Are You Smarter than Your Boss?

I read a good article several weeks ago in Psychology Today. It was titled, “When You’re Smarter Than Your Boss,” and I haven’t the foggiest idea why I even bothered - I don’t have a boss, aside from my oldest cat. Am I smarter than her? I pride myself in being able to say, “Sometimes.”

Anyway, the article points out a couple of facts:

1. Relationships are never strengthened when one person lets the other know that they believe themselves to be the smarter one.

2. You have to find a way to let your “smarts” shine through without becoming a threat to your boss. Funny thing about bosses - they hate threats like politicians hate promises and cast them aside just as easily.

The author, Judith Sills (author and psychologist), points out that there are may, indeed, be ways in which you are more inclined than your boss. Maybe you add figures faster than he does, maybe your vocabulary is richer, etc. The ego has a way of taking one or two advantages and declaring themselves the superior horse in the race.

Whether or not you actually are intellectually superior doesn’t really matter. What matters is the fact that you feel smarter, because your feelings have the potential to affect how you treat your boss….which has the potential to shorten your shelf life. You have to be on guard against overreacting to errors that your boss makes, because (if you feel that he/she is beneath your intellectual level) you’ll be watching for them.

If you start thinking, “These roles should be reversed…..these desks should be reversed…these parking spaces should be reversed….these paychecks should be reversed….Who do I have to see to put me in charge?!” —you’re skating on thin ice. And if the ice breaks, guess who’s going under. Not the big cheese. Big cheeses don’t get wet.

Advice from the author:

1. Never gossip about your boss or try to lessen his reputation to co-workers. Uncool at best. At worst, they could turn the tables on you one day.

2. Use your strengths to help his weaknesses - without wearing a sign announcing what you’re doing!

3. Watch that your vocabulary doesn’t become too big for its pants. No need for a $500 word when a 5 spot will do just fine.

“Diminishing your boss’s real strengths, overreacting to his errors and resisting or resenting his authority are self-inflicted career problems. In themselves, they may be small day-to-day irritants. But they can add up to big time job dissatisfaction. you DO need to be learning something in your job. You DO need to feel personally valued. When you distort your boss in a negative direction, you make both less likely.”