THE QUADRANTS OF LIFE
If you are feeling incomplete or unfulfilled in life, today’s blog and podcast guest, Leon Fontaine, recommends a check-up in four critical areas. Leon is a leader of leaders. He is also an author, spiritual authority, and a great friend. Recently, I sat down with Leon to discuss the quadrants of life and what these areas can teach us about our personal satisfaction or struggles in relationships.
For the entire conversation with Leon Fontaine, listen to DAVE MARTIN’S PODCAST: SUCCESS MADE SIMPLE.
Dr. Dave: Leon, can you share the information from our recent roundtable about the quadrants of life and how that relates to everyday issues?
Leon Fontaine: People often ask me, “How do you keep yourself on the cutting edge and always in the game? I have relegated that strategy to these four areas: IQ, EQ, AQ, SQ.
The IQ is the intelligence quotient. It is the measure of your intelligence. We know there are multiple kinds of intelligence. I ask myself – am I growing? Am I becoming a more intelligence leader, person, etc? In today’s world, you can develop and go after knowledge. Knowledge must then be meditated
upon and that’s where you gain understanding, then it becomes wisdom. IQ is crucial. Many people do not continue to read and learn. They learn until they are in their early 20’s, then they defend for the rest of their lives what they have learned, and that is sad. Continue to read and learn.
You must learn from other people, too. One person can give you one thought that will cause a breakthrough and you will learn something you didn’t even know that you didn’t know.
The EQ is the emotional quotient. The EQ is your ability to work with people. You can be a brilliant person with incredible intelligence and nobody wants to work with you. Your ability to hang on to high quality staff is impossible, because you have no emotional quotient. If you are not continuing to move forward, ask yourself if you are not growing because you personally are not increasing your intelligence quotient (IQ)? Or, are you not good a getting people onto teams and understanding them and speaking into their world, and coaching them on your team (EQ)?
The AQ is the adversity quotient. Many leaders have a problem that is eating them up – a problem that sometimes cannot be solved. When that happens, when you are in that season, it is important to have your AQ at an increased level so you can handle the attack and the pain. The pain will continue until you outlast it because there is not a way to solve this problem. All great leaders will go through moments, or even a season of great pain, where a lot of them quit. But this difficult season is good news, because the copycat competition will not make it; they are low on AQ. Great leaders can handle pain and know they are going to get through it.
Dr. Dave: The more pain you can handle, the higher you can go in leadership and in life.
Leon Fontaine: Yes. As one of our friends says, the difference between good leaders and great leaders is their ability to handle pain. Pain will cause people to treat people wrong; it will cause them to make wrong decisions. Pain will make you quit because there are so many other temptations in the pain. Your ability to grow your AQ is huge.
Then there’s the SQ. The SQ is the spiritual quotient. I have some very direct thoughts on that, but you will find that with all of your success, there will be something inside of you that is empty. Most men and women who achieve goals hit depression, and it is something that very few understand. Many times they just grab another goal, but I have noticed that there is an SQ. It is the measurement of your spirituality. Now we are all spiritual, but you have to ask yourself some questions:
- Who am I?
- What is my identity?
- What is my purpose?
- What is my gifting?
I’m a Christian, and for me, my identity is that I am a child of God. Then my purpose is to advance his kingdom and to help people. I have to discover the gifts that are within me so that I can add my skills to my mission.
When I am going through a time of struggle, I would take a look at myself and I would write down these four Q’s – IQ, EQ, AQ, SQ – and evaluate where I stand related to these four areas.
- IQ – Do I just need some information?
- EQ – Are these people issues, and do I need to spend more time with some of my leadership staff, and is this a symptom that I am not recognizing some of their issues?
- AQ – Do I just need to toughen up?
- SQ – I have meditation time that is not about anything to do with achievement; it is just about me enjoying God and focusing on Him, and letting his transcendent power fill me up.
Dr. Dave: Do you think about all four of these quotients each day?
Leon Fontaine: No. I would say that there are many other things that I use, but when I feel that
something is off, even in a time of success, I come back to these four. I would say that I evaluate these weekly.
There is so much data out there, you have to determine which data you will dive into, and which data you will own.
Dr. Dave: Developing these areas of life is powerful for any leader or any person.
Leon Fontaine: These four areas can be applied to all relationships in your life - your spouse, your
children, your parents, your friendships, your employees, and the list goes on. You can focus on these four areas and can find the problem quickly.
For more information, visit leonfontaine.com.