My brilliant boss is an ideas stealer. What do I do?

Dear Aunty B,

I have a brilliant boss who can be a pain in the neck. He is visionary, charismatic and totally convincing. But he also nicks your ideas.

Like, if he is arguing a point and no one is agreeing then he might completely switch directions. But what is really annoying is when he comes up with a brilliant idea – the same one that I presented to him a few months ago and that he ignored.

How do I tell him?
Annoyed Manager

Dear Annoyed Manager,

I am afraid it comes with the territory. Often brilliant people are magpies. But they are not aware they are stealing your ideas. They are just feeding off the universe.

Take Apple’s Steve Jobs. His staff say that he would often throw you off balance by suddenly adopting your position as his own. The staff would often get together and discuss potential techniques for stopping this behaviour. But in the end they simply gave up, and said they learned to accept it as a “force of nature”.

So you have several choices. You can either let it go, because you love working with the brilliant pain in the neck and he appreciates your contribution even if he forgets where the last idea came from.

Or you can speak up and say: “That’s interesting. I said that two months ago. I think it’s a great idea because I recommended it.”

And you can always pay him the absolute complement. Next time he comes up with your idea, stare at him open-mouthed and say: “My idea sounds so much better coming from you.”

Good luck,
Your Aunty B

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