Are You Smarter Than Your Boss?

[achtungbaby]

This also extends to other managers and supervisors of other departments.

[kimpossible]

I'm book smarter and more tech savvy but his experience and business skills are hard earned and could crush my puny self.

[deez nuts]

nope for the time being anyways.

[ChinaLama]

'shnope. i'm as dumb as shit but everyone thinks i'm smart for some reason... until i open my mouth.

[kboy75]

nope, my boss is incredibley quick, intelligent, and experienced.

[achtungbaby]

I'm not smarter than my director, at least in the political sense. He's a former chief of staff for a u.s. senator and has worked for years in D.C. and in the profit sector to boot.

But other directors...? It's so bizarre, sometimes I wonder if they're just playing stupid because they don't want to tangle over items.

[Chris]

Nope. I am the 4th youngest here in my firm.

[kasia]

depends on where i'm working. currently, i'm working for a criminal defense atty. and the answer is - heck no. and thank god for that.

[tapestrybabe]

i dont know about being smart...
but if i like my job...
i like taking the initative to do certain stuff...
and bring about new ideas
that no one else ends up thinking about...

[tommyhtown]

I think I am smarter than my boss who is a director. Still, I don't want his job though.

[teaz0r]

from one of my favourite articles:
It Doesn't Take a Wizard to Build a Better Boss (http://www.fastcompany.com/online/03/boss.html)

"I won't try to manage things, because I can't think." -- The Scarecrow

I. The Scarecrow: The Boss Does the Talking, You Do the Thinking

How stupid was Steve DeSimone?

The year was 1970 and antagonism was high between college-aged Vietnam War protestors and middle-aged law-and-order cops. Steve drove a red GTO and the cops were constantly giving him tickets for seemingly minor infractions.

One day, I walked out with him into the parking lot. "Steve," I told him. "I think I've figured out why the cops are after you."

I pointed to his vanity license plate that read "SDS," for Steve DeSimone -- or Students for a Democratic Society, the antiwar student group.

DeSimone was my boss; he directed a state youth opportunities commission, a post he'd gotten for one reason: his dad ran a major union. I was his deputy. It was my second real job; I was all of 19. The work: design a first-of-its-kind statewide employment program for teenagers and get a federal grant to finance it.

On my first day at work, I discovered that Commissioner DeSimone would be around for only two days before taking two weeks off. So I went to him with a rookie question: "What do you want me to do?"

His answer: "Two things. First, get that grant. Second, get me good press."

That was it. DeSimone might have been stupid, but at least his goals were clear. In that instant, I recognized that I had a choice. I could either decide to do nothing more, sit around and whine about my boss, or I could make him look good in exchange for designing and running the whole job program myself.

At the time, it struck me that making my dumb boss look smart was a very small price to pay for all the running room I was being given. Apparently my predecessor hadn't seen it that way. He'd left the post in a funk.

My reaction was: Who's the dumb one here? If your boss is a Scarecrow, his stupidity is your opportunity. So what do you do?

As much as you can. Take on as much work and as much responsibility as you can handle. Do the work. Then do the briefing necessary to keep the boss well-informed and comfortable. And most important, do whatever it takes to make sure the boss gets all the credit for all the work you do.

What do you not do? Don't listen to your ego. Worrying about getting credit is the worst mistake you can make. If you're doing all the work -- going to the late-night sessions, developing the strategies, seeing them through to implementation -- then others both in and out of the organization will have a clear understanding of your contribution. Those who matter will know that you're the source of the ideas.

What do you get out of working for a Scarecrow? An opportunity you couldn't possibly have with a smart, high-powered, mentor of a boss: the opportunity to immerse yourself in boss-like work years before you might otherwise have the chance.

What do you give up in a situation like this? Absolutely nothing.

But if Steve DeSimone's willingness to let me do the thinking for him represents the best-case Scarecrow scenario, there is also a worst-case scenario: a stupid boss who wants to micro-manage the organization.

I have not only worked for this kind of boss, I was one. It was my first job after graduate school; I had been hired by a major manufacturer and sent to a Midwestern factory to learn the ropes, managing the night shift. When the time came to report for my first night after training, I was more than ready. I'd read the performance charts and knew I could boost productivity and do it literally overnight.

When my shift reported, I immediately began rallying the troops. I told them that I'd figured out how we could cut the amount of time it took to do an equipment change. I even jumped onto one of the forklifts to demonstrate my more efficient method. Mistake. Big mistake. Before I knew what had happened, the whole crew had walked off the factory floor and into the cafeteria. I had single-handedly triggered a wildcat strike.

At that point I did the only thing a young manager knows to do: I called home, woke up my wife, and asked her what to do. Her advice: apologize. So I went into the cafeteria and did as I'd been told. Peace was restored -- and I'd learned an important lesson about the bosses and the bossed. If I tried to act "bossly" about things I knew nothing about, I could only screw things up. The routine work was under control. If I really wanted to be the boss, I needed to find ways to add value -- otherwise, the best I could do was to get out of the way.

When the boss is both stupid and meddlesome -- as I was -- you have to find a way to teach him that lesson, politely but firmly.

[Oblivious]

Nope. I look up to him. He's quite inspiring.