Everybody's got a Q-score. Have any idea what yours is?

Q-scores aren't just for celebrities any more.

There’s something in marketing called a “Q-score”; if you’re not familiar with it, let me let you in on the idea beyond a cool concept.  Q-scores first originated in 1963 with the firm, Marketing Evaluations, Inc., of Manhasset, NY, and for almost fifty years these values have been applied to business purposes in terms of celebrities, actors, sport and political figures, brands, and the like—all to gauge the relative “star power” of people or things.  The purpose of this calculation is to help assist individuals in making selection decisions as to which people and things are best to identify with and employ in the pursuit of promoting business. 

For example, producers and casting agents like to know who’s likely to help sell—by their film roles—a movie, what celebrity or sports person may be the best candidates—by their endorsements--as product spokespersons, what brand or television show is best for product promotion, and so on.  The score, really a quotient, is, at its root, not all that complicated:  it is a function of the people’s familiarity with a subject, divided by their favorability toward it. 

Q values make business make a lot of sense?  Why not for managers?

The particular attractiveness of Q-scores in business comes because they incorporate two different-but-important dimensions of how others make judgments and form attitudes:  Q scores indicate not only how individuals are aware of an object, but also how those same people feel about something or somebody.  Late last week, the Wall Street Journal’s “The Number Guy,” Carl Bialik, wrote to an article to call attention to the use of Q scores—and the pitfalls of determining the such calculations by business today. 

All of which leads to the important question for each of us—do you have a good sense of what your Q value is in the workplace marketspace?  Put differently, do you have any idea what your star power rating is, on average, with others?  Most people have never thought about it, but I think it’s safe to say that if you’re a manager or would-be-manager—you should cultivate the sense of what your score might be. 

Manage other people? Then you should know about Q-scores.  

 If you’re a manager, you need to consider how the people you over-see might rate you in terms of two key elements.  First, how well have you made yourself familiar with others?  Do they know you—really--or do they just know who you are?  I work with some individuals who perform well on this scale, for they make it a point to cultivate a personal relationship with as many individuals in the work place as they can; for other managers I know, personal involvement with others is a waste of time and far too costly, effort-wise. 

Second, how do others feel about you?  Do they like you for obvious or inherent reasons…or are you a pain in the back side to work with?  In this category come the things that managers are valued for…being able to make a decision, supervising fairly and dispassionately, acting even handedly, fun to be around.  I’ve lost track of the managers who seem to be indifferent to what it is that employees value in their leaders; I can count on the fingers of only one hand, the people who I know or have worked for who consciously cultivate the personal attributes and practices that lead to people to like to work for them. 

If you want to manage others...you, too, should be concerned about your Q-score.

If you aspire to be a manager—and, thus, make those necessary promotions to get there--you need to think about the same qualities:  Are you a familiar person to your supervisor when there’s...work to be done?  An important deadline to be met?  A critical goal to be achieved?  The need for volunteers for a difficult assignment? 

Similarly, do you know what it is that leads to your manager genuinely appreciating that you’re on his or her team?  This amounts to the cultivation of others’ affection for you in terms of such obvious things as having a positive attitude, a good sense of humor, the ability to work smart, hard, and fast, the inclination to work until the job gets done, seeks to solve problems, not cause them—generally be a low- not a high-maintenance person to have around.  Obvious things that so many people I work with either don’t know about or, more likely, don’t care about paying attention to.

If as a manager you don't know think in terms of your Q score--you'll like be replaced or passed over by someone who does.  _______________________________________________________________

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