IQ → EQ → WeQ: Entering a New Era of Leadership & Collaboration

Honestly, recording the WeQ podcast is a developmental challenge for us. Being in front of the camera doesn’t (yet) feel comfortable. Quite the opposite.

Katja Pruša, ACC, ACTC, and I, Marjana Laibacher Rogelj, have worked with leaders, teams, and organizations for many years. We’ve seen what works — and what doesn’t. And when you spend that long moving through this landscape, a feeling emerges that something needs to be said out loud. Even if you don’t feel like it. Even if you’d rather stay in the background.

In development, there comes a moment when you say to yourself:
“Alright. Enough hiding. Let’s step into the unknown.”

And that unknown is (also) WeQ.

Old ways of leading no longer work

The world is too fast. Too complex. Too unpredictable.
No one can “fix” this world alone.

I see this in research and in daily practice: exhausted leaders, siloed teams, young people losing their compass. The heroic individual is no longer the solution.

In the last century, we elevated the individual and IQ — our needs, efficiency, speed, intelligence. This was an important step. But today we live in a time of intertwined crises, where individual effort no longer carries enough weight or impact.

We are living in a world of We-problems: relational, systemic, cross-border, and intergenerational.

From IQ and EQ to WeQ

IQ enables us to think.
EQ teaches us to feel.

WeQ teaches us how to be connected in a way that creates a new quality — something I can’t achieve alone, you can’t achieve alone, but together becomes possible for all of us.

This is not “slightly better communication.”
This is a developmental leap.

Like water: hydrogen + oxygen = something with entirely new properties.
Like a forest: one tree is not a forest. Together, they form a system that can defend itself, grow, and regenerate.

In organizations, WeQ means: less machine, more ecosystem. Less “I have control,” more “let’s create space and together create more than we ever could individually.”

Together, we can create:

• Awareness of what is really happening inside and outside the organization

• Meaning-making from data, results, and situations

• Support for key priorities that goes beyond cognitive agreement — it becomes emotion, commitment, relationship

• Support along the way, when we stumble, when reality brings its own scenarios

When we are WeQ, things become easier.

The equation: 3 + 4 = 12

If we connect three people with high individual maturity (IQ + EQ) with four people who develop collective capacities such as trust, reflection, holding space for tension, generative co-creation — mathematically, we get seven.

But in practice, when synergy emerges, something else happens.
Not 3 + 4 = 7.
But 3 × 4 = 12.

This is not simplified motivation. It’s a reality I see in teams when people truly connect and begin to create something generative — something no individual could create alone.

That’s when a particular quality appears, and everyone feels it:
“Ah… this is no longer just a team. This is a real team.”

This happens when people:

• truly listen to and feel one another

• build on each other’s ideas

• can hold diversity and tension, because “tension is a breakthrough point”

• see the wider system, not just themselves

When this happens, value emerges that no individual could produce alone. And that value is exactly what is most sought after today.

WeQ is in our nature — it’s just a little asleep

We are relational beings, created for cooperation. Our nervous systems attune to others. Nature teaches us that what survives is what is connected.

In recent decades, however, we’ve overemphasized the “me project”: my development, my career, my needs. This wasn’t wrong — it was necessary. But now it’s clear that “ME” is no longer enough.

Life invites us to ask not only “Who am I?” but “Who are we — and what does the world need from us today?” What will our grandchildren need from us?

Let’s be honest — this doesn’t come naturally to most of us. Not to me either. But that’s exactly what makes development such a fascinating adventure.

The leadership paradigm is shifting

Most leadership programs still focus on the individual: more knowledge, more skills, another certificate, another “quick fix.”

It’s like constantly adding new apps to your phone while the operating system stays the same. Sooner or later, it crashes. And it does.

Our time calls for vertical development — an upgrade of how we think, perceive, and connect.

Being a leader isn’t only about what you do or what decisions you make. It’s also about how you make meaning of situations — especially when the path forward is unpredictable and requires collective development: the maturity of teams, cultures, entire ecosystems.

A mature leader today is not the one with all the answers.
A mature leader is the one who understands: when I let go of the need for control, space opens for co-creation — for what the world truly needs from us.

This is WeQ in practice.

Connections are a competitive advantage

Once, organizations won with capital and top individual performers. Today, those who win are the ones who know how to connect:

• between people

• between teams

• between organizations

• between stakeholders

• with nature, with community

This is a shift from “who will defeat whom” to “what can we create together that has value for everyone.”

It’s like in parenting: the point of partnership isn’t that two people get along well. The real point is what grows from their relationship.

And the same is true in organizations.

Conclusion: WeQ as an invitation to conscious evolution

We’re at a point where we can no longer afford to wait for evolution to “take us” to the next level of consciousness. That time is over.

We need CONSCIOUS, INTENTIONAL evolution — personal AND collective.

WeQ is our attempt, our contribution, our small “hey, maybe we can…”

After all, life is an adventure.
Why live it alone, if we can co-create it?

If you have any response, question, or reflection about WeQ — or anything else — write to us. I truly welcome perspectives, even (especially) the challenging ones.

Marjana Laibacher Rogelj
Life researcher

Vertical Development Coach, Systemic Team Coach