There is IQ and then EQ and now
there is MQ
to allow you to be successful at work!

The mental state that gives rise to great performance – this mental state is called ‘Flow’
Flow sounds great in theory, but few leaders have mastered the skill of generating it reliably in the workplace. An easy first step is to consider what creates flow in your own work situation

IQ in work Includes elements such as role clarity, a clear understanding of objectives, and access to the knowledge and resources needed to get the job done.
These are what one might term rational elements of a flow experience or, to use a convenient shorthand, its intellectual quotient (IQ).
When the IQ of a work environment is low, the energy employees bring to the workplace is misdirected and often conflicting.

The quality of the interactions among those involved. a baseline of trust and respect, constructive conflict, a sense of humor, a general feeling that “we’re in this together,” and the corresponding ability to collaborate effectively.
These create an emotionally safe environment to pursue challenging goals or, , an environment with a high emotional quotient (EQ).
When the EQ of a workplace is lacking, employee energy reduces - in the form of office politics, ego management, and passive-aggressive avoidance of tough issues.

While IQ and EQ are absolutely necessary to create the conditions for ‘flow’ to achieve peak performance, they are far from sufficient.
MQ however, describes the peak-performance experience; excitement; a challenge; and something that the individual feels matters, will make a difference, and hasn’t been done before.
MQ is described as the ‘meaning quotient’ of work.

The opportunity cost of the missing meaning is enormous.

Working in a high-IQ, high-EQ, and high-MQ environment you five times more productive at your peak than on average.

The obstruction to peak performance, more than 90 percent are MQ-related issues.
Much of the IQ tool kit is readily observable and central to what’s taught. The EQ tool kit, while “softer,” is now relatively well understood.
The MQ tool kit is different.

Find the missing MQ ingredients so they can improve your motivation and workforce productivity.
The three examples described here are the most often overlooked but also the most powerful.

A turnaround or a good-to-great story will strike a motivational chord with only 20 percent of the workforce.

The way to unleash MQ-related organizational energy is to tell all five stories at once.

A recent cost-reduction program at a large US financial-services company began with a rational-change story focused on the facts: expenses were growing faster than revenues. Three months into the program, it was clear that employee resistance was stymieing progress. The management team therefore worked together to recast the story to include elements related to society (more affordable housing), customers (increased simplicity and flexibility, fewer errors, more competitive prices), working teams (less duplication, more delegation, increased accountability, a faster pace), and individuals (bigger and more attractive jobs, a once-in-a-career opportunity to build turnaround skills, a great opportunity to “make your own” institution). The program was still what it was—a cost-reduction program—but the reasons it mattered were cast in far more meaningful terms.
Within a month, the share of employees reporting that they were motivated to drive the change program forward jumped to 57 percent, from 35 percent, according to the company’s employee-morale pulse surveys. The program went on to exceed initial expectations, raising efficiency by 10 percent in the first year.

The first ingredient or strategy gives specific and practical guidance about how to tell the story. Yet the best meaning makers spend more time asking than telling.
Why?
A truth about human nature: when we choose for ourselves, we are far more committed to the outcome—by a factor of at least five to one.
In business, of course, leaders can’t just let everyone decide their own direction. But they can still apply the lessons of the lottery-ticket experiment.

Leaders who need to give themselves or their employees more of a sense of direction can still leverage the lottery-ticket insight by augmenting their telling of the story with asking about the story.

(1) how do you make a difference? (testing for alignment with the company’s direction);
(2) what improvement idea are you working on? (emphasizing continuous improvement);
(3) when did you last get coaching from your manager? (emphasizing the importance of people development);
(4) who is the enemy? (emphasizing the importance to directing the staff’s energy toward the external threat).
The motivational effect of this approach has been widely noted to work for employees.

Of the three Qs that characterize a workplace likely to generate flow and inspire peak performance, we frequently hear from leaders that MQ is the hardest to get right.
Given the size of the prize for injecting meaning into peoples work lives, taking the time to implement strategies of the kind described here is surely among the most important investments a leader can make.