Saturday, July 20, 2019

How Bell Labs Creates Star Performers

It’s likely that IQ was determined to not be a factor because everyone employed by Bell Labs already had a baseline skill of raw intelligence. (Robert Kelley and Janet Caplan, “How Bell Labs Creates Star Performers,” Harvard Business Review, July–August 1993)

After we met with the experts in groups, they came to a consensus about the two categories—cognitive skills and work strategies—that influence high productivity. Since all Bell Labs engineers score at the top in IQ tests, cognitive abilities neither guarantee success nor differentiate stars from middle performers. However, the Bell engineers identified nine work strategies that do make a difference: taking initiative, networking, self-management, teamwork effectiveness, leadership, followership, perspective, show-and-tell, and organizational savvy (see the chart “An Expert Model for Engineers”).

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