x
Breaking News
More () »

How to be a leader: Be like Albert Einstein and embrace your ignorance

We could all remain woefully ignorant of our own ignorance. But what if we instead lived by Einstein’s words? We humbly admit our ignorance and embrace a willingness to learn.
South Koreans explore an exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the publication of late German-born physicist Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity at a science museum on July 1, 2005 in Seoul. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

What is leadership?

I am often asked for my thoughts on the subject, and I always have to ask for clarification. The term is so vague that it’s hard to know what it means and how to do it right.

Conflicting advice makes things even worse: some say “lead by example,” others say “lead by following,” still others say “lead by staying out of the way.”

The brain’s version of leading is learning. Learning propels us forward and allows us to do new things. To lead, we must first learn, gaining knowledge and then wisdom which we ultimate share with others.

But there's a challenge here. As we age, we tend to learn less. In fact, our brains grow smaller with time. The human brain grows exponentially in utero and then slows (albeit still growing at a blinding pace) until about age eight. Then growth stalls. We lose about 90% of our neural connections by adulthood.

What happens during this internal transformation is the process of shifting from memorizing to theorizing. A brain is ultimately a prediction machine. To make predictions, we must first take in huge amounts of information, and then later utilize that information to make decisions. Our childhood is spent accumulating knowledge; our adult years are devoted to wisdom.

As we stop rapidly accumulating knowledge, many of us get in our own way. Studies have shown that people, on average, believe they are well above average. In other words, almost everyone thinks they are far smarter than they actually are. It is this type of arrogance, the kind that makes us believe we know something, that prevents us from actually learning it well.

At my offices with Kobe Bryant, we have an original handwritten letter from Albert Einstein. In the letter, Einstein of all people calls himself “very ignorant.” He wasn’t just pandering, either. Einstein was writing privately to his friend and colleague and admitted that he could not understand, of all things, a physics problem. The most brilliant mind in the world, well into middle age, went on to tell his colleague that “the only profitable approach is if you explain the idea to me as if to a young student who knows as yet absolutely nothing.” It would serve each of us well to remember that we are all very ignorant.

Years ago, in a Harvard Business Review article, I wrote: “even the sturdiest of shelves crumbles under the weight of too many books." I was arguing that sometimes too much knowledge can be as dangerous as too little. But I was wrong: Too little knowledge is far worse than too much. Worst of all is not knowing just how little you know.

We could all remain woefully ignorant of our own ignorance. But what if we instead lived by Einstein’s words? We humbly admit our ignorance and embrace a willingness to learn.

And when we try to lead or teach, we should do so from the standpoint of the ignorant. We can simplify what is needlessly complex, explain with clear examples, and treat each other as competent, albeit ignorant, equals.

Now that sounds like true leadership to me.

Jeff Stibel is vice chairman of Dun & Bradstreet, a partner of Bryant Stibel and an entrepreneur who also happens to be a brain scientist. He is the USA TODAY bestselling author of Breakpoint and Wired for Thought. Follow him on Twitter at @stibel.

Before You Leave, Check This Out