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In this article, Art Petty shares his tips for identifying and overcoming “smartest person in the room syndrome”.
One of the most common and damaging traits among leaders is the compulsion to prove they are the smartest person in the room.
Many well-intentioned leaders don’t realize this bad habit affects them. Unfortunately, a few small behaviors contributing to “smartest person in the room syndrome” can stifle team creativity, curb innovation, and derail any hopes of developing a high-performance environment. Recognizing these unhelpful traits can be challenging, but if you identify them and resolve to improve, you can focus on putting your team – not yourself – in the spotlight.
The desire to improve your leadership effectiveness will help you self-diagnose and take some simple but powerful corrective actions.
What is Smartest Person in the Room Syndrome?
The term “smartest person in the room syndrome” describes people, typically bosses or workplace leaders, who seem to have an inflated ego or want others to perceive them as “better than.” Unfortunately, this is a common and detrimental trait for many leaders. People with this behavior may not even realize they are displaying these harmful behaviors.
Characteristics of Smartest Person in the Room Syndrome
Always having the last word. Leaders who struggle with smartest person in the room syndrome often operate with a false belief that being in charge means always having the answer. That false belief can drive you to assert your opinion as the final word, and it teaches people to suppress their ideas and wait for solutions from the person in charge. If you’re frustrated with your team’s lack of creativity or active discussion about ideas, perhaps you taught them to wait for the last word.
Verbal and non-verbal cues. Leaders telegraph their smartest-person-in-the-room persona through verbal and non-verbal responses. I’ve observed senior managers portray what is perceived as disinterest or disdain for team members’ commentary by interrupting them mid-sentence or maintaining a facial expression that seems to ask: “Why are you using up my valuable oxygen with this stupid idea?” While a leader may not intend to communicate disregard or disdain, team members will pick up on visible and audible cues. If your team members are less than enthusiastic about sharing new ideas and approaches, perhaps you’ve inadvertently shot them down too many times.
One-upping your team members. A closely related cousin to the first two behaviors is the leader who listens to team input but fails to acknowledge good ideas. One top leader had the unique habit of responding to input with her own feedback in a seeming point-counterpoint battle that employees interpreted as either arguing or trumping their ideas. In reality, she was using an unrecognizable form of active listening to translate what she heard into her own words. But that’s not how her employees saw it.
How to Overcome Smartest Person in the Room Syndrome
If you see these traits in yourself, you should feel proud that you recognized them. Recognition is an essential first step to addressing and changing these behaviors.
Ask more than tell. Questions are powerful leadership tools and much more effective than orders in most circumstances. Train yourself to respond to ideas with questions that help you and others better develop their ideas. Strive to understand before offering your own perspective.
Shut up and let others decide. While you never have to cede your right to veto an idea or approach, use this power sparingly. Through questioning and building upon the ideas of others, you can often encourage the modification or adaptation of someone else’s approach without throwing your weight around. If you must, use the line-item veto.
Look for the beauty, not the flaws, in ideas. Some people see the beauty in an idea, while others find the flaws. A micro-managing boss sees the flaws and hammers people for changes to minutiae. An effective manager acknowledges the beauty inherent in ideas and focuses questions and efforts on realizing that beauty. A simple discussion around risks may be all you need to address potential flaws.
How to Help Your Boss
You may find yourself in the uncomfortable position of recognizing these traits in your boss. Working with the smartest person in the room can be stressful, and it can be challenging to manage these relationships while trying to stay productive and positive at work.
Resist the urge to argue. The temptation to argue is one of my weaknesses, and it’s often wrong. Take a deep breath, close your lips, and think. If you must talk, ask clarifying questions. It never hurts anyone to seek first to understand.
Manage upside-down. Construct an effective feedback discussion with behavioral examples if your boss is generally well-intended and receptive to team input. Indicate the business or performance consequences of the smartest-person behaviors and suggest one or more of the previous techniques. Offer to observe and look for opportunities to apply these techniques. Agree on a mechanism to signal an improper behavior and suggest a different course on the fly.
It takes personal courage to offer feedback to your boss. Remember, the operating assumption is that you sense they are interested in strengthening their performance and growing as a leader. Some leaders will not take your feedback kindly. Tread softly, and if the ice is firm, proceed. If not, move on to the next option.
If the boss isn’t approachable, use judo. A little psychology can go a long way with a challenging boss. Start by positively reinforcing your boss’s ideas, then suggest approaches to strengthen those ideas. Of course, these approaches will match your original suggestions, but you’ll have reframed the idea as your boss’s.
Facilitate idea development and proactively discuss risk. A calm discussion will allow you to ask clarifying questions and—at the appropriate time—suggest exploring the risks. List them on a board or flip chart. Highlighting risks may be enough to gain cooperation from someone who believes they are always right.
Summary
Powerful internal drivers push some people to assert that their opinion is correct. From compensating for a lack of self-confidence to falsely believing that being in charge means being right, this need to assert is a performance- and environment-killing habit. Learn to recognize your tendency to do this and use discipline to resist that temptation. If you work for the smartest person in the room, strive to be just a little smarter by managing the psychology and resisting the urge to argue. The effort is worth the potential improvement.
