Tyranny of Competence

I first came to know about the concept of "Tyranny of Competence" in Bob Quinn's powerful book Deep Change: Discover the Leader Within. This is a person that is so good at the skills of their job, managers will tend to overlook their other flaws in character. They assume the character flaws are offset by the positive impact such people create in their jobs OR worse, many a times managers would not have the guts to confront as the fear the world will come to an end if such a person leaves the organization. 

Unfortunately, in the long run, destruction caused by lack of character is always greater than the competency provided.

Steven Covey gave us the image of leadership, being equal parts character and competency. You can be the most competent person ever, but without good character, you’ll never become a great leader. (Conversely, you can be a person of utmost integrity and character, but without being competent at what you do, you’re no longer trustworthy and therefore will never make a trusted leader.)

You can spot such folks easily as they exhibit some of the following:

• They believe several work place rules that appear to most, won't apply to them (I'm  not talking of folks that talk to their manager and get a formal exemption. I'm just talking about folks that come from a sense of "entitlement" or "I don't care" kind of an attitude).
• They believe the first-right-of-refusal for anything lies with them
• They are overly critical (many times in public and/or in front of juniors) of few folks around them, without trying to help the organization or the individual about the issue they are critical about. At times such criticism crosses what is "reasonable" and in the worst case it can even be seen as harassment at work.
• This is my favourite. They take immense pleasure in chewing down their manager (or management in general) without really ever trying to understand the constraints and other ground realities in which the business (and hence the manager) operates.
• There is an air of superiority about them and they feel they can treat others like dirt with their technical competence providing the license to do so
• They use "high-bar" as a stick to beat others, while completely being oblivious to their own character flaws
• While they bemoan that they hardly get "constructive feedback", they normally do not agree when such a thing is given because of the sheer arrogance that they know better (on the technical side that is)

You can easily add more.

How to deal with them? If you are a manager, you ought to be telling them almost immediately when you see such a behavior and make them aware of the negative impact it is having on the team (I strongly recommend STAR-AR approach, for it gives how they could have acted in a different way, while still making their point). They should be made to realise that the most cherished and valued people are the ones with both great competencies and the same time exhibit the greatest of character. Such people are respectful and treat others with great dignity. Look no further, just point them to our founders Dr. T and Jeff K.