It happens every once in a while. That rare and incredible opportunity to be in the esteemed presence of “the smartest person in the room.” You know this person: he / she knows all of the answers, doesn’t need to learn anything new, talks over people, talks down to people, and is basically just plain rude to everyone around because after all, this IS the smartest person in the room!
During a recent business leadership skills simulation workshop, Advantexe had the opportunity and challenge of working with the smartest person in the room, and that experience has provided the impetus for this blog outlining several business leadership skills for dealing with this type of individual in a real-world business environment.
Business leadership skills simulation workshops provide organizations and individuals with the opportunity to explore and develop talent in a realistic environment. Typically, a workshop is instructionally designed to include some pre-work including new content in the areas of business acumen and business leadership, background on a simulation case study, and an overview of the learning process. During this recent session, a small group of five participants went to their breakout room to work on developing a business strategy for their simulated company and then make operational decisions to execute the business strategy. I have personally conducted more than 2,000 “years” of simulation workshops and have witnessed many different personality styles and behaviors as part of the team development process. There usually really is a forming, storming, and performing process and participants learn about team dynamics as it all unfolds.
This session was different. The smartest person in the room didn’t have to engage in the strategy conversation, review the materials, or take his role as the COO seriously. After all, he WAS the smartest person in the room. After his team introduced themselves, and started to share their ideas on the strategy their simulated organization should take, the smartest person in the room spoke up: “I won the simulation at my B-school. This is easy. All you have to do is have the newest products, give the best customer service, and charge the lowest prices, and you will win the game.”
Of course the smartest person in the room was wrong. Our sophisticated business simulation is based on years of research and real world experiences and as we all know, it is impossible to be successful trying to be all things to all people.
The smartest person in the room’s team came in last place financially and their leadership was not aligned, they had poor communications, and the simulated employees were totally disengaged.
From a leadership perspective, this raises several interesting questions including finding ways of dealing with a situation like this one. Based on our research, experiences, and observations from simulation workshops over the last 25 years, here are 5 best practices:
Acknowledge and listen
The smartest person in the room must be heard and must be proven right. The best practice that we have seen work well is to acknowledge and listen politely while the Smartest Person in the Room. There is a chance that the smartest person in the room may become comfortable and content that he has been heard, which could possibly lead to him listening to others. The worst thing that you can do is cut him off, ignore him, or try to act smarter (see next).
Don’t engage with similar poor behavior
No matter what, don’t try to out-smart the smartest person in the room. You can’t win and it will make a bad situation exponentially worse.
Try to determine the true motives
The smartest person in the room is behaving this way for a reason. Many times – especially in the business world – a career “derailer” is actually an overused strength. Try to understand the reasons for these behaviors. Is it insecurity? Is it uncontrollable passion for the business? Is it the culture of the business or industry in which the person works? Understanding the true motivations can help diffuse bad situations – especially if they are not short term.
Provide feedback in private
I have seen the scenario play out many times in a business simulation workshop where a fellow teammate has to speak with the smartest person in the room in private during a break to provide feedback on how the behaviors are disruptive. Most of the time this kind of feedback can neutralize a situation in the short term (which is great), but in the long term, the problems and issues are too deep for a 10 minute feedback session to correct.
Move on - it’s not worth it
Sometimes the best solution to a challenge is to go find a new challenge. You might not have enough energy or resources to want to battle against the smartest person in the room. When you find yourself in that situation, then it is absolutely time to move on. In today’s evolved and aware organizations, if too many people leave a leader who is behaving like the Smartest Person in the Room, most good organizations do take notice and will take action. Trust the system.