We have a warped concept of managers. We imagine them young, handsome, and slim, wearing impeccable suits and speaking rapidly into smartphones at an airport terminal. They have a university degree and an MBA. They know about marketing and finance, and regularly present at high-powered meetings. They are extremely competent.

We have such a gilded idea of business executives that we would not be able to recognize them on a bus or in the supermarket line. It is difficult to imagine them just walking around some town.

Now let us look at those we work with every day in the office, the flesh and blood managers we’ve had, and at ourselves. Are they similar to the image described, or did we miss it by a long shot?

I want to present a more realistic boss type: someone who is not always brimming with business acumen; someone with doubts, who tries and sometimes fails; who harbors a private conviction of his ongoing personal shortcomings; and who is always putting out fires. In other words: Someone who is incompetent.

The word “incompetence” as used here is not pejorative. I define a “competent” person as an incompetent person who is insufficiently diagnosed; and an “incompetent” person as a high potential who is insufficiently worked.

With managers and employees both diagnosed as incompetent, this may seem like the blind leading the blind. But it’s actually a more true definition of what we need to manage. People management is fundamentally incompetence management.  Shallowness, forgetfulness, hurriedness, and a lack of common sense surround us, along with people’s good qualities. These good qualities are important, but that is not the focus here. Competence actually manages itself; we have to deal with incompetence because it is abundant, and because it is what we can manage.

My approach is tremendously optimistic. I argue that we can do better, and that best is the enemy of good. My tone is critical, but not defeatist. A story from Francoist Spain illustrates this concept. An industry minister went directly to the head of the government—Francisco Franco himself—and asked for investments to improve the impaired RENFE (the Spanish national railway system). Franco looked at him condescendingly and replied, “Dear Minister, RENFE cannot be improved.” But we are all incompetent because we can always improve, and because we are always learning. We’re not as good as we think, but we can be better than we can imagine. Finding one’s self among the kingdom of incompetence should bring us peace, and also gain hope to undertake the process of self-improvement and assume the responsibility for improving those around us. You must work with what you have.

This is the starting point of my managing incompetence proposal, a whole new approach to run businesses and organizations.