Expertise Isn’t Enough: Anatomy of the (not so) Brilliant Jerk

A few years back, I had an experience that taught me a few important lessons about what it means to be a leader, and I thought this experience would make an equally valuable teachable moment for readers and followers. I don’t know if I could sum up the lesson in a single phrase, but what became clear to me as a result of this experience is that confidence without humility results in loss of credibility, and that arrogance in any form erodes one’s ability to be an effective leader.

So, the topic this time is the rough anatomy of the “brilliant jerk.” We’ll be looking at a specific incident, uncovering its implications for leadership in general, and using it to dissect the characteristics of the “brilliant jerk.”

The incident went as follows. One of the authors whose books we have used extensively and with much success in our business—we’ll call him “Alvin White”—posted an apparently personal rant with a strong condescending tone in response to a book recommendation that was posted online. The book being recommended wasn’t new or controversial; it has long been on John Maxwell’s list of recommended books and is one of the most well-known books out there on “positive thinking.” The book was pretty innocuous as far as things go, so Mr. White’s response was shocking, to say the least!

In a series of posts, one of which has been posted here, Mr. White launched into a fairly strong attack on the person who posted the recommendation. He hurled insults and told the person they should “read history” instead of “promoting mythology,” and how they should “stop promoting” what they “know nothing about!” Mr. White said that the (deceased) author whose book was being recommended was a conman and a drunk, and that he (Mr. White) had been fired by an associate of the author for not buying into his nonsense.

Now, I’m not going to speculate as to what might have caused White’s outburst, nor am I going to attempt to defend the author he was criticizing, because for our purposes those things don’t matter. What I want to do is examine this incident to see what we can learn from it.

In this instance, Alvin White had clearly crossed the line from confidence into arrogance and felt free to speak to and about others as if they were inferior. This didn’t seem to be a good faith intervention to help others avoid potential harm, but a petty, egotistical, personal take-down—of someone who is no longer here to defend themselves, at that! Presumably, this inflated ego came from his own prestige and credibility as an established and successful consultant.

Needless to say, this incident caused Mr. White to lose a great deal of respect and credibility in my eyes. Even though I continue to see the value of his expertise, I can only do so by purposely divorcing his teachings from him as a person. In an irony that seems to have been lost on him, his very behavior disproves the point of his own argument, i.e. that the unsavory reputation of an author should invalidate the value of their message.

It became clear to me that, while Alvin White may be the world’s foremost expert in his field, he knew hardly anything about being a leader, transformative or otherwise. Rather than regarding him as a leader, I now understood that he was just another one of those “brilliant jerks,” with all the baggage that entailed. Just as it was foolish of him to conflate his credibility and expertise in one area with that in another area, it would be foolish of me to do the same and excuse his personal failings because of his professional success.

This tendency, to assume that expertise in one area makes up for incompetence in others, is core to the anatomy of the “brilliant jerk,” an affliction that has sidelined many an aspiring leader. So let’s put it under the microscope and see why this is one of the ways that good leaders go bad.

To begin with, what I mean by a “brilliant jerk” is anyone who has expertise—or the appearance of it—in a specific area and whose behavior indicates that they believe this expertise compensates for their character flaws, which they often show no willingness or desire to rectify. These flaws include, but aren’t limited to: rudeness, arrogance, hypocrisy, insubordination, entitlement mentality, racism, sexism, xenophobia, authoritarianism, mendacity, and general unsavoriness. Sometimes, they will explicitly claim to be geniuses, hiding behind the mistaken notion that genius and character flaws are inherently linked, essentially making the case that their negative qualities are in fact positive ones.

Unfortunately, becoming the brilliant jerk isn’t exclusive to any industry or area of expertise; I have seen it happen to self-help gurus and personal finance experts I used to admire, as well as politicians and, recently, tech CEOs. In the entertainment industry, they even have their own term for the brilliant jerk: the diva.

It’s important to note that the brilliant jerk need not necessarily have actual expertise; usually, it is enough for them to simply think themselves an expert—or market themselves as such—to justify their bad behavior. In fact, as a result of the Dunning-Kruger effect, sometimes the more clueless and incompetent they are, the more brilliant they perceive themselves to be.

Contrary to what they might have you believe, no one likes the brilliant jerk. The brilliant jerk is tolerated, and that tolerance is entirely contingent on the benefit currently derived from their supposed brilliance. As soon as the positive value of their expertise is outweighed by the negative effect they have on the culture, they cannot be jettisoned quickly enough. On some level, they all know this, and the motivated reasoning they engage in to avoid this inevitability is behind most of the hardships they cause.

At best, the brilliant jerk is a drag on the organization and a liability to be mitigated. At worst—usually when the brilliant jerk is a leader with significant authority—they are almost single-handedly the greatest threat the organization faces. This is due in part to the fact that the brilliant jerk’s entire identity is based on a scarcity mentality, compartmentalization, and an almost pathological resistance to change, all of which do significant damage to an organization. It is also due to the fact that, ultimately, the only people who enthusiastically agree with and support brilliant jerks tend to be jerks themselves.

