Are you smarter than me?

.

I hope so.

I have been continually amazed at how many managers are threatened by having really smart, capable people working for them.  I seem to be encountering this quite regularly these days when more people are more nervous in general.

I have never understood this.

I guess the possible fears/explanations are:

1. You feel like you will lose your job to a smarter person
2. You psychologically need to be the smartest person in the room at every moment
3. OK, I’m out…I really don’t understand this!  Because I have never seen it work.Everyone around these people notices that they are nervous, threatened, and defensive.

Smart people hire smart people.

On the contrary, when leaders make their top performers famous, the glory always rubs off.

Let’s look at the model in it’s purest form…If smart people hire only even-smarter people, and those people hire only even-smarter people, the organization gets even stronger and smarter as it grows.  The leader is a hero.

If stupid people are threatened by smart people, and hire people less smart than they are, and so on, the entire organization gets more weak and stupid over time.  The leader washes out because the organization can’t deliver or compete.

But let’s look at this from the perspective of one manager and one really smart person.

As a manager if you find yourself saying Wow, this person is really smart, and really capable. In reality, they could do my job, maybe even better than me.

You have two basic choices.

1. Uh-oh – Be threatened and lock them in a supply closet.
2. Hurray! – Pile the work on, shine a spotlight, and let them move mountains for you.

In the first case, what do you accomplish?

• You create a temporary façade of being the smartest person in the room
• You organization delivers less work overall
• You piss off a high performer
• You may “get rid of them”, and that may be your goal…
• You lose the respect and support of your team because they see you don’t value good people
• Your organization delivers even less output over time
• You are eventually seen by all as an ineffective leader

In the second case, what do you accomplish?

• You have another person working at your level, so your team delivers more
• You can delegate virtually all your current work to someone you can trust
• You free up your time to think about and work on even higher value things
• You free up time to build even more capacity into your team and broaden it’s impact.
• You motivate a high performer
• You are become known for attracting stars and developing talent.
• You are still seen as actually being the smartest person in the room because people see you winning the loyalty and support a really smart, talented person (which is your job).
• You personally are getting someone ready for a big promotion
• You are building favor with someone who will be in positions of importance in the future.

I can not see a single downside to letting a really smart person be as good as they can be.

I have never seen a smart person letting a smarter person thrive beneath them get damaged by this.  It’s good for you, it’s good for them, it’s good for the business.

But, I have often seen people who are threatened by smart people and limit them to appear more qualified personally, lose the game and get moved out of the way.

I chose the picture for this post based on an Australian expression,”Tall Poppy Syndrome“, which is used to describe the need some people have to cut down the most capable and talented people around them – the ones who stand out.