Have you ever had to work for a boss who had no need for encyclopedias because he already knew everything? I did, and for quite a few years too.
Day after day, he would sit in his corner office overlooking the sales pool. He would rarely fraternize with the troops because; well because that's not what managers do. Managers have much more important work than do the minions below them.
Think of how great it would be not ever having to read the stuff that would improve you in sales, customer service, finances, economics, management, teambuilding and morale. How great would it be to not have to ever open a book when all you really had to do was ask your boss?
Have you got a boss like that? Then send your boss this article and maybe he/she will get the wake-up. And, if you are that boss, then STOP IT!
People don't get better at their jobs because you tell them to. People get better at their jobs because they want to. And that want comes from taking ownership of their work. Ownership comes from not blindly following your directives, but to actually discovering something for themselves.
People have ideas, thoughts, inspirations that should never be quashed. They should be encouraged to explore, to think abstractly and to brainstorm with others. Your people must be encouraged to explore new ways of getting things done. They must be rewarded for their results and not for doing the work the way you say it must be done. (But if you're a "manager" and not a "leader" then you really haven't got the foggiest clue as to what I am speaking of anyway.)
Managers (this is ultimately what separates them from being leaders) are insecure. Any employee who demonstrates an ability to think and/or know more than the manager is a threat to the manager. Therefore, to keep the rebels from rising, the manager will defend himself with, "I already knew that."
A leader, however, is full of self-confidence. A leader understands that in order to lead the very best team, that team has got to be at their very best. A team is at their very best happens when each member of the team takes ownership of their respective duties within the team. The leader, therefore, to help bring out the very best in his/her team, must become the dumbest person in the room.
Let me explain my "Dumbest Person" philosophy.
The dumbest person is the one who demonstrates the least amount of knowledge on any particular subject. Only by asking questions will that person ever become more knowledgeable. By asking questions and challenging a team's thinking, will a leader be able to draw out the best ideas from his/her team.
The leader cannot profess to know anything if he/she wants to encourage a team's freethinking. Once a team hears, "I already know that," they will immediately stop following that particular line of thinking and move onto something else because the members of the team don't want to spend any amount of time telling a boss that what he/she knows is wrong.
So dummy-up bosses. Play the devil's advocate. Be the dumbest guy in the room. Ask a lot of questions. Challenge your team's creative thinking. Don't ever say you already know the answer if you want your team to think for themselves and take ownership of every thought, every deed and every action.
If, as the leader, you won't play the part of the dumbest guy in the room, then you really are the dumbest guy in the room. But then you already knew that didn't you?