Chris in the Media

Articles

Skip to content News Events Lists Life Magazine 30 Under 30 Sign-in Subscribe Open search Why you don’t want to be the smartest person in the room Experts Avatar of Chris Power - Contributor By Chris Power - Contributor Published onAugust 6, 2026 Being the smartest person in the room may feel like an advantage, but it can increase a leader’s workload, weaken team capability and erode trust, writes Chris Power Leaders who dominate every discussion can make teams more dependent on them. Getty Images. I’ve worked with some very smart leaders over the last 26 years. They know it and the team knows it. They’re smart and they’re fast. They pre-empt the challenges and answer the questions before others have finished asking, solving problems out loud, in real time. Maybe this sounds like you? It’s easy to become enamoured of the intellect and imagine it promotes a positive, can-do energy and a sense of security for the team especially in these uncertain times. Like many gifts, however, there’s a shadow side. Being the smartest person in the room often says a lot about the room. What it usually means is that the room hasn’t been built to be smart without you. You have either failed to develop critical thinking in the team or created an environment where people don’t need to use it because you make the decisions. And here is the first hidden cost. Research from McKinsey found that organisations that make decisions at the right level, rather than concentrating them at the top, are 6.8 times more likely to be high-performing. They also generate 2.5 times the growth and twice the profit of their peers. The smartest person in the room might feel like an asset. The data suggests they might also be a drain. And the costs add up. Your workload increases When you’re answering, solving, and making sure you’re in every meeting alongside your team, it can feel like leadership. You may even convince yourself you’re providing support during uncertain times. But what you’re really doing is simply doing. There’s no time for strategic thinking, people development, customer and high-level sector engagement while you remain integral to the daily operations. While you’re getting that dopamine hit from being right or smart or fast, you’re also ensuring your workload stays high and the time spent on strategic thinking is limited. Your overall effectiveness in the role is compromised. Others stop building muscle When you continually jump in, others take a step back. Rather than having the answers, the role of a senior leader is to build the conditions where good answers can come from anywhere. It’s hard to build capability in a room where the smartest person always speaks first. Every time you jump in first, you miss the opportunity to build muscle in the team. People stop reaching for the harder thinking because they’ve learned someone else will do it faster and better. I’ve watched senior team members become passive in ways that surprise even themselves in this situation. The energy is redirected away from contributing and toward watching, waiting and deferring. Over time, the team’s collective intelligence doesn’t grow to match the complexity in front of them. It calcifies around whatever you bring that day. Trust erodes Trust isn’t built by being right or clever. It’s built by creating enough safety that people will bring you their unfinished thinking, their rough drafts and the thing they’re not sure about. Google’s Project Aristotle found that creating the conditions in which people felt safe enough to speak was the most critical factor distinguishing their highest-performing teams. That finding holds up in every executive team I’ve worked with too. You can have the best-laid plans and the most beautifully crafted strategy deck, but if your team can’t explore options, test left-field ideas, challenge self-limiting beliefs, or name the elephant in the room, you have to ask how many opportunities are being missed and how much profit is being left on the table. What you can do This isn’t an argument for leaders to dumb themselves down or sit on their hands. It’s about understanding your role and the impact you’re having. It’s about using your smarts to generate the conditions for better answers to surface. Instead of being first to speak, be the last. Ask the question that forces the room to do its own thinking before you offer yours. And a note: just as you will feel some discomfort in sitting back, hold your ground on letting people sit in the discomfort of not knowing. This is how you build capability and confidence to speak up in the team. The leaders who navigate this well are the ones who learn to ask, in any given moment, what is actually required of me here? They explore what the team needs, not what their own personal preference is. Sometimes it’s expertise. More often, especially now in this time of change and uncertainty, it’s restraint. Chris Power is a leadership coach, consultant and facilitator who works with senior leaders and executive teams navigating critical inflection points. With over 26 years’ experience, she helps leaders cut through noise, rethink how they lead and align their teams to deliver now and into the future. Want to see more Forbes articles on your feed? Tap here to make Forbes Australia a preferred source on Google. Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here. More from Forbes Want to become a content creator in 2026? Here’s what really matters By Genevieve Day – contributor How Spider-Man can save Marvel at the box office By Jair Hilburn The death of the credentialed class By Alli Kushner – Contributor Avatar of Chris Power - Contributor By Chris Power - Contributor Topics: Business Intelligence Leadership performance Smartest Asides The best of Forbes, delivered to your inbox Email* First name* Last name* I accept Forbes Australia's Terms and Privacy Policy Subscribe Sections News Events Lists Life Company About us Contact us Careers Advertise with Forbes Australia Media FAQ Explore Billionaires Entrepreneurs Innovation Leadership Social Facebook LinkedIn Instagram Twitter YouTube Magazines covers Get the magazine delivered with a Premium membership, find it at all good newsagents, or purchase previous issues online. © 2026 Success Publishing Pty Ltd including content reproduced under license from Forbes IP (HK) LTD. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy Terms of use We use cookies to help us to deliver our services and provide personalised experiences. By using this website you agree to use our cookies. Being the smartest person in the room has hidden costs. This piece unpacks why leadership means building the conditions for good answers to surface, not supplying them yourself. Read here.