With regard to scarcity mentality, because the brilliant jerk’s continued relevance depends entirely on the expertise they bring, they are highly motivated to make sure that they remain the exclusive possessors of that expertise. They have to overexaggerate their ability to solve problems, often requiring them to make the case that anyone else with a possible solution is wrong, dumb, and possibly even untrustworthy. Likewise, sharing their expertise or otherwise acknowledging that it may not be absolutely necessary is tantamount to arguing for their own dismissal. No one in their right mind would do that, and so they don’t. Rather, they engage in a kind of organizational Munchausen syndrome by proxy.

Essentially, brilliant jerks hold everyone around them hostage by threatening to withhold their assistance unless their offensive and disrespectful behavior is given a free pass. “Let me do what I want,” they say, “let me disparage and abuse you, or I’ll let you suffer.” This requires that they always hold some back to make sure they remain valuable. It also means that collaboration or even agreement with another expert is basically career suicide. Since brilliant jerks are only useful as long as there is a problem to be solved, they have a perverse incentive to ensure that some baseline level of dysfunction continues lest they become obsolete.

Brilliant jerks are always playing a zero-sum game, where they assume another person’s success diminishes their own, and where an abundance mentality is seen as a threat to their survival. And as a result of their awareness that their “jerkiness” is a liability on its own, they are incentivized to argue that other actual experts with positive, agreeable attitudes are possibly incompetent or even harmful. They basically have to argue that their “jerkiness” is a feature of expertise, not a bug.

Now, let’s talk a little about compartmentalization as it relates to this phenomenon. Perhaps as a result of defining themselves according to their expertise and circumstances—something which you can be sure creates a great deal of existential unease—brilliant jerks tend to identify mostly with their strengths and be in denial about their weaknesses. We all do this to a certain extent, but the brilliant jerk takes it to another level; not only do they have expertise, but, in a very real sense, their expertise becomes who they actually are. Consequently, all of their behavior outside of their area of expertise not only doesn’t matter, but in some sense, it barely even exists.

Functionally, the brilliant jerk narrows their perception of themselves and the world to the point that things outside of their area of expertise just don’t really count. As you might imagine, this allows them to justify all sorts of objectively negative behavior as harmless, and all sorts of incompetence in certain areas of life as irrelevant. This also means that they need not make any effort to improve in areas they are weak or failing in because those areas of life simply don’t matter. (Ironically, this approach again puts them in a precarious position; because they have few redeeming qualities beyond their expertise, they have basically turned themselves into cumbersome tools to be replaced as soon as someone with a better attitude or character shows up).

This also leads to a conflation of narrow expertise with global competence, usually to the vexation of anyone who has to work with—or just listen to—a brilliant jerk. Brilliant jerks, despite narrow expertise being their claim to fame, rarely see the need to “stay in their lane.” Just imagine hiring the world’s greatest plumber to install the wiring in your house, and you get an idea of how damaging this assumption can be. Yet many brilliant jerks and toxic leaders believe just this very thing about themselves, refusing to accept that their expertise has any limits whatsoever. This tendency, coupled with their reputation for brilliance, unfortunately leads many people to erroneously believe they know what they’re talking about regardless of the topic.

If the brilliant jerk is a leader, this causes them to demand authority without accountability, and expect accountability from others without giving them any authority. It leads to an environment where the leader refuses to trust anyone to do anything properly, regardless of their skill level or experience. This is because the leader defines themselves in relation to their strengths, but everyone else according to their weaknesses, in a process similar to the Fundamental Attribution Error. The end result is a culture characterized by patronization, micromanagement, inefficiency, and resentment.

Believing your strengths in one area compensate for your failings in the other just makes you worse at both. Being a brilliant jerk doesn’t enhance your value, it only means people have to hold their nose whenever they’re forced to work with you. As a result, those with the most to offer can end up being the most unpleasant people you’ll ever be forced to deal with. There is a lot more to say on the issue, but I’ve covered the rest of my thoughts in the Further Resources section below.

I’d like to leave you with these wise words from world-renowned consultant Alan Weiss: “Confidence is the honest belief that you’re highly capable of helping others. Arrogance is the honest belief that you have nothing more to learn yourself.” Leaders, and those who aspire to become them, should always keep this distinction in mind. As soon as the former becomes the latter, your credibility and effectiveness as a leader go down the drain, no matter how much expertise you have.

If there are topics you find to be of special value to you, or if you’d just like to get in touch and chat about what’s going on with you, simply reply to this newsletter or send me an email at amir@theghannadgroup.com. If you’re experiencing challenges that you would like my perspective on, or you’d like to explore how we can partner with you to support you in your transformative journey, please click here to schedule a call with me. I’d love to hear from you.

Further Resources

If you’d like to learn more about topics covered in this week’s newsletter article, check out the related resources I’ve included below.

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