Can you fix STUPID?

Let me ask you an in-depth personal question:

“Are you a smart person who does stupid things or are you a stupid person who occasionally does smart things?"

How can you tell which one you are? This one, I honestly wish I knew the answer as it would save a lot of time. I've seen this work both ways. I've had bosses that couldn't find their butt with both hands, but they are just smart enough to fool people into thinking that they really know what they're talking about. I call them politicians, and I've known several of them in the workplace.

I think I am the other type of personality. I've been told that I'm very smart and that I have a superb business sense but that has not kept me from making mistakes of almost biblical proportion. I would equate it to having that experience of getting up from your desk, walking halfway across the room, only to forget what you originally got up for. When this happens to you, it doesn't mean that what you got up for wasn't important, nor does it mean that you're going nuts. It simply means that you have experienced a momentary lapse of mental faculties.

I like that term, and I may use it more often. “The lapse of mental faculties” This is almost as good as my other usual term, “Lacking apparent sophistication”. I have had “a lapse of mental faculties” in business as well. I have spent days calculating budgets, working on productions, designing processes, and developing methodologies only to miss a critical step that invalidates all of the previous effort. Hence, at that moment, I was a smart person doing something stupid. I would assume that if this happens often enough that you would be defaulted to the “politician” category.

How do you deal with these personalities? The political types can be unpredictable, untrustworthy, and appear to have vast stores of knowledge. I tend to verify and validate everything that they say which sometimes delays the process. but, every now and then the politicians come up with some great ideas. With some, this happens just often enough to land them into a leadership position.

The smart person who does stupid things is relatively reliable. They will do what they promise, they will target goals and they will meet their obligations.

I have not yet addressed integrity here but, I assume I will later blog in depth about it, as it does have a lot of influence on the politician personality. If somebody with a politician personality has a low level of integrity, you will find them becoming very factional as they tried to claw and get ahead. I have four simple formulas that I refer to:

Stupidity+ integrity = mostly harmless and has good ideas. These people may be slow, but they will generally have good ideas, and as long as their managed well, and are not promoted above their abilities, they can be a real contribution to a team.

Intelligence+ integrity = true leadership. Enough said. This is what I strive for.

Stupidity+ lack of integrity= shortsighted and dangerous. People like this may feign intelligence, but we usually get caught if left to their own devices.

Intelligence+ lack of integrity= criminal. These people will take any opportunity they can to better themselves and their own positions and they're smart enough to get away with it.

So now, after typing all of this I am sitting here trying to determine a fancy acronym for STUPID, but I appear to be having “a lapse of mental faculties” and am unable to think of one.

If you can think of a good acronym, feel free to add it to the comments on this blog

Where’s my MIO?

John