“My Learning Partner last month was a smarter guy. So I did not have to do much work. It was easy-peasy. But this month, things aren’t so good. The new learning partner and me are at the same level of smartness. So I also have to do a lot of thinking.”

He was clearly not happy about being with a learning partner who was as smart as himself.  I did not comment. I kept mum and was actually  happy that their learning partners changed every month.

This conversation with my little one made me think of  my  days at work. I was in the marketing team for a firm. Here, I noticed the two sides to my personality.  

1. When I was meeting up with clients alone or with a junior colleague
   and 
2. When I was meeting up clients with a colleague whom I considered to be smarter than me.

I was clear about what I wanted to talk and how to close the deal when I went alone or with my junior. Though nervous, I went well prepared.

But whenever I went out with the “smarter”  colleague, I seemed to be confused and dependent on her. Even when I had a chance to take charge, I hesitated and doubted my worth to do it.

Here, I equate “smarter” as a person who is slightly more competent, experienced and with more exposure. He/she has attended a better college and comes across as more confident.

On the contrary, the philosophy that most of us have grown up hearing is what  Garett Jones describes it in the book, Hive Mind: How Your Nation’s IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own:

“It’s typically better to be the less-skilled honeybee in the highly productive hive than to be the highly skilled honeybee in the less-productive hive: your neighbors have an important influence on what you can accomplish.”

 

“A group of smart people can often feed off of each other and become more than the sum of their individual parts. They bring out the best in each other – and this is just as true for a business or organization as it is for a nation as a whole.”

“Surround yourself with Smart People” “ Hire people who are smarter than you” etc are supposed to be the success mantras.

There are, however, a small number of people who say, “Don’t surround yourself with smart people. Surround yourself with people who can help you succeed. People who share your vision of what success is.” To read more of this article, click here

Obviously, “smartness” cannot be the only criteria for making a person your business partner or team member. The key here is to learn from those who are smarter and more experienced than you. Having a right mentor at work has been the key to the success of many successful people. 

“Smartness” is not a stagnant quality. It is something that can be worked on and improved.

The inequality in the level of smartness/competence is of high concern in the educational sector. According to an article, (article is linked here)

When individuals are faced with others whom they view as more competent at some task, the threat of feeling inferior hinders cognitive engagement, resulting in reduced ability to process information.”  If a student is in a group and thinks the rest of the group members are smarter, better prepared, or know more about working in groups, that student is less focused on what’s going on in the group and more concerned about how he or she is likely to look less impressive than everyone else. However, there’s less chance of looking inadequate if you say and/or do nothing.

This is true even when we are in the company of  “smarter” friends or relatives. That feeling of inadequacy can even break relationships. I have come across friends who have completely lost their confidence just by being with a partners who are way too smarter than those friends.

Looking back at my experience working with people who were “more” and “less” smarter than me,  both of them have helped me grow my own skills. I observed how the “smarter” person worked, conducted himself/herself and dealt with situations. I got to put those observations and skills into practice when I was the “smarter” person in the room.

When I spoke to some people about their experience of working with smarter people, all of them agreed on one thing: Being the smarter person in the group comes with a big responsibility. The responsibility of not making the others in the group feel inadequate or dumb.

You could be the smartest person in a project, the smartest friend in a friend’s circle or the smarter partner in a relationship. Do Not Intimidate the person on the other side.

Coming back to where all of this started, I once again thanked the school system for making sure that my smart boy got a chance to work with kids who were smarter than him and as smart as him.

What do you feel about being with people who are more smarter and less smarter than you ?

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