HR Director Chris Power Why controlling leadership is quietly undermining team capabilityMost leaders don’t see themselves as controlling, but the pattern shows up everywhere under pressure. Why the instinct to take the reins is actively working against the capability uplift businesses need most right now. Read here.

Chris Power Fast CompanyConstant busyness is one of the most common and costly responses to complexity. What’s really driving the pattern and what it takes to lead with intention instead. Read here.

Chris Power CEO World MagazineOnly 1 in 7 heart patients can change their habits even when their life depends on it. Navigating a leadership inflection point without support is a risk most businesses can’t afford. Read here.

Forge Magazine Chris Power how being busy is killing your strategic thinking and how to stop itConstant busyness is masquerading as leadership across every sector right now. Why getting busy is the wrong response to complexity, and what refocusing your role actually makes possible. Read here.

CEO Magazine - Why Thinking in Silos Is the Biggest Leadership Mistake of 2026Most leaders are treating today’s inflection points as separate problems to solve one at a time. Why that approach is a folly, and what it takes to lead when multiple inflections are converging at once. Read here.

Chris Power Human Resources DirectorGeopolitical shocks are reshaping talent strategy and leadership expectations overnight. What people leaders need to do differently when there’s no going back to how things were. Read here.

CEOWORLD Magazine - 56% of CEOs Aren’t Seeing ROI From AI. Here’s What They’re MissingMore than half of CEOs are seeing no revenue or cost benefit from AI investment yet. Why successful AI integration depends far less on the technology and far more on the leadership conditions around it. Read here.

C-Suite Quarterly Chris PowerOnly 47% of employees strongly agree they know what’s expected of them at work. Accountability ranks as a top leadership competency and the lowest rated. What’s driving the gap and how to close it. Read here.

HR Leader MagazineUnder pressure, most leaders expect accountability to tighten. What’s actually happening is the opposite. Why accountability is quietly being engineered out of organisations, and what it takes to rebuild it. Read here.

Chris Power Employment HeroSmaller businesses have something big corporates don’t: agility. How to step back, get on the balcony, and lead through uncertainty in a way that opens doors. Read here.

CEOWORLD Magazine - How Finance Leaders Can Keep Strategy on Track Amid Constant ChangeWhen the horizon keeps moving, the temptation is to double down on control and short-term wins. Why the finance leader’s real role right now is to be the person in the room who holds the strategic line. Read here.

Busy is Not Leadership: Why Doing Less is the Only Way Through ComplexityWhen complexity hits, the instinct is to get busy. But for leaders in agriculture and rural business, being stuck in the doing is exactly what’s standing between you and the opportunity this moment presents. Read here.

Chris Power NZ ManagementYou cannot lead through complexity if you’re drowning in activity. Why busyness masquerades as leadership under pressure, and how getting clear on your role changes everything. Read here.

Podcasts

Chris Power Navigating business inflection points, and smarter tax planningThe biggest threat to your business may already be unfolding. A conversation about the warning signs and how to get on the front foot before it’s too late. Listen here.

Unleashing Brilliance Podcast with Janine Garner and Chris PowerHope isn’t soft. Gallup research shows it’s one of the core things people need from their leaders. A conversation about inflection points and what the leaders who come through them stronger actually do. Listen here.

Leadership - Chris Power with Tony McManusA live radio conversation about navigating the biggest inflection points most of us have ever experienced. Why the instinct to take control and get busy is the wrong response, and what leaders at every level should be doing instead. Listen here.

Talking Business #21 Interview with Chris Power from Power ProjectsAI disruption, geopolitical tension and what kind of leadership this moment actually demands. A conversation about why business is at a major inflection point and what Inflection Leadership looks like in practice. Listen here.

Why “Inflection Leadership” is Becoming Essential (with Chris Power)What does it actually mean to navigate an inflection point well, rather than just survive it? A wide-ranging conversation covering the difference between resilience and inflection leadership, AI as an enabler, and why the moments that feel most destabilising hold the most opportunity. Listen here.

Business Essentials Podcast with Andrew Horsfield and Chris PowerWhat does it take to lead through one of the biggest inflection points in history, where should a leadership team actually start, and what gets missed when organisations jump straight to readying the business? Listen here.

error: Content is protected !!