A concept under the microscope

She has everything right, for almost all her life. First in the class since first grade, with honors, remarkable results at work, she is unanimously considered to be a hard-working, formidably efficient, extraordinarily reliable person. She is a " pearl ", an " irreproachable " professional, a " brilliant woman".

Yet she does not have the career she deserves, and this is in harmony with the chorus of praise she generates. She herself is not satisfied with compliments alone, perhaps being one of the 75% of women " well endowed by their training and professional profile" who feel that they are not paid their fair value (PWN survey, 2013).

There is a snag in this hiatus between the recognized value of her work and the reward she receives for it. And if this woman who has " everything to succeed except that..." was subject to the "good student complex" ? A paradoxical syndrome that traps the demand for excellence in an ambiguous work ethic. 

The " Good Student Complex" is the concept of the discourse on female leadership that the EVE blog takes a closer look at this month.

For a brief history of school " work "

To identify the " good student complex", let's start by trying to define the " good " or " good " student. This is an objective that the didactician Jean Repusseau set himself in the 1970s, as an extension of his rich and numerous works on the ways and levers of learning.

In his book Voucherst bad students – The Möbius complex, Repusseau retraces the history of what could be called " bonélévitude ".

In which we learn, from the outset, that school performance is a relatively recent value in history. Post-revolutionary, in this case: in the time of the Ancien Régime, what made virtue among young people was idleness; and it was the Republic which, in a concern to give reality to the principle of equality, via the culture of merit, invented the school where one works, in order to rise.

Being a " hard worker "  at school is therefore in fact much more ambiguous than it seems in the construction of our collective imagination of excellence, which gives a place not only to the ardor of the task. To be convinced of this, it is enough to hear a few depreciating accents in the qualifier " scholastic", when it is readily synonymous with " diligent ", " conformist ", " hard-working ", or even " tasker " ...

Rules of the game: official and unofficial

Indeed, if the rules of the game of " good " education officially changed with the advent of school for all (and later, for all as well), those that gave precedence to the musard spirit over the hard-working mentality have not been erased.

It is truism, after Bourdieu's work on school, to say that written rules and unofficial rules coexist, when objectivable competence and meritorious qualities compete with know-how and interpersonal skills that the educational institution does not teach.

And our minds associate ease that seems like nothing with brilliance, to admire the ability to succeed without (making oneself) sweat too much and to nourish a fascination for the so-called " innate " talent rather than for the " acquired " skill that too visibly marks the landmarks and cutting lines...

What is already true in school will also be true, and even more so, in the world of work.

School Grammar and Grammar of the World of Work

Except that the school, even if it reproduces values that it does not officially profess, processes the progress of students with a relatively clear system: good grades, good evaluations, good averages, " encouragement " or " congratulations " and the passage to the next class is assured! And what class council would not be suspected of delirious outbursts if it imposed the repetition on someone with an average of 14, 15 or 16?

However, it happens that the former " good student ", having lost none of his seriousness, his hard work and his ability to acquire new skills, then stagnates in his professional career. Even if it means seeing less precise, less zealous, and perhaps even less tangibly qualified, pass him in short strides, at the time of promotions.

So what? The cruel proof that the world of work is unfair, that promotes " the head of the client " and tramples on the values of merit? Or a different grammar of expectations that promotes meritorious qualities too, but different from those that the school values (" making known ", " political sense", assertiveness, empathetic agility...), and above all privileges potential over achievement...

" Good student " and " good child "

Apart from a misunderstanding, there is a flaw in the process of transformation from the " good born student" to the " good born professional".   And it is not enough, in order to understand the mechanisms, to make a binary distinction between school, which would be on the side of learning " know-how ", and business, which would be on the side of promoting " know-how ". Above all, it is necessary to understand what type of " interpersonal skills" the school values, and which will not necessarily be at the center of the expectations in the company.

In this case, the educational institution tends to analogize the " good student " and the " good child ," says Jean Repusseau. It is a " model child" that she idealizes: like the " good, kind, amiable " Camille and Madeleine of the Countess of Ségur, the " good student/good child " is docile to instructions and observant of discipline.

