I asked one of our engineers how he felt after joining Five Nines recently from another company.  His response was simple, “I’m glad to not be the smartest person in the company”. I found his answer both encouraging and thought-provoking.

While pointing out that Five Nines has some highly skilled engineers, he also illustrated a principal that is not often embraced in an industry full of know-it-alls. Most of us have experienced the arrogant nature of technical staff who feel like they are the smartest person in the room or even the company, which usually only encourages intellectual arguments, not productive collaboration.

Sensing that you are ‘not the smartest person in the company’ will not only help you to learn from those ahead of you, but it will also encourage you to push harder to improve yourself personally and professionally. I recently ran across an article on CIO.com titled, “Why Even CIOs Need Smart Friends”, which points to the same concept, encouraging technology leaders to find smart friends in a variety of roles.  If each of us as technology professionals realizes that we are not the smartest, we begin to measure our success not in our intelligence related to the people we know, but in the solutions that make businesses successful.

Regardless of your position and profession, we hope you can say that “you are glad to not be the smartest person in the company”, and if you find that you are, it may be time to make some new friends.

-Ben Pankonin