Being surrounded by people who are smarter than you is a common occurrence. Speak for yourself you say. It can become perplexing at times, but there are ways on how you can manage and benefit without losing your self esteem or doubt.
The key is that it’s always better to work with those who are more brilliant than you. It’s no mystery that superior wisdom that’s combined with a dedicated work ethic, those individuals require less supervision while they’ll come up with superior solutions sooner.
The biggest issue however is that when confronting intellects, most become insecure or intimidated, or their ego gets in the way. Being among them makes mere mortals feel threatened.
There’s only a select few who would freely admit it, and the biggest reason why individuals fail to heed this advice. Even the most self assured of individuals can feel their confidence plummet once they’re surrounded by those who are smarter than them.
But it’s thought possible that you could reap the rewards so you could gain the benefits of having a team of advanced achievers, without not feeling out of place.
What’s not required is an ego transplant while reacting and working accordingly to this superior intelligence, this to get ahead in life and business without your self confidence taking a beating.
Begin By Asking A Lot Of Questions
When surrounded those who obviously know more than you, your first impulse is to pretend that you’re just as smart, or you hide your ignorance somehow, but that’s not the recommended route to go.
The biggest advice is to ask a lot of questions, otherwise you’ll never learn. It’s always better to appear that you’re uninformed rather than giving the impression you know everything, or more.
So don’t be that proud to ask the technicians or engineers to explain things to you, and as easy and elementary as possible, this so that you and everyone else could understand.
Know that there are no stupid questions, just stupid answers, and that a stupid question is the one that’s not asked. So ask plenty of questions and ask them often.
Know What You’re Capable Of
What ever your position is, what you need to do is contribute somehow. You need to do your part, have something to offer the company or team. So focus on all of your strengths, such as administration or leadership, this rather than what you lack in expertise.
Focus intently on intersecting your skills and work experience, making sure that you become the best in that area. Within that tightly defined role, what you should be doing is aiming to perform the best to your ability.
Always Be Learning
Make sure that you always do your homework and are always prepared and caught up. Learn everything that you can and need to. Try to get into their head and trace how they think, what their patterns are. What it comes down to is educating yourself.
Since you need to diversify, what you’re not going to do is out expert them in their knowledge, but you can contribute by offering that key piece of management or leadership advice, or an abstract point of view.
So try to absorb all of the information from an outsiders perspective, and then you should be able to contribute a different viewpoint without appearing completely ridiculous.
Never Compete
The more that you attempt to compete with them, the less that you’re learning or accomplishing something. Never compete but instead allow the creation process to occur.
That point in time when you accept that there will always be someone smarter than you, that’s when the learning process will become a lot easier. Contemplate or create instead of competing.
Maintain A Long Term Vision
One thing that you need to do is have a vision of where you or your company is headed, to keep a perspective. So hold yourself back and bite your pride, and never feed your ego for the greater good.
You need to adjust to the bigger picture. Consider and accept the fact that you’re working with experts, specialists, those who are generally brighter than you.
Realize that the alternative is working with those who are less knowledgeable, or have less experience or expertise. Doing so will be a lot more frustrating than working with those who are smarter than you. Working with these types of peers will enhance your own knowledge and life.
Know What You’re Able To Control
You know that you’re average when it comes to intelligence, but realize that there’s one huge factor that you’re able to control.
Although you’re not the smartest person in the room, but what you can offer is preparation and organization. You can’t generally get any brighter, but you can always work harder than everyone else.
So make it a point and do all the adjustments required to work as hard as you can, and you’ll eventually fit in. A superior work ethic is found to be more important than pedigree.
Become A Better Leader
This doesn’t mean that not everyone has to like you. These people around you are usually more brilliant and extremely creative at what they do, but they usually need direction and motivation. This is where you come in.
You don’t need to strong arm exercise your power, but what you have is the ability to get their juices going, and do so by exercising the authority that’s granted to you as a leader.
You’ve proven a superior ability, skill, or commitment to envision the bigger picture. You have the charisma that they don’t, so as a result, they’re drawn towards you to lead them.
What most good leaders use are different ways to motivate. What different situations call for are different forms of it. You need to adapt to the culture of your organization.