EP239: SUCCESS = IQ x EQ x FQ with Faris Aranki - Walk the Talk London
What if success could be calculated? In this episode, Faris Aranki breaks down a surprising formula: IQ x EQ x FQ. Discover why intelligence, emotional awareness, and focus are all crucial to achieving success; both individually and in teams. Tune in to learn how to put this formula into action.
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SUCCESS = IQ x EQ x FQ with Faris Aranki - Walking the Talk in Leadership
What if success wasn’t just about intelligence or hard work, but a precise formula? In this episode of The Jens Heitland Show - Human Innovation, Faris Aranki, shares his unique equation for success: IQ x EQ x FQ.
Breaking Down the Formula for Success
Faris introduces three essential elements for achieving meaningful success:
IQ (Intelligence Quotient): Great ideas are the foundation. But generating ideas alone isn’t enough. The key is to test, refine, and execute them effectively.
EQ (Emotional Intelligence): No success happens in isolation. The ability to engage, inspire, and lead others is crucial for turning ideas into reality.
FQ (Focus Quotient): Perhaps the most underestimated factor. Focus is what separates those who start from those who finish. Cutting through distractions and staying committed to goals is a make-or-break skill.
From Theory to Action: Walking the Talk
So how do we go from understanding this formula to applying it? Faris emphasizes:
Getting ideas out of your head. Too often, people overthink instead of sharing and testing their ideas.
Building self-awareness. Emotional intelligence starts with knowing your impact on others and adapting when needed.
Developing focus like a muscle. Small, consistent habits; like setting daily goals or having an accountability partner; help sharpen focus over time.
Applying the Success Formula in Teams and Organizations
Beyond individual success, Faris highlights how teams can integrate IQ, EQ, and FQ to drive results. He shares real-world examples, including how he helped a company simplify 150 strategic projects through gamification. By turning their priorities into a competitive card game, the team was able to let go of unnecessary tasks and refocus on what truly mattered.
He also discusses how high-performing teams can unintentionally create friction within organizations. His solution? Encourage cross-team collaboration, increase transparency, and ensure successful teams actively support others rather than unintentionally creating silos.
Your First Steps Toward Success
Success doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen alone. The key takeaway? Start moving. Whether it’s a simple conversation with your team, setting a small focus goal, or actively improving how you interact with others; every step counts.
Ready to start walking the talk? Listen to the full episode now.
Highlights:
0:00 Introduction to the Jens Heitland Show
00:23 Defining Success with Ferris
00:47 The Three Components of Success: IQ, EQ, and FQ
01:31 Taking the First Step Towards Success
02:40 Applying Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
03:36 Mastering Focus Quotient (FQ)
04:29 Implementing the Framework in Companies
05:41 Fun and Team Dynamics
06:38 Practical Examples and Strategies
09:09 Addressing Organizational Challenges
13:18 Final Thoughts and Conclusion
Guest Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farisaranki/
Website: https://www.shiageto.com/
Jens Heitland Links:
Website: https://www.jensheitland.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jensheitland/
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Transcript:
(This Transcript is AI generated)
hello, hello, and welcome to the Jens Heitland Show. Again, Walk the Talk is the new way how we do things when I'm traveling. And Today, I have Ferris with me. Hello, Ferris. Welcome to our view. It's
a real pleasure to be walking and talking with you today.
So, walking and talking is all what we talk about.
But, a special topic with Ferris. Ferris is all about success. What does success mean for you? How do you define success?
I think success is one of those great things. It's, uh, very personal, actually, right? Your success is different to my success. First of all, you've got to know what you want to achieve. But once you get there, I think we all have in common.
And it all involves three components that I'd love to tell you about.
Tell me.
They're the IQ, the EQ, and the FQ, right? Uh, for you to be successful in life, if you know where you're going, you need some great ideas. That's the IQ, right? Come up with great ideas. Test them. Have loads of them, right? Pick the best one.
