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"Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence."

--Napoleon Bonaparte

Wednesday, June 8, 2005

Competent Jerks, Lovable Fools

Check out this article in the June 2005 Harvard Business Review.

Employees were categorized into for different areas:

Lovable Star (desperately wanted)
Lovable Fool (mildly wanted)
Competent Jerk (mostly avoided)
Incompetent Jerk (desperately avoided)

It's most interesting to think about the Lovable Fool and the Competent Jerk. The major point of this piece is this - when asked who we most prefer and choose to work with we say competent jerk. But in the work environment most of actually choose and prefer the lovable fool. Likability is an important trait, underrated and undervalued.

I found myself liking the message of this article despite being a bit skeptical. First off, the whole idea behind this article seemed a bit simplistic. Aren't we all the competent jerk at times? Don't we play the lovable fool, at least occasionally? The authors did point out this idea and stated that one person's lovable fool is another's competent jerk.

It's interesting to consider different aspects of this delimma that we all face at times. It's also surprising when we face the truth. Perhaps the lovable fool has a greater role to play in the average company. Perhaps the competent jerk isn't really as important as we might think............

10:25:21 PM