Workplace Intelligence

Soldiers can be seen as many things to include heroes, leaders, defenders, or even killers. What is not known is what it takes to be a soldier. There are internal aspects that have to come out otherwise known as intellect or intelligence. At times when I was a recruiter people would make comments such as soldiers are usually the less fortunate or those that cannot make it intellectually in college. That type of statement can often be far from the truth and intelligence is rather common among soldiers. However, what are the types of intelligence required to be a U.S. Army soldier? How are soldiers developed to be future leaders?

One way to analyze what type of intelligence that is needed to be a soldier would be to look at what the manual called ADRP 6-22 Army Leadership explains is required for leader’s intellect. ADRP 6-22 states that there are conceptual components affecting an Army leader’s intellect known as mental agility, sound judgment, innovation, interpersonal tact, and expertise (Department of the Army, 2012). Each one of these components has the same characteristics of either the Triarchic theory of intelligence or emotional intelligence. Mental agility in definition can be compared to creative intelligence. Mental agility and creative intelligence both take what is known by an individual and allows adaptation to deal with new situations through critical thinking. The process of mental agility (creative intelligence) is a process that could take many days to gather the facts and come up with solutions based on learning from previous experiences or split seconds to make a decision regarding a life threatening issue. Sound Judgment is defined by the Army as the capacity to assess situations shrewdly and to draw rational conclusions and innovation is the ability to introduce something new when needed or as opportunities exist (Department of the Army, 2012). Both sound judgment and innovation can be best compared to practical intelligence for the fact that both require finding the best answer from existing knowledge and the demands of the current environment of operation. Innovation can substitute complacency which produces accidents. Sound judgment can be significant in understanding and applying the suitable action based off know-how. Interpersonal and intrapersonal skills of emotional intelligence can be best compared to the next component otherwise known as interpersonal tact. Interpersonal tact is broken down into five parts which are recognized by the terms diversity, self-control, emotional factors, balance, and stability. When the five factors of interpersonal tact are looked at individually they represent the same factors that make up both interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, not only do these factors allow us