But that's not enough. Too many people just stop at the idea. If you can't take others with you on the journey, because no journey you can do on your own, that's where the EQ comes in. Emotional Intelligence. An ability to, to listen to others, take them on the journey, get them excited. But even that's not enough.
That's where this FQ, many people wouldn't have heard of FQ, that's Focus Quotient. That's the ability to really focus on your goal and what's important to you, and kind of block out some of the other noise. So IQ, times EQ, times FQ is success for me.
Oh my god, that's brilliant. How do we get from this theory to taking the first step, walking?
Well, so we walk, and I'll tell you, right? It's, uh, I think it all comes down to, you know when I said, you know, success is very personal, but it's a journey that you do with others. Yeah. First step is get it out of your head. You know, first step IQ is, too many of us sit around. Just going, Oh, if only I could do this, or isn't this a great idea?
You know, the sooner you get it out, test it with others, talk about it, share it, right? You'll see if that idea is any good, right? Let's start with that IQ. If it's no good, refine it, right? Don't throw it away entirely. But how many people just sit going, Yeah, it's a great idea. Yeah, or maybe somebody else has done it.
We are our own worst enemies. There are 28 ways to convince yourself out of anything. Before you've even tried it, right? Shoot down each of those 28 ways, right? Get someone who's your cheerleader to say, No, all your ideas are amazing. Let's hear more of them, right? So that's the first step, I'd say. Share more, talk more, get it out more.
Um, and on the emotional intelligence side, the EQ side, how can you make that into practice, right? Do you really know your impact on others? Do you really? You might sit there and think, Do you know what? I'm a great storyteller. Everyone loves me. I'm really funny. Really? Go and ask your friends. Yeah, they will tell you.
They will tell you, right? And, you know, listen, change, adapt. You'll be surprised at the impact that you might have if you make a few changes to your approach. Here's the thing, right? You might need to change it fairly regularly. Because what you and I, how you and I talk might work, but then, you know, I'll go meet someone else and they don't like that same style.
So look for their clues. Ask them. Some of the small things, but just, just practice more, right? When it comes to the EQ part, it's all about the practice. It's all about having fun, listening. Oh my god, we've got two of these. We don't use them enough. Yeah, two. Ah, and then, then we come to the favourite one.
How do we make FQ a reality? Hardest thing in the world, right? Yeah. Because of phones, because of distractions. It's very easy to lose our focus. So I think this one is like going to a gym. Start small. Don't set yourself big goals. Don't say today I'm going to read, uh, War and Peace. Just start with a one page book.
Yeah. Put your phone away. Try something new. Block out the noise, but the biggest thing is be really clear what your goals are. Write them down, put them in front of you. That way you gives you a bit more extra focus. I don't know about you, but I love telling other people what I need to do that day, right?
My sister in particular, she holds me accountable. So I bring her up all the time and say, Hey, today I've got to go to the gym. Do you know what? I'm more likely to go to the gym. I'm more likely to be focused. So however you motivate you, however it holds you accountable.
That's awesome. So you're working with individuals, but, but a lot with companies.
So if we take this into a company context, how does that work?
I mean, it works because teams, you know, individuals, even if they've got it sorted, what's the dynamic amongst the team on each of those three pillars, right? Are you getting the best IQ out of the team? So many times IQ is limited to the bottom.
Yeah. Yeah. He's the boss so he makes all the decisions. Doesn't mean he's got the best ideas. That's true. Or she's got the best ideas. Or it's dominated by extroverts because they can talk louder. Again, doesn't mean they've got the best ideas. So you can have an individual who's got high IQ, but put them in a team, it can get lessened.
Yeah. So, so there's, there's a lot of ways that even if you've got a perfect IQ, EQ, FQ person, the team dynamic is all out of sync. So that's where we come into play. That's how I would like working with teams because observation. Acceptance. Challenge. Uh, it's amazing. If you get some practical tips, you can start to see some amazing things change.
Yeah. So, how do you get a team walking and using your framework to get to the, to the end point, which is success for the team?
