Competent Jerks Lose: Why Teams Pick the Lovable Fool
A Harvard Business Review study of 10,000 work relationships found that people prefer the lovable fool to the competent jerk. Here is what that choice costs your innovation, and how to fix it.
A Harvard Business Review study of 10,000 work relationships found that people prefer the lovable fool to the competent jerk. Here is what that choice costs your innovation, and how to fix it.
Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index links AI’s impact more to organizations than to individual skills. In France, only 20% of users see their leadership as aligned. A critical reading of a useful report, and what leaders can change on Monday morning.
In January 1995, a bank robber coated his face in lemon juice, sure it would make him invisible to cameras. His story gave birth to the Dunning-Kruger effect, the bias that makes the least competent feel like the best. Here is why it sabotages your innovation and management decisions, and how to neutralize it.
Two days spent listening to a machine, one chalk mark, and a 10,000-dollar invoice. The true story behind the myth of the paid-to-think employee, and what it says about intellectual capital in the age of AI.
In Japan, early arrivals park far from the exit to leave the best spot for a stranger. The gesture has a name, omoiyari, and it says more about a company’s culture than an MBA.
A coach asked me a four-word question, then stayed silent for ten seconds. I walked away with an answer I didn’t know I carried. Why silence leads better than the best advice.
The layoff spreadsheet just took a statistical slap in the face. For months, the dominant narrative has been almost comfortably simple: artificial intelligence arrives, white-collar
The parachutist, Mandela, and the crash The parachutist who learns from his mistakes rarely ends up as a consultant. The image is funny because it
For the past two years, a lazy equation has been circulating in executive committees, tech conferences, and consultant slide decks: AI = automation = cost
When a court dismantles the perfect excuse A judge has just slapped down the great management fiction of 2026: “It’s AI, not us.” In a
Some images say more than an 80-page strategy report. A worker, wearing a helmet, bends over a gigantic tire and tries to inflate a truck
Your bad prompt may be a management problem Have you always had good managers? I have not. I have known brilliant managers. People capable of
Europe’s breakdown is not primarily industrial. It is mental. For years, many European players looked at Chinese automakers through an outdated strategic lens: low cost,
For months, we were sold the same disaster movie. AI arrives.Jobs collapse.Humans watch the machine steal their chair. Except the story is subtler. And much
The paradox always starts with an oversimplified promise AI was supposed to change everything. It was supposed to accelerate teams, lighten workloads, improve decisions, increase
When a tiny gesture becomes enormous During an SV.League All-Star Game in Japan, Yuji Nishida hit a serve so hard that the ball ended up
The most dangerous employee is not the lazy one The line often attributed to Bill Gates about choosing a “lazy” person for a hard job
We applaud perfect answers. Then reality shows up. AI is being sold the way top students used to be sold. It passes exams.It dominates benchmarks.It
When the system says “wait,” some people start building Some stories do not merely inspire. They expose an entire sector. Not with a slogan.Not with
You are building value. The company may see a reason to keep you exactly where you are. Professionals are often told to be excellent, reliable,