Cherish smart but lazy people

So last time I posted, I discussed dealing with lawyers – lessons learnt from my long lunches with a barrister/army friend.

Another interesting discussion we had was around the need for stupid or lazy people. Ian’s point of view was that in any organisation, you have people who are smart and people who are stupid. You also have industrious people and lazy people. The key to success though was how you use those people.

Smart/industrious people
These people you want as your leaders. They come up with new solutions and drive outcomes. They will also set the example for others.

Conversely, you don’t want smart/industrious people in non-leadership roles, as they are just disruptive and are sure to leave you if they don’t get promoted.

Smart/lazy people
These people you want as your mid-level managers. They are the people who create the systems to make their own life easier, which benefits the organisation.

I should point out that you don’t want smart/industrious people as mid-level managers as they will always rather take on the work themselves to get the job done, rather than generating the systems you want.

Stupid/industrious people
These people you want as your workers. They don’t ask questions or cause problems. Just point them in the right direction and let them go. They are the ones that get the job done.

Stupid/lazy people
These are the people you fire. It’s to your benefit if they are working for a competitor.

Of course everything is relative – Ian was quite comfortable with the fact he was the smartest person he knew. Right up to the moment he became a Barrister, when he then met people that made him look completely stupid.

So have a look at your own organisation (just quietly). What would it look like if you graphed employee intelligence versus activity levels?

Would your managers sit in the smart/lazy quadrant? Have you got the right people in the right quadrant – or are you just waiting for trouble to erupt?

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Brendan Lewis is a serial technology entrepreneur having founded: Ideas Lighting, Carradale Media, Edion, Verve IT, The Churchill Club, Flinders Pacific and L2i Technology Advisory. He has set up businesses for others in Romania, Indonesia and Vietnam. Qualified in IT and Accounting, he has also spent time running an Advertising agency and as a Cavalry Officer with the Australian Army Reserve.