Chapter 4

User-Generated Leadership Rocks!

Dumb Is the New Smart

I was lucky enough to have a few conversations with Johnny Carson, the King of Late Night Television (1962–1992), who used to quip, “I guess I'm smart enough to be dumb.” For a man who attracted millions of television viewers every night for 30 years, Johnny's not-so-tongue-in-cheek advice was to remember that there is no future in trying to outsmart your customers.

We shouldn't attempt to use such an approach, either. We shouldn't insist that we know what our customers want or how they want it. I like Christine Romans' financial philosophy, as conveyed in the title of her book Smart Is the New Rich. But for stealing market share, I prefer “Dumb is the new smart.”

In 2003, Jim Collins, author of the best-selling Good to Great, proclaimed that the most effective leaders in companies are executives who are humble yet ambitious for their companies rather than for themselves. One of the former CEOs whom Collins interviewed for his book was Darwin Smith, former chief executive of paper-product-based manufacturer Kimberly-Clark. Smith, like Johnny Carson, approached his job in the role of a servant who doesn't know all of the answers, admitting, “I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job.”

In the even-more-complex world of 2011, humility seems to have gathered steam. Smart “dumb” leaders are increasingly acknowledging what they don't know and depending on the crowd to help them innovate and manage their organizations' futures.