You read the title right.
Smart people make dumb leaders and here’s why…
Smart people think they know it all, so what they would rather do is manage. Sorry, but managing isn’t anything close to leading.
Smart people don’t feel they need to ask questions, and on the surface they don’t, because they know the answer and that right there is the crux of the issue. Leaders ask questions. They ask questions to engage people, to increase the level of thinking and to allow others to participate in the growth process.
Many times the asking of questions takes additional time and again the smart person doesn’t feel it’s a good use of time. A smart person is going to think about the time spent asking questions and view it as not being a good spend.
Leaders know the value of their leadership is not with them but with their people.
Leaders know their goal is to develop others, and the best way is by tapping into the skills each person brings and building on them.
Leaders know they can’t do everything themselves and they don’t attempt to stumble their way forward thinking they can. Smart people are comfortable flying solo and thus are far more willing to try to do it all themselves.
The argument can be made it would be better to work for a person who is smart than a person who is dumb, but that’s not the issue. The issue is how smart people tend to make lousy leaders.
All of this doesn’t mean smart people don’t have a place in the leadership circle. They do, and once they accept the fact that their greatest asset is not their own knowledge but the collective wisdom of the team, then they can succeed as a leader.
Dumb leaders are nothing more than managers masquerading as a leader. Leaders lead by being able to secure a higher level of outcome from their team than they could doing it themselves.
Copyright 2015, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
