Four bad habits of super-smart leadersDialogue Review

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Some leaders are too clever for their own good

While we often consider the blessings that accompany a high IQ, we
seldom think ofthe challenges that come with extreme intelligence. Yet
there are many. In my roleas an executive coach, I have had the

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Four bad habits of super-smart leadersDialogue Review

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opportunity to work with more than 150 majorchief executives. As a

group, they would score well above the norm on any
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standarddefinition of intellectual intelligence (I am not referring to
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1. Proving how smart we are

28

One of the lessons taught to me by Druckerwas: Our mission in life is

amazing how many leaders fail to graspthis basic lesson.

simultaneous doctoratesfrom one of the most challenging schools in

theworld, one in science and one in the humanities with honours
within five years. When thebrains were handed out, he was not lurking
nearthe back of the line!
The first time I interviewed him, I tookcopious notes. After an hour I
said: Dr Smith, letme read back to you how often you have told
mehow smart you really are. I dont think I am assmart as you are, but
I am not stupid. I read yourbio. Did you think you really needed to
point outyour brilliance to me six times in the past hour?
As I read back his verbatim comments, hewas so embarrassed. What
an ass! he said ofhimself. I replied: You are not an ass. You area very
good person. You just have an incrediblyhigh need to prove how smart
you are. Perhaps,in future, you could cut back on this a little?
How deep must be a persons drive toprove they are smart for them to
gain twosimultaneous doctorates from one of the topschools in the
world. Very deep. Does this proveI am smart need disappear when
they gainthe qualifications? Not really. They dont haveenough degrees
in the world!
I have asked thousands of leaders toanswer this question:
What percentage of all interpersonalcommunications time is
spent on:

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Four bad habits of super-smart leadersDialogue Review

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A. People talking about how smart, special orwonderful they are or

listening to others do this?
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People talking about how stupid, bad or ineptother people are or

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How much do we learn pointing out howstupid other people are?

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again.They have been given lots of positive recognitionfor being
smart.
Any human or any animal will tend toreplicate behaviour that is
followed by positivereinforcement. The more we repeat the I
amsmart I get recognition cycle, the harderit can be to remember
the excellent advice fromPeter Drucker:
Our mission in life is to make a positive difference not to prove

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how smart we are.

2. Proving how right we are
One night, I had dinner with a top, fourstargeneral from the US Army.
We weresurrounded by other two- to four-star generals.Each of these
men and women had graduatedegrees and were chosen to be two- to
fourstargenerals over thousands of competitors. Heasked me an
interesting question: Marshall,who is your favourite customer?

The case for curiosity

16 December 2013 - 5
Comments

Dialogue Classic The

Gandhi principle: Five
myths about soft
leadership
1 January 2016 - 4

I replied: Sir, my favourite customeris smart, dedicated, driven to

Comments

achieve, hasincredible integrity, gets results and is astubborn,

opinionated know-it-all who neverwants to admit he or she is wrong.

A softer hand for a

hard-wired world

I looked around the room and asked: Do youthink any of the generals

18 December 2015 - 4

in this very room mayfit such a description?

Comments

He laughed and replied: We have a target-richopportunity!

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Four bad habits of super-smart leadersDialogue Review

It is incredibly difficult for super-smartpeople to hear something with

which theydisagree, without proving that the other personis wrong.
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After
all, if others disagree with us,we assume, because we are so
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Striking the gender

balance
14 April 2014 - 2
Comments

2.3k

How can leaders

survive and thrive in a
leadership supernova?

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One of the super-smart scientists Iworked with, Dr Jones, led the

2 September 2013 - 2
Comments

28

YOUR DIALOGUE

Which of the following do you thin

poses the greatest risk to global
You might guess what happened. He wasalways right, until the day he

business:
Which of the following do you think

ended up reducing the market capitalizationof the company by more

the greatest risk to global business:

Financial instability

After this disaster, several of the scientistswho worked for him were
interviewed. They allsaid they had had doubts about the project,
butthey never raised them. Why? Since Dr Jones wasconvinced that
this was the right thing to do,they assumed he must be correct. Even

Political fragility
Environmental threats
International complexity

thoughthey had doubts, they didnt want to take himon and risk being

Risk aversion and reluctance to grow

humiliated.

Other

One of the telltale comments that I oftenreceive in 360 feedback from

direct reports is:He doesnt bear fools gladly!
Vote

Any leader who takes this feedback as abadge of honour is making a

View

mistake. Unless thechief executive is managing a group of fools

asituation I have never encountered the realmessage behind this
feedback is: This leaderalways has to prove he or she is right and
treatspeople who disagree with him or her as fools.
3. I already know that
It is incredibly difficult for smart people to listento someone tell them
something they knowwithout pointing out: I already know that.
Imagine you are my boss. I am young,dedicated and enthusiastic. I
come to you withan idea. You think it is a great idea.
Rather than just saying: Great idea! whichgives credit to the other
person, the tendency isto say: That is a great idea, I already knew
that!which gives credit to yourself.
Next time, just say: Great idea!

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What is probably the most common phraseuttered by smart people

when others saysomething that we agree with? No, I agreewith you.
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future, listen to other people respond toideas they agree with. You

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The no means: Of course I agree with you.I already knew that. You

Joe, one of the super-smart leaders I havecoached, graduated as the

valedictorian of anIvy League school. His parents were very poorand
he had to work his way through both highschool and college.
Graduating as the topstudent at a top school when you are givenno
advantages as a child is an amazingachievement. Joe was both brilliant
andincredibly hardworking.
Joe faced a classic challenge commonto the super-smart. He could
notunderstand why other people failed to seesolutions that seemed
obvious to him.I watched as he led his team meeting.Each of his direct
reports was instructed toshare an update on their progress
againsteach of their key objectives. One personwas clearly having
problems meeting goals.Joe said: Have you thought of trying X?The
direct report replied: No, I neverthought of that.
Joe became very frustrated: Cant you seehow X would help you solve
your problem? Itseems obvious to me!
Send to Email Address

Joe then looked around the table and said,Didnt any of you think of
Name
X?Your
When
it wasclear that no-one had, he grunted: I cannotbelieve

that I am the only person in the roomthat figured this out! What were
all of youthinking about?
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Email
Cancelcolleagues were not
After the meeting, I had to explain
Joe thathis

the unusual ones hewas! I pointed out that no-one in the room
buthim had an IQ of 170. They were good people,who worked hard,
they were smart people. Theywere just not quite as smart as he was.

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Four bad habits of super-smart leadersDialogue Review

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Almostnobody in the world was quite as smart as hewas. Joe needed

to learn to work with normalhuman beings. I also added that, unless
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hechanged, no-one who was as smart as he waswould ever want to
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challenging for any of us toaccept that what may seem obvious to us

28smarter

we are, the moredifficult this may be to understand.

to it is all about them proving theyare right and being proud of them
havingthe answers.
There can be a huge difference betweenintelligence and wisdom. While
smart leadersmay spend their time proving how clever theyare, wise
leaders spend their time helping otherpeople be the heroes.

Dr Marshall Goldsmith is a world authority inhelping successful

leaders achieve positive, lastingchange in behaviour: for
themselves, their peopleand their teams. He is the million-selling
author oreditor of 31 books, including the New York Timesand

Wall Street Journal bestsellers, Mojo and WhatGot You Here Wont
Get You There
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Dialogue Review

30 June 2016

Wendy Farrand Log in to Reply

Love, love, love this article!! My favorite quote for leaders who fit
this mold is, Do you want to be right or do you want results?
this usually works, well not always, but gets them thinking!

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