Professional stupidity

I recently saw an interview with one of the actors from the Harry Potter movies.
The story was about him being on set with Dumbledore, one of the more senior and experienced actors.

During one of the scenes, before the camera started to roll and the director screamed
“action”, this older man bent down and whispered to kid, “who am I playing again”.

He then goes on and delivered his part like a true professional.

The term they arrived at during that interview to describe
this behaviour was “professional stupidity.”

They wanted more of it… and I agree.

Let me tell you why.

A few weeks ago I attended a Toastmaster meeting.
(If you want to practice your public speaking skills, that is a great place to start.)

After the meeting I ended up in a conversation where I got the comment…
“You don’t take it too seriously, but you are still professional.”

That, to me, sounds like a good definition of “professional stupidity”.

Daring to play and not taking things too seriously.

You see, when I say stupid here… I don’t mean dumb.
I mean being a little bit of a fool or a joker.

Knowing that all this, is just a game.

Let us take an example (and not Jacob Collier which I also could have used here).

Think of the great actor Robin Williams who, if you ask me, embodied this concept.
If you have seen him in any movie, you know that he was a professional.
And even if he sometimes took things too far, he was always professional.

I would even go so far to argue that he became so loved because he had the confidence
to be a little stupid and in doing so, allowing everyone to take things less seriously.

And I firmly believe that everyone needs to be reminded of that.

To realise that it is OK, to lose your track during a presentation.
To laugh when you misspell words or forget to attach the file when sending an email.
To admit that you don’t know the answer if you get asked a question while teaching a class.

All of that is fine and it happens.
And it doesn’t make you less professional.

Now I know that these examples are from non-threatening situations.

If I was sitting in an airplane and just before takeoff, the pilot walked down the aisle,
looked out at the wings and said, “yeah, let’s try it”, before heading back to the cockpit…
I would likely not celebrate that display of professional stupidity.

There is a time and place to fool around, to laugh and to joke about things.
And knowing when to do so or not is, strangely enough, a sign of how professional you are.

The power of daring to apply a more professional stupidity mindset is that
you will look more confident… if you have already done the work.

What I mean by this is that if you fool around because you don’t know what
you are doing… people will notice.

If you actively choose to play around, as a choice, not something used as an
excuse for lack of knowledge and experience, then people will notice that too.

And when you chose to act in that way, I believe that you will appear more confident.
More original. More human.

Simply by contrast, you will be more memorable compared to those who never
dare to let down their guard. Who deep down might be so insecure that
they have to keep up a facade all the time.

Daring to loosen up, to laugh and not taking yourself so seriously is going to be
scary at first, but ultimately lead to healthier way of life.

For me it has reduced some levels of stress.
Knowing that I don’t need to have all the answers. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

I wrote about this in my first letter.
That one took months to publish because it had to be perfect. It wasn’t.
And neither is this piece… and that is ok.

And I could stop it here and say, thank you so much.
See you again in 2 weeks.

What would that make you feel?

That I am treating these letters as a joke… or that
I am confident enough to end a letter without a clear call to action?

While you ponder that and how often you expect a certain type of
response, I will play some tin-whistle on the balcony.

Take care!

Want to see some more evidence of professional stupidity?
Join me and all the other clowns on LinkedIn 😉

Until next time!
Daniel - The Talking Bridge

Ps. Music Motivation:

First time you listen to this song, you will ask… what is this.
The second time you listen to this song, you will say, it has something.
The third time… “Than never to have loved at all…”