Without necessarily being a conformist at heart (since the " good student " will also have eventually learned critical thinking), he is respectful of hierarchy (even if he doubts its legitimacy in his heart, or even gives it only moderate esteem). Loyal to the adult, he does not contest its positional and functional authority: it is the adult (or later the boss) who decides, and even if the rule he sets is absurd or unfair, it applies. All that remains is to silently enrage if this produces states of affairs to be deplored, or even iniquitous situations.

The " morality " of work at the center of the motif

We gnaw at our brakes but we console ourselves with ethics, because this acceptance of principle of the legitimities in place is based on a faith in morality anchored in the heart. You don't have honors, but you have honesty on your side. We don't have the remuneration, but what we earn is honestly earned. We don't have the visibility we hope for, but we don't burn our ideals in the light. We are on the side of morality.

But what moral? That of fidelity (yes, but to whom? To the other, to the institution or to oneself?), that of wisdom (yes, but in what form? Prudence, patience and discretion or the height of vision, the composure the critical eye?), that of righteousness (yes, but in what sense? Orderly dedication, satisfaction of propriety and perfectionist rigor or transparency, integrity and alignment of skills, values and actions?).

The pitfalls of " bonélévitude ": the " perfect number 2 "

Since it is a question of morality, it is a question of self-vision... And even, let's say it, pride! So, as with the " imposture complex", we will have to be wary of the sins of pride that make the most sure traps set for us.

Because by dint of formidable work capacities, uncompromising loyalty, and uncompromising reliability of which she prides herself, the " good student " does not so much embody the potential, with all that it implies in terms of risk factors, as the proven, with what is reassuring but also a reference to the past; not so much the hope of the best as the guarantee of the accomplished; Not so much the bet of ambition on the future as the assurance of stability on the present.

This often makes the " good student " a " perfect number 2 ", both seen as such by others (and what is the point of offering her the position of number 1, when you have got your hands on such a pearl to serve as a solid right hand for the ambitious?) and perceived as such by herself (who is worried, when " everything is going pretty well " or " nothing is really going wrong", to go and put oneself in danger by expressing higher ambitions).

In other words, it hits the glass ceiling... By dint of doing too well! And then beware of frustrations: in the number 2 position, number 2 remuneration, number 2 consideration, number 2 progression!

Getting out of the " good student complex": Sophie's " happiness"

Is the good student complex inevitable? Let's imagine, when we go back to the library of our childhood, that instead of taking an example from the perfect little girls of the Countess of Ségur, we are inspired by their counter-model: cousin Sophie.

Remember, this is the young lady with "hair cut short like a boy's ", who does without hats and gloves because her mother wants to " expose her to the sun, rain, cold and wind ". Her life is a succession of adventures and experiments : she ignores warnings, she defies prohibitions to satisfy her insatiable curiosity, plays with mischief and incessantly imagines tricks to circumvent the too strict rules, learns from what she lives more from what she is told and still prefers to risk reprimand on occasion than to renounce temptations...

Does it only have " misfortunes " ? This is what the title of the novel dedicated to him suggests. But is it so sure? Several interpretations of Ségur's work are allowed: some read it as a punitive saga that warns girls of the risks and harms of indiscipline... But others, remembering a preamble that does not hide the autobiographical inspiration of the character of Sophie, see an implicit ode to the spirit of freedom and the strength of the rebellious!

For the real heroine, isn't it ultimately the turbulent Sophie, the one through whom a reflection on good and evil and what is the basis of moral judgment arrives in the hearts of the impeccable " model little girls". Because every time Sophie the daring experiments with something new, defying the rules in place to define her own, it is the whole gang who, faced with choices (to let her do it or to try to hold her back, to admire/envy her or to disapprove of her, to look at her from afar or to follow her...), question the meaning of the norms and the scope of the acts, and by the same token gains autonomy and grows... Isn't that an exciting example of leadership?