I remember some time back reading an article about Ted Williams—the great left fielder of the Boston Red Sox during the 1940’s and 1950’s. Regarded as one of the greatest hitters of all time, he’s the last major leaguer to have a batting average of over .400 over the course of a season. But Williams, for all his brilliance, was also a bit surly. He could be incredibly boorish and gruff with teammates and the press. If he didn’t want to do it, he didn’t … and he didn’t care because he was so good at his job he knew there wouldn’t be any real consequences.
More recently, we’ve seen the same kind of behavior out of Antonio Brown—the uber-gifted wide receiver who wore out his welcome with the Steelers in Pittsburgh and was traded to the Oakland Raiders, only to be released a few weeks later after they got tired of his antics. He was claimed by New England and played in one game for the Patriots, only to be released again and when credible allegations of sexual assault came out. Brown is a supremely talented athlete who does his job exceptionally well but is now out of the league. He fails to realize that a key part of his job is not merely his technical competence/skill on the field, but his interpersonal interactions/ability to get along with people—an area where he apparently struggles greatly.
This phenomenon is something Robert Quinn, in his book Deep Change, refers to as the “tyranny of competence.” What often happens, he says, is people who are uniquely gifted step into an organization and gain influence and power over the course of time because their gifts and skills are so respected. But many times, they base their value to the organization solely on how well they do their individual job and not how well they get along with others. They believe that because they do what they do so well that the organization can’t get along without them. That leads to them taking liberties and doing things that poison the environment, damage morale, and cause fellow team members to not want to deal with them. They can assume a level of influence, invincibility, and indispensability to where they become hard to get along with.
You’ve probably seen this before … the secretary who is on top of details and knows where everything is, but whose attitude and mood swings causes people to not want to have to deal with her … the doctor who is very gifted and skilled, but whose bedside manner is atrocious … the sales person who builds relationships easily and meets every sales goal but does such a poor job of tracking details and keeping records to where the administrative personnel are constantly frustrated. In each case, the problem boils down to someone who is technically competent/does their job well but at the expense of relationships and teamwork.
After more than three decades of pastoral service, I’m of the opinion I would rather have on staff someone who is “middle of the pack” in terms of terms of technical competence and a ”10” at getting along with others than the supremely gifted person whose interpersonal skills are about a “4.” Why? Because technical competence can be enhanced by training, but people who are relational kryptonite typically can’t see their shortcomings and are thus unable to receive coaching. Many times, teams are better when they remove the wonderfully gifted person who is a relational liability and build around moderately gifted people whose relational skills are top-notch … simply because all of us are wiser/smarter/more resourceful together than just one of us.
In Romans 12:3 the apostle Paul says, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment …”. In other words, realize there’s more to being effective than being gifted and doing your job well. You also need to maintain good relationships, and your brilliance on the one front cannot excuse your ineptitude on the other. Don’t get caught up in thinking you’re irreplaceable to where you become a tyrant to the people around you. Don’t get so wrapped up in your own press and the belief you’re indispensable to where you create turmoil for the people around you. Realize the larger part of your effectiveness comes from your ability to get along, and that thinking of yourself in presumptuous terms to where you struggle to maintain effective relationships is, indeed, destructive behavior.
Getting back to Ted Williams … if you recall, he played for the Red Sox during a period where they went years—decades—without winning a championship. While some will trace it back to their trading Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees on December 26, 1919—shortly after their World Series win in 1918—and the “curse of the Bambino,” I sometimes wonder if, during the 40s and 50s, the problem was that management valued technical competence to the point of choosing collective failure. While trading Ted Williams would have created an inconceivable outcry amongst Red Sox kingdom, I wonder if it would have also created a sense of health within the clubhouse that would have allowed them to achieve their goal of winning a World Series sometime before 2004 (the next time they won). I guess we’ll never know!