If you think incompetence is a problem, now is the time to think again

Incompetence is on fire, especially in global politics. It’s one of those trends to be bullish on. That’s here to stay. You know, like blockchain and artificial intelligence and design thinking and agile. Disrupt or be disrupted. You know what I mean. Here’s a list of the top ten reasons why you should champion the incompetent:

1. They won’t call your bluff, to avoid you calling theirs. Finally, peace of mind if you suffer from imposter syndrome. Especially relevant for us millennials.

2. They will never make you feel inadequate. In an age of hyper-competition, this will soothe your soul. Nothing reveals your own abilities more clearly than looking after cleaning up someone else’s mess.

3. They will humble you with their entitlement. This isn’t great at first, but it helps you with your own self-development in the long run.

4. They find seemingly easy solutions to problems because they aren’t privy to realities in their industry or field of, um, expertise. This looks especially good with the execs. You know, out of the box thinking and all!

5. They will make you regret every single minute and dollar you wasted on them, thus encouraging the betterment of your time management and financial discipline in future.

6. They will make you look competent. Great feeling. It allows you to dissociate from all those incompetent people around you.

7. They encourage your colleagues to focus on other, personal aspects of their lives in order to minimise frustration, which may lead to increased work-life balance for the rest of their team.

8. They are great with the media. If you ever wondered how to ‘dumb down’ something so more people could understand it, you will find the best way to achieve this is not knowing anything about the matter in the first place.

9. Because they consistently fail to deliver, they will never notice their own failures or have to endure the tough emotions surrounding it. Emotions are really contagious so this spares you from falling into the trap of self-doubt.

10. They are easily able to tell their story and influence because they don’t have to worry about substance. Anything will inspire them to feel special and gifted, and relay this to the world. They are the ultimate motivational role-models. Just like the wonderful Lotus flower, which also grows on mud. Sh** is an impeccable fertiliser. And if that doesn’t inspire you, I don’t know what will.

11. They talk a good game because they prefer speech over actually attempting or doing something.

I think I overshot… time to conclude:

Incompetence makes us all better. It makes the world a better place. We need it to advance humanity. Incompetence is the new competence in so many important ways. Please take a moment to express your gratitude for the invaluable contributions incompetence has made over the course of your life.

If you want to make incompetence the hero theme of your next event or keynote, there truly are many promising options for you to deliberate. But you might as well look no further and book the ultimate one right here. You can even hire me to give you more great advice off the stage. It might also lead to something great.

Please don’t tag the people this reminds you of. You never know, the feeling may be mutual.

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This article was originally published on LinkedIn

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Image Credit: Anna Popović

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