Overestimation of competence isn't limited to the incompetent | Managing Leadership

Rays of hope

We understand that there are people who overestimate their competence. But in assuming we can figure out ways to deal with that, we may be overestimating ours. In a comment to yesterday’s post, Steve Roesler, who authors All Things Workplace, provides a powerful example of this, which definitely lends support to the idea that we might want to pause on this subject for a bit, yet.

Let’s take another look, then, at our axiomatic starting point:

The dumber they are, the smarter they think they are.”

Now, let’s restate it in its first corollary form:

The smarter they think they are, the dumber they are.”

Has the problem ever presented itself to you that way? It mixes things up a little at first glance, but after a moment of sorting it out, it seems pretty straightforward again, doesn’t it?

But recall that this is only so when we feel confident about our own ability to identify these supposed dummies. After all, they can think what suits them, but for all that, their stupidity is obvious and out there for all to see, right?

Not necessarily. Most of us are accustomed to viewing this issue in the context of troublesome line employees or, at least, juniors. But just a little thought will serve to disabuse us of that conceit, demonstrating clearly enough that we can cast the net far wider, and still haul in a full catch.

Consider, for example, today’s news. It doesn’t really matter where you are on the political, ideological, or any other spectrum; the odds are pretty good that right now, off the top of your head, you can reel off the names of two or three national or international figures whose presence on the world stage absolutely baffles you. Where did these people come from, and how did such complete morons get themselves into such positions of power and influence?

Is the business world, or the world of organizations generally, any less productive of examples like these?

Certainly not. After all, it’s not just our juniors, is it - it’s our bosses, too, who are just irreclaimably obtuse. It is we who are the beacon of rational hope on this endless coast of jagged lunacy.

Yes, it’s us, the truly smart ones, who could save the world if only we could gain access to the levers of power in place of the simpletons who somehow got there, undeservedly, ahead of us.

Wait a minute: what was that about “the smarter they think they are . . .” - that surely doesn’t apply to us, does it? Because we really are the smart ones, aren’t we?

Well, let’s start turning the light around and taking a closer look at that assertion, tomorrow. We’ll look at a classic example of why we shouldn’t be so sure about it. See you then!

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Technorati Tags: competence, Steve Roesler, stupidity, employee, power, influence, business, organization, productive, boss, smart, power, Dunning-Kruger effect

2 Comments

Krishna Kumar wrote:

Jim, people who get into positions of power and influence do a few things that otherwise smart people don’t:

1. They pick their battles. They don’t set out to do everything. They pick 1-2 very important items and stick to that. If you look at elections, people prefer a confident (but wrong) person to a correct person who deals in nuances and detail.
2. They are willing to overlook many faults and deficiences in people, processes, etc. For example, loyalty of their followers is a more important consideration to many leaders than other traits. They may ignore all kinds of sins done by them as long as they gain their support.

3. Many leaders have to spend years and decades following some other leader regardless of the latter’s capabilities before they can rise to the same level.

Most intelligent people do not tolerate stupidity above or below them. So unless they create their own organizations, they would find it difficult to rise to the top.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at 10:26 pm | Permalink
Jim Stroup wrote:

Hi Krishna,

You anticipate me with your observation that “people prefer a confident (but wrong) person to a correct person” - I’ll be going into that in a few days.

Your point about intelligent people and tolerance of the stupidity around them is a complicated one - we often react as you describe and we sometimes are compelled by circumstances to grit our teeth - other times we aren’t as unforgiving in our assessments of other people as we are on ourselves, so we don’t even recognize the problem. We’ll cover that, and that latter point in particular, in the broader context that this current discussion is the intro to.

This is good stuff, and will help the discussion - particularly the notion of loyalty being more important to certain of these people than other traits.

Thanks for your visit and your thoughtful comments!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007 at 11:29 pm | Permalink