This chapter draws upon and integrates aspects of two well-researched hybrid models of intelligence: practical intelligence and social intelligence. Contextual intelligence addresses how individuals interact with their environment. Contextual intelligence in transitions operates in three main categories: (1) identifying environmental resources such as physical resources, enabling environments, education and training, or team resources; (2) identifying knowledge experts such as peers and mentors or external knowledge experts and stakeholders, who provide expert domain knowledge in diverse fields; and (3) understanding of the cultural and social milieu into which one is moving, whether this be understanding the cultural climate, accessing culturally embedded knowledge, using the right language, or ultimately navigating the politics of the new arena. Retrospective interviews with twenty-four elite performers in three domains (business, sports, and music) are used to investigate how contextual intelligence is used to successfully and repeatedly transition to higher positions within their field.

We suggest that consumer and marketer intelligence is, in its essence, practical. It is derived from adapting to, selecting, and shaping external environments. We review research relating to marketers’ and consumers’ strategies for interacting, intelligently, with their environments. On adapting, illustratively we point to a trend toward more fine-tuned adaptations in marketing communication, enabled by the large amount of information consumers are leaving online. On selection, illustratively we report research relating to customer relationship management: “big data” has enabled more informed, consequently more intelligent, customer selection by marketers. On shaping, illustratively we describe research relating to online customer reviews and the sea change it has had on the retail environment. Taking perspective, we opine that while adapting, shaping, and selection intelligence enable important, immediate outcomes, wisdom is needed, in addition, to achieve longer-term outcomes. A quintessential longer-term outcome for marketers is brand equity and for consumers is psychological well-being.

Leaders matter to organizational performance and adaptability. Effective leaders matter the most in a dramatic and positive manner. This chapter is really about the role of intelligence in leadership, not the claim that the capability to be an effective leader is a distinct individual characteristic or a type of intelligence. Intelligent leadership, therefore, is leadership in which a person uses many forms of intelligence: cognitive, practical, emotional, and social intelligence. The chapter also examines how the role of the unconscious motive of the Need for Power, a sense of purpose, values, style and the quality of relationships (in terms of shared vision, compassion, and energy) are essential to effective leadership. There is also a brief review of the dark side of leadership.

This chapter presents an augmented theory of successful intelligence. Successful intelligence is (1) the ability to formulate, strive for, and, to the extent possible, achieve one’s goals in life, given one’s sociocultural context, (2) by capitalizing on strengths and correcting or compensating for weaknesses (3) in order to adapt to, shape, and select environments (4) through a combination of analytical, creative, and practical abilities. People who are successfully intelligent figure out what life opportunities are available or they can create, and then proceed to optimize on those opportunities. Successfully intelligent people figure out their strengths and weaknesses and then capitalize on the strengths and correct or compensate for their weaknesses.

Practical intelligence has been referred to as “street smarts” or “common sense” and is typically contrasted with “book smarts” or general academic intelligence. The concept emerged from a recognition that success with solving abstract, academic problems did not necessarily translate to success with solving real-world, practical problems, and vice versa. This chapter reviews research aimed at better understanding the cognitive underpinnings of practical intelligence, its distinctiveness from general intelligence, and its relationship to performance. Particular attention is given to research on tacit knowledge, or the unspoken, practical know-how that often differentiates expert from novice performance. Tacit knowledge has been found to be related to successful performance in domains as diverse as sales, primary education, college admissions, military leadership, information technology, and policing. The chapter concludes with promising directions for future research on the acquisition and dissemination of tacit knowledge as a means of enhancing the development of practical intelligence.

This chapter reviews both the empirical evidence and the prevalent theoretical positions on the relationship between wisdom and intelligence. In short, wisdom includes aspects of intelligence but is far more than “just” intelligence. Wisdom integrates the ability to think about complex issues in a complex way with certain personality facets such as openness to experience and empathy with others, motivational facets such as a deep curiosity about the fundamental questions of the human existence, and a willingness to critically reflect upon oneself, and ethical facets, such as a concern for a greater good that is strong enough to overrule more egoistical or self-enhancing goals. Together, these different components lead individuals to acquire a strong body of broad and deep knowledge about the human existence that makes these individuals a source of advice on how to live a good life.