Confessions of an IIT Allumnus

 An IIT alumnus, had once reflected on his own experience. He mentioned that he had an All-India Rank (AIR) of 129 in the IIT JEE, which implies that he is good at quantitative stuff and had self-discipline in high school. But really, according to him, it means nothing more than that.

We, as a society, often make the mistake of assuming that if someone has achieved something difficult in a prestigious field, they are great at everything. This is known as the 'Halo Effect.'

This is why we end up listening to movie stars when they give advice on parenting, cricketers on education, or political leaders on integrity.

Quoting the IIT alumnus, "As an IITian, it's clear that I've cracked one of the toughest exams in the world, the IIT JEE. This means I was good at high school-level physics, math, and chemistry, and that I have strong quantitative skills. It also indicates that during my high school days, I had the self-discipline to prepare well for the JEE. But honestly, that's all it means. These skills don't necessarily make an IITian a great leader, manager, colleague, teacher, communicator, spouse, or human being."

The gentleman went on to share that he knows many IITians who are terrible at interpersonal skills or empathy—two qualities essential for success in the workplace and in personal life. According to him, IITians, like those from other colleges, show a normal distribution of these qualities, ranging from very poor to very good.

Unfortunately, society has created a class system based on education, with those from so-called premier institutions being considered superior in every way to those from other institutes. This class discrimination persists for a lifetime.

Most hiring managers also suffer from the halo effect and end up making spectacular hiring mistakes. They hire for proven strength in certain qualities and automatically assume that the person is great in all other dimensions.

When it comes to promotions, a similar halo effect occurs, this time based on past performance. Promoting an individual into a larger role should be based not on performance in the previous role but on strengths in the competencies required for the next role.

So next time we feel great admiration for someone, let's sit back and ask ourselves—which particular strengths in that person do we admire? And once we have identified those strengths, let's make sure we don't automatically give them credit for qualities they haven't proven their expertise in.