Our entire IT department had a meeting today with the VP and it was very encouraging. Many of the ideas that we’ve had for implementing strategic, long term goals and improving how we work were addressed, and it was sorely needed as a recent merger caused a lot of chaos and disruption of the process of our daily work.
Getting that level of support from senior management is critical when there is a large gap between what should be done and what is currently being done. While I was reflecting on many of the areas and how well they were addressed, I somehow wandered into the realm of past experiences with people who didn’t like some aspect of their workplace.
I quickly did the typical human task of categorizing these people into three types.
This type of employee is, unfortunately, far too common. The Jerk is the person who picks every aspect of their employment that doesn’t directly make their own life easier and complains about them constantly. They also have absolutely no intention of offering proactive solutions for any of the perceived problems, but are content tearing everyone else down. The only effect is making a workplace that much more hostile and alienating their co-workers. This, of course, is not The Jerk’s fault but everyone else’s for not realizing how brilliant The Jerk is.
In the next tier we have the well meaning, but inexperienced Idea Person. The Idea Person is one who genuinely wants to improve things around them, whether it be ideas for improving cash flow, development processes, new product lines, integration… you pick a topic. They aren’t a Jerk because they want to help the business and rather than simply complaining, they try to develop plans for improving it. However, good ideas are only good if they can be implemented.
How many times have you heard someone say, “We need to completely reorganize our XYZ department. We should fire the ones who aren’t producing, set hard deadlines and goals and tolerate nothing short of them.” Now at a common sense level, this sounds logical for basically any aspect of a business, but implementation details are never produced, nor what level of risk should be acceptable for starting such an initiative.
The other common pitfall of the Idea Person is that they fail to take into account personal feelings and egos. An easily bruised ego is, far and away, the top way to deflate any project to improve your business. Simply walking into the manager of a department and saying the equivalent of, “You’re doing things incorrectly and it’s costing the company money. I have ideas on how you can better manage your aspect of the business. Look for my email.”, will guarantee two things
At this point, you might be surprised to hear that, in my mind, the Genius is usually not the person who has the best ideas. No, the Genius is someone who has two skills. They can listen effectively and they can make people believe in a solution. They go beyond the pathetic struggles for personal power and fragile egos and come up with plans of execution that involve everyone, benefit everyone, and present them with a grain of common sense and a dash of excitement.
They think through the details, even if the scope of the goal is broad, and find out what can be done with existing resources. They offer proactive, step-by-step tasks that can be easily understood and, if not easily achieved, then at a level that is attainable.
As I created these groups of people in my mind, I had to then step back and find out where I stood.
Am I a Jerk? Do I complain constantly about the people around me and how inefficient they are? No, definitely not.
Am I a Genius? Are my ideas always received with enthusiastic huzzahs and complete support. Absolutely not.
Am I an Idea Person? Am I constantly approaching people with unattainable ideas with no thought or planning behind them? Again, no.
So, as always, my typical human generalizations don’t hold up when presented with a singular case. I’d like to think I’m between the Idea Person and the Genius. I put a lot of thought into an idea before I go to others with them, but I also sometimes forget important details which makes the idea fall to the wayside.
What kind of person are you?
2 Responses for "Are You a Jerk or a Genius?"
A genius of course.
hi, andar here, i just read your post. i like very much. agree to you, sir.
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