Sequoia Partner Jess Lee Shares the System She Uses to Evaluate People

The world’s greatest leaders often claim that they can read people better than anyone else – a trait that has long intrigued psychologists and management experts.

Some call it an art, others say it’s a science.

Sequoia partner Jess Lee — a Silicon Valley veteran who previously worked at Google and Yahoo and founded the e-commerce company Polyvore, which Yahoo acquired for $200 million in 2015 — shared some of her secrets in a recent episode of “The Library of Minds” podcast.

Lee said she now relies on a process to evaluate workers beyond quantifiable metrics, which she learned from Sequoia colleague Shawn Maguire. He explained to her that he used four elements to assess people’s abilities.

“It’s this framework of EQ and IQ, which everyone knows, emotional intelligence and intellectual intelligence,” she said. “Then he added PQ, political quotient, and JQ, judgment quotient.”

EQ, or emotional quotient, measures how well a person relates to others one-on-one, she said. It measures emotional intelligence, social skills and empathy. IQ, or intelligence quotient, measures a person’s problem-solving abilities and logic. These are two well-known metrics in business and other areas.

The PQ, or political quotient, meanwhile measures a person’s ability to interact with the systems of people that govern things, she said. The judgment quotient measures an individual’s decision-making abilities.

Lee said that no one is good at all of these things. It is possible to have high EQ but low PQ within a given organization, she said. A person may be technically competent but have difficulty determining where to apply their skills to maximize long-term success.

“I’m looking for very specialized and complementary people,” she said.

Some of what she learned about evaluating people came from her father, who worked for Li Ka-shing, a Hong Kong tycoon whose net worth exceeds $41 billion, according to Forbes.

His father’s professional stories always revolved around people, Lee said.

“He kind of taught me that all problems are human problems. All solutions are human problems,” she said.

Even today, the “primary lens” she uses to “see the world, build teams, invest” is through people, she said.