Do you know what one of the biggest things is? Fun.
Oh, I love that one. You love fun. I love
fun, right? I used to be a school teacher. I always taught a hundred games to play with kids to get them to learn without them realizing they're learning.
Do you know what? I've realized if I just change the name of the game, I can still use it with senior professionals. So if you come to one of my team sessions, we'll be running back and forth. We'll be standing up and sitting down. We'll be doing Kung Fu. We'll be playing cards. Um, but all of it's got a second meaning and they often don't realize it.
There's creating, you know, helping with the IQ, helping with the EQ, helping with the FQ. Uh, that's a big one. It's a big fun. Um, a lot of, uh, just, uh, Providing challenge and observation. A lot of people don't know what they don't know. So if you have a level of trust and you can share that with them, then you can begin to make some changes.
So fun and challenge, uh, I think are two good ways to make it all come walking talk.
Let's get specific. So If, if we take an organization or maybe you tell an example of what you did with the team very specific on how do you get them walking and taking these small steps towards, yeah,
yeah, well, you know, an example I love talking about is, uh, is, is one that comes actually a lot of the, the three pillars, you know, working with a team, we'll, we'll find it difficult to prioritize.
Yeah.
Yeah. Oh yeah.
We find it difficult for ourselves, but in a business sense, companies are doing too many things and they know logically they need to stop doing some of those things. Now, I remember once walked into a company and I said to the CFO, how many strategic projects do you have? And he said, 150.
And I said to him, 150 strategic projects. That doesn't make sense. Right. And he said, I know, but nobody will give up their projects. The CEO has his 30 projects. So we all know we need to give up, but we can't. I said, okay, leave it to me. The next day, we came into the boardroom. I turned 150 projects into 150 Pokemon cards.
And we played Pokemon for two hours. It was fun, they were like, hang on a minute, why are we playing cards, shouldn't we be doing Because the whole point was, some cards kept losing.
Yeah.
Right? And they were like, these are terrible cards. I said, well, just let them go. Just let's, just get rid of them. And we'll play a better game.
Yeah. And over the course of two hours, we managed to get rid of half the cards. And when they looked at it, they were like, these are your new projects that you're going to work on, right? And so it's, it's a way of changing the dynamic, having fun, but you know, we help them with the getting better at projects.
We help them get through the emotional barrier and therefore it's going to help them focus because the company's got half the work to do. Yeah. But do it better. Yeah. So this is the kind of stuff that we like to do when we work with companies.
I love that because just. I assume that when you do these exercises with teams, it's also a byproduct that the team is getting better together and they learn to work with each other in a completely different way than they most probably ever have done.
Yeah, I often talk about any event you do with a team is like a speed bump. You slow them down so that they will always remember that moment in time together. Because most of our days are just happening at lightning pace. Sometimes you need to slow people down, let them have a shared experience. And it's not sometimes not more complicated than that, right?
To get a team working better, improve, improve the likelihood of success.
Yeah. There are sometimes challenges in organizations where I have experienced that it's difficult with the EQ part.
Yeah.
How do you work with the EQ part? There might be a bright leader, a bright manager who has. It's a lot of power because it's a power structure in some organizations.
How do you get a person that is not too much in the EQ part, understanding the importance of it and working with the team around?
Yeah. Well, there's two techniques here that I like to use. So if they have a bit of a growth mindset and they're keen to learn, then work with them. Show them the data. They might be completely self aware.
I remember once working with a boss who thought he was amazing and I said, okay, let's reflect on that meeting you just had with your team. How much do you think you spoke versus they spoke?
Oh.
And he said, oh, well, I was probably only spoke 20 the great thing is we can look at the data. We can re watch the video.
Actually, nowadays, with all the transcripts, it shoots it out. And I said, you spoke for 80 percent of the meeting. Oops. And I said, not even that. Not just that. Do you know how many times you said no to somebody in your team? And he said, oh, maybe four or five times. We counted over 40. Right. And, uh, you know, by being able for him to see the data.
