Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The Cone of Silence, Chaos (KAOS), and the Smartest Person in the Room - Part One

In the 1960's television series, "Get Smart", a play on words in and of itself, Agent Maxwell Smart considered himself to be cunning, knowledgeable, and very….Smart. In fact, he was a bumbling, funny, idiot, who despite his obvious shortcomings, always captured the agent from the evil enemy organization, known as KAOS. Despite his strong beliefs to the contrary, Agent Smart was not the smartest person in the room. Inevitably, he was assisted, and often unknowingly lead, by his partner, Agent 99…a person with a whole lot more smarts than Agent Smart.

When you attend meetings with colleagues, prospects, or clients, do you feel like you're the smartest person in the room? Do others think you are? Do you think someone else is the smartest person in the room? If you think that you are the smartest person in the room, then you may be overlooking a real opportunity!

Some people have told me that I'm pretty bright. While such compliments feel really great, they're also dangerous, because if I'm not careful, I could start to believe that they're true. And, that could spell the beginning of chaos and lost opportunities!

How about you? Have others told you how smart you are? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're no slouch but, the world is full of very intelligent people…those who know a lot more than you and me…people who have received more and better training, have achieved higher levels of learning, have more degrees and more pertinent experience, people with greater skills, those who understand what you and I don't, and those with deeper expertise than you or me.

So, are you truly the smartest person in the room? Watch for my next upload.

Andrew Zezas, SIOR ©Template Nice Blue. Modified by Indian Monsters. Original created by http://ourblogtemplates.com

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