Social Intelligence

Rachel Thompson joined a software company as head of people and found a team where nobody spoke in meetings and one in three staff left each year. Her first months there reveal how workplace culture quietly decides everything else. Pious ClementsPious Clements writes about character, conduct, and the deeper questions of how a life is … Read more

A neighbor holds the elevator door, a dinner guest arrives with a small gift, and a colleague steps outside to take a loud phone call. None of them follow a written law, yet all of them are practicing social conduct. Pious ClementsPious Clements writes about character, conduct, and the deeper questions of how a life … Read more

Anyone who has lost an argument with a smart person knows the frustration. My neighbor’s son-in-law Efosa, a lawyer in Calabar, once spent a whole family meeting persuading everyone to invest their savings in a scheme. Pious ClementsPious Clements writes about character, conduct, and the deeper questions of how a life is lived. He is … Read more

A young relationship officer at a bank branch on Ring Road in Ibadan once spent forty minutes pitching a loan package to a client. The client checked his watch, angled his body toward the exit, and gave shorter answers each time. The officer kept talking. The client never came back. Pious ClementsPious Clements writes about … Read more

My sister’s friend Halima teaches at a public secondary school in Jos. During her first month there, she noticed a deaf boy who had spent two full terms sitting at the back, copying nothing at all. Pious ClementsPious Clements writes about character, conduct, and the deeper questions of how a life is lived. He is … Read more

Two neighbors on a quiet street in Ilorin had fought over a boundary fence for months. My colleague’s uncle, the street’s chairman, settled it in a single evening by noticing something nobody else had seen. Accumulated resentment over the years. Pious ClementsPious Clements writes about character, conduct, and the deeper questions of how a life … Read more

My cousin’s daughter Tolu felt the impact of gender stereotypes long before she finished secondary school. She topped her physics class in Abeokuta, yet when she chose mechanical engineering, an uncle laughed loudly and suggested catering instead. Pious ClementsPious Clements writes about character, conduct, and the deeper questions of how a life is lived. He … Read more

Two people can say the same words in the same meeting and get completely different results. One reads the room, senses the tension, and chooses the right moment. The other plows ahead and loses everyone. That difference has a name. Pious ClementsPious Clements writes about character, conduct, and the deeper questions of how a life … Read more

I used to rehearse clever lines before parties, then freeze when the moment came. The best exchange I ever had started when a stranger mocked my battered umbrella at a bus stop, and I simply agreed with her. Pious ClementsPious Clements writes about character, conduct, and the deeper questions of how a life is lived. … Read more

A friend’s younger brother graduated top of his engineering class, yet at a careers fair at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, he could not get past the first sentence with a single recruiter. He stood at each booth, stared at his shoes, and walked away before anyone could ask his name. Pious ClementsPious Clements writes … Read more

At a wedding reception in the GRA area of Benin City, the master of ceremonies grabbed the microphone and confidently called the bride by her ex-boyfriend’s surname. He did it twice. Three hundred guests went silent, and a cousin sitting near me covered her face with both hands as if she had made the mistake … Read more

The receptionist at a private hospital on Ahmadu Bello Way in Kaduna was, by every account, the most popular person in the building. Patients asked for her by name. Nurses timed their breaks to sit with her. She was not famous or glamorous. She simply remembered everyone, from the cleaner’s daughter’s exams to the grumpy … Read more

My friend Chidinma, a hospital pharmacist in Owerri, scored herself almost perfectly on an online social skills quiz, then gave the same questions to three coworkers. Their ratings of her listening came back far lower than her own. Pious ClementsPious Clements writes about character, conduct, and the deeper questions of how a life is lived. … Read more

A new hire at a Boston ad agency noticed her team went quiet whenever one senior designer spoke. Within a week, she knew who really made decisions, and she never stepped on anyone’s toes. Pious ClementsPious Clements writes about character, conduct, and the deeper questions of how a life is lived. He is the founder … Read more