He came back to me a day later saying, okay, I'm not where I think I am. How do I change? Now, those are great people. Yeah, I was about to say, that's a positive. That's a positive, right? Love it. But we've got a person type 2 who doesn't care. Even if you show them the data. So how do you work with them for a bit of EQ?
It's a bit of, um, I like to change the process around me. So let me tell you another example. I'm working with a team that had very low EQ and didn't care. They literally didn't care. But what they did care about was competition and winning. So when I worked with them, I turned everything into a game where they could win or lose money.
So I always said on day one, I said the first game today, we're going to play. Everyone has to put a hundred euros. Winner takes all. I said, oh, okay, a hundred euros. And I get a chance to beat my other team. They said, what's the game? I said, you have to guess how many kids we all have as a team. Nobody can guess the same number.
Okay, so they all guessed working out on averages and the real beauty of the game is we then went round one by one, asking people about their kids, their names, their ages. So we did this week one, somebody wins. Week two we talk about holidays. Week three we talk about pets. God, do you know what? After four weeks they're just asking each other about these things over coffee, over lunch, and I can start to see them getting closer as a team.
Yeah. Whereas before they were resisting. So sometimes it's okay. You might be really keen to learn, but other times I'll make, you know, and that's the
brilliant strategy and I, I think that that's, that's true. Engagement opportunities for, for organizations and teams. So if we, if we lift it up from a team to an organization Yeah.
There might be one team that has all of it and like you have worked with a team and they've figured it out and, and know how to do it. And they get more and more successful. Sometimes this successful team is a threat to the rest of the organization. How do you work with that?
Yeah, well, I think the more there are silos in businesses, the more dangerous it is for a company because of dynamics like that.
Yeah. So, you know, things I do in any company is very early on is get cost pollination. It can be as simple as a random coffee generator. You as the boss, just pick two names that are hacked. Today you two go for lunch or coffee or me.
And
you can pick who you choose. You can pretend it's random, but you can make people across the business.
So we do this all the time. Get people to spend more time with other team members. Get them to go and job shadow. Get them to go and have a bit of fun. Pull together events. And then the other key is working actually counter intuitively with that very successful team to make them aware of their impact and get them to flex how, when they interact, so they seem less of a threat.
You know, because it's easy, uh, you know, when you're the successful person reaching a hand down and saying, come on up, than to be the person who's unsuccessful trying to climb up the ladder. So, it, we actually work with the successful teams to get them to, to be a bit friendlier. A bit more outreach around the business.
Love that. So, let's go into walking, walking, walking. How do you, what is a tip you can give to a team that wants to do it and they want to figure it out? What are very simple ways to get started using your framework for an organization?
So talk to each other, right? It's like, imagine, and I love your analogy of the walking, walking, walking, right?
Let's imagine you've got a team who've all never done anything. exercise, but you all want to run a half marathon within, you know, a couple of months, right? The first step is get off the couch. Talk to each other. How would you like to go to the couch? Should we go and play five a side football together?
Should we go for a walk? Should we sit, talk to each other, work out? And anything is better than doing nothing, right? So start with the first step. Get some momentum. Yeah, great if you want somebody to come in and give you some ideas, somebody like me, somebody like you, um, but I think the key is. Just have those conversations, you know, you and I know, when you work with a team, they all start very polite with each other and they don't actually tell each other what they think.
Yeah.
And then at some point they go, do you know what? I hate when you eat the apple that way. I hate when you send me that email at 8, at 9 p. m. Have those conversations a week earlier, two weeks earlier. Yeah. You'll find you start walking a bit quicker.
I love this. So there are opportunities for you to get starting to walk by just talking to each other.
Yeah.
What an analogy. So finish off. The episode with Ferris. Ferris, thank you very much for joining. Thank you, Jens. Joining on the walk. And everyone who was listening to this or was watching this, reach out to Ferris. He helps you to start walking with your organization. Thank you very much and see you next time.