Our coworkers affect us in a variety of ways. Smart coworkers can increase our own success, most directly on joint projects on which everyone shares the credit. But there are other benefits too: learning from how they work, a more pleasant day-to-day experience, and the iron-sharpens-iron principle whereby smart people naturally cause each other to raise their game.

Here are some ways to spot a smart coworker, so that you can try to get and keep them on your team. Or, just so that you can observe their strengths and learn from them more.

1. They See Simple Ways to Test Assumptions

Your team is planning a customer appreciation event. It'll be for families. You've penciled in to book a face painter and balloon artist.

Neither of you has young children. Your coworker texts a friend who attends similar events regularly to ask how long the lines for these are when they're at an event with both. The friend tells them face paint lines can be 45 minutes or more, but balloon animals aren't popular. Your team decides to hire double the face painters, skip the balloons, and plan line management strategies so families at least have snacks and drinks available while waiting.

What stands out is that they see obvious ways to test ideas quickly. They don't guess and hope for the best, nor do they make testing ideas more complicated than necessary.

2. They Engage in Bayesian Thinking

Bayesian thinking is when you update your views based on new evidence. It shows someone is thoughtful and attuned. Bayesian thinkers are aware of and monitoring their assumptions.

You've planned your event based on it being a typical spring day, but then a heatwave is forecast. Your coworker thinks ahead and orders more water and ice.

3. They Foresee Scenarios and Can Manage Multiple Moving Parts Together

With the weather looking so hot, your coworker doesn't want toddlers waiting in long lines outside. They propose a plan to move different vendors around so any expected lines are inside or under shade rather than in the open sun.

Rearranging vendors has knock-on effects across the whole event, but your coworker can think through all the interdependencies systematically. They test the new layout against multiple guest flow scenarios to make sure it works for each one.

4. Their Analogies and Metaphors Take You by Surprise

Smart minds alternate between the micro and macro, the fine details and the big picture.

Your coworker zooms in on the micro: What happens if a face paint line overflows the space available? Then they zoom out. How do planners ensure people have a good experience in other contexts even when some lines or waits are long? They bring up sporting events and viral restaurants.

You might not see where their analogy is heading until it lands with a zinger of insight. Sometimes you might not fully understand their analogies until they sink in hours or days later.

5. They Show a Love of Learning and a Drive to Understand

Smart people aren't usually motivated just by the practical work of getting things done; they're interested in deeply understanding. Not everything, but at least some things.

For example, they're interested in why everyone on the team finds one coworker annoying except one other individual, who quite enjoys that person.

They're observant. They want to see the value in that coworker that others struggle to.

To get the full benefits of working with a smart coworker, you need to be attentive. Anyone can surround themselves with capable people to do the work on projects where everyone shares the credit. But to fully benefit, you need to notice the subtle ways highly intelligent people excel. This enables you to riff off elements of their thinking to diversify and strengthen your own.

This article isn't an exhaustive list of signs of a smart coworker. It's a sample, intended to nudge you to be more engaged and reflective. The goal of learning from others is never to mimic their thinking. It's to appreciate it, enjoy it, allow it to benefit you, and allow it to change your cognitive processes just a little.

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