I was listening recently to an episode of the 2 Commas podcast, where the hosts discussed the idea of AQ, Adaptability Quotient, alongside the more familiar IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and EQ (Emotional Quotient).
It got us talking.
After supporting hundreds of doctors relocating to New Zealand, we’ve started to wonder whether IQ is actually the least interesting predictor of success. Of course, IQ matters. Medicine is an intellectually demanding profession, and becoming a doctor requires extraordinary commitment and ability. In many ways, we assume a high IQ is already a given.
But the doctors who seem to build the most fulfilling lives and careers here often share something more.
They sit at the intersection of three qualities.
IQ gives them the ability to solve complex clinical problems.
EQ helps them build trust with patients, colleagues and communities. It allows them to recognise that medicine is never just about medicine, it’s about people.
And then there’s AQ.
Adaptability.
To leave your home country, your support network, your familiar health system and everything you’ve spent years mastering takes courage. But arriving is only the beginning.
At Good Together, we often see a similar pattern during those first few months. The excitement of arriving gives way to the reality of learning a new health system, new referral pathways, new prescribing software, new cultural expectations and new ways of communicating with patients and colleagues.
Around the three-month mark, it’s not uncommon for confidence to dip a little. We talk to doctors who suddenly question whether they’ve made the right decision or feel like they’re not performing at the level they’re used to. It’s rarely because they aren’t capable. More often, it’s because they’re adapting to an entirely new environment while holding themselves to the same standards they achieved after years of experience in their previous health system.
For many doctors, it’s the first time in years they’ve felt like the least experienced person in the room.
Back home, they may have been the clinician everyone turned to. Here, they’re learning again.
That takes humility.
One pattern we’ve noticed is that experiencing moments of uncertainty doesn’t predict whether someone will go on to thrive in New Zealand.
What seems to matter more is how they respond.
The doctors who settle best aren’t necessarily the ones who find every part of the transition easy. They’re the ones who seem comfortable with being temporarily uncomfortable. They ask questions. They remain curious. They embrace feedback. They allow themselves to be learners again, trusting that confidence comes back as familiarity grows.
For us, that’s what adaptability looks like.
When we think about the doctors who are still here years later, who’ve become part of their communities and genuinely love the lives they’ve built, adaptability is one of the qualities they almost always seem to share.
It made us wonder whether we’ve been looking at success through too narrow a lens.
Qualifications matter. Experience matters. Emotional intelligence matters too.
But perhaps adaptability deserves a place in that conversation as well.
It also reminds us that supporting international doctors isn’t simply about helping them find a job. It’s about recognising that even the most experienced clinicians are stepping into a completely new environment and creating the conditions where they can find their feet, regain their confidence and ultimately flourish.
The more we reflected on AQ, the more it resonated with what we’ve been seeing for years.
It’s certainly something we’ll continue to look for as we support doctors making the move to New Zealand.
