Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine

Your mind is your best friend but it can also be your worst enemy. “High Positive Intelligence means your mind acts as your friend far more that your enemy. Low Positive Intelligence is the reverse.” Positive Intelligence is an indications of the control you have over your own mind. Your level of Positive Intelligence determines how much of your true potential you actually achieve.

PQ stands for Positive Intelligence Quotient. Ranging from 0 to 100, it identifies the percentage of time your mind is your friend. A PQ score of 75 is usually a critical tipping point. Above it you are generally uplifted by the internal dynamics of your mind while below it you are generally being dragged down by those dynamics.

Eighty percent of people and teams score below this critical point. That means 80 percent of people and teams fall short of achieving their potential for success and happiness.

Shirzad has focused on giving specific tools to sharpen your Positive Intelligence and raise your PQ score. He developed these techniques to build new neural pathways in your brain, strengthening your brain “muscles.”

He has divided the book into six parts. After a general overview, the next three parts are three different strategies for increasing your PQ, weakening your Saboteurs, strengthening your Sage, and strengthening your brain muscles. These strategies take ten seconds or less.

The next part is on measuring your PQ, measuring your progress, how the scores relate to happiness and performance, and why the tipping point is where it is.

The last part of the book reveals the many applications of the three PQ strategies, using actual case studies.

Shirzad writes that he has “attempted in this book to show that increasing your Positive Intelligence is the most efficient and sustainable way to increase both your effectiveness and your happiness, and that the same holds true for any team you might belong to.” Practice is the key, he reminds us.

He includes an informative Appendix for those interested in the physiological aspects of the brain and its functions.

I think this book has great potential. His strategies remind me a bit of mindfulness as we become aware of what our brain is doing as it hinders or helps us. I found the strategies to be simple and done easily in ten seconds. As with most book on increasing your productivity and happiness, the strategy just needs to be followed.

Find out more, take an assessment, and watch Shirzad at Stanford, go to http://positiveintelligence.com/

Greenleaf Book Group, 224 pages.

I received an egalley of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review.