Numerous Democratic presidential candidates have taken shots at Pete Buttigieg's lack of experience.

But experience does not always mean someone is prepared for a job.

Rather, intelligence is the best way to assess leadership ability and Buttigieg appears to have that in spades.

So instead of dismissing Buttigieg, maybe the other Democratic contenders should take him more seriously.

Scott Dust, Ph.D., is the Dr. John F. Mee Endowed Assistant Professor of Management at the Farmer School of Business, Miami University (Oxford, OH).

This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.

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Several candidates have criticized former South Bend, Indiana mayor, Pete Buttigieg, as unfit for the Presidency, citing his lack of experience. In Tuesday's debate in South Carolina, Buttigieg fought back, positioning his lack of experience as just what the country needs, and not the old-school, retro-political mentality of leading candidate, Bernie Sanders.

Buttigieg's experience appears to be a percolating concern among voters. But these concerns aren't predestined to be a problem. Instead these concerns may simply be theatrics, low-hanging fruit for his competitors. In fact, Buttigieg's fresh approach to politics may be one of his great strengths.

Competitors keep attacking Mayor Pete's experience

Consider a laugh-out-loud attack ad — paid for by former Vice President Joe Biden's campaign — that went viral after Buttigieg led the delegate count coming out of the Iowa caucuses.

The clips of Biden were intense, showing him shaking hands with Washington big-wigs, while reminding viewers that he "helped lead the passage of the Affordable Care Act" as vice president and "helped negotiate the Iran deal."

For Buttigieg, cartoonish music accompanied sarcastic statements about how he had successfully "installed decorative lights under bridges" during his time as South Bend mayor and "negotiated lighter licensing regulations on pet chip scanners."

The message is clear: Buttigieg's political imprint is smaller compared to his competitors.

Indeed, if Buttigieg is elected, he'd be the first president to serve as Mayor without also serving at the state or federal level (it's worth noting that the current occupant of the White House is the first president to never serve at the local, state, or federal level). This is a valid concern with substantial implications, but lobbing the "no experience" bomb might not have the disastrous effect once thought.

Experience isn't a proxy for knowledge, skills, or abilities, it simply represents the amount of time you've worked in a specific job. Consider an alternative perspective; one less grounded in political experience, and more so in leadership potential.

It's not about experience, it's about leadership

The assumption that Buttigieg