Sometimes the smartest person in the office doesn’t get the promotion. This is especially frustrating when you think you’re that person. Raw intelligence is a tremendous asset; but in the business world, it’s not everything. This can confound super-smart people who see others getting the accolades they think they should be getting or achieving goals that seem infuriatingly out of reach. Why is this? For one, smart people sometimes devalue other skills like relationship-building, focusing only on their intellect. With this in mind, something like collaboration and teamwork seems anathema to a highly intelligent individual. Smart people can also attach a lot of their self-esteem to the fact that they are smart, which can decrease that individual’s resilience and lead to avoidance behavior. It can be very difficult for a smart person to place themselves into a situation where they aren’t the brightest person in the room, and it’s highly unlikely this individual will ask for (or accept) criticism or feedback. For the very smart, success comes when they can be objective and self-reflect.
