing is free in life. To benefit from the knowledge contained within the covers of the book, one must do the work! Being honest with myself I realize I have a long way to go, but at the same time, if I never knew about these residual strongholds born out of childhood coping, I would not have had the same chance of boosting my mental health.

Some readers will resonate and embrace, even a little effort helps; others will be held back by an unwillingness to know the truth.

It’s ok. There is a time to every season. Once you know, you know.
5 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2024
I am grateful for Shirzad for bringing this book to life. Finally I figured out why all the life coachings, books and workshops I have taken haven’t been effective because I have not learned to recognize my judge and saboteurs until now. His teachings have had such a profound effect on me. Now I am learning the tools to have positive and loving relationships in every aspect of my life!

Top reviews from other countries

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Jorge
5.0 out of 5 stars Artículo exacto al ofrecido
Reviewed in Mexico on October 25, 2023
La fecha de entrega de acuerdo a lo comprometido
M. S. Jessa
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a game changer for executive development based on science
Reviewed in Canada on February 6, 2023
Powerful science-based leadership development skills that can change the game in business
Cliente Kindle
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente
Reviewed in Brazil on April 15, 2022
Livro fundamental para quem quer conhecer mais de si próprio. Através dos casos narrados pelo autor podemos refletir sobre nossas experiências e contextos atuais e com suas técnicas mantermos a maior parte do tempo nossos pensamentos e ações no campo positivo. Considero também muito útil para auxiliar na criação dos filhos.
Bernhard Eggerbauer
5.0 out of 5 stars Life Change
Reviewed in Germany on February 25, 2024
Thank you so much for PQ! More is not to say, read this book an make PQ reps an happiness is the outcome.
Sara Baxter
5.0 out of 5 stars an absolute life saver for anyone especially those with anxiety
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 30, 2023
I loved everything about this book. The writing style is very readable. The concepts are clearly and easily explained.

Shirzad is not out to sell you anything you get the feeling he really wants to make the world better one person at a time.

The are links to the online tests which are eye opening but he doesn’t leave you hanging or having to do his course- all you need to implement change is there.

After two weeks utilising his method I am feeling a difference
3 people found this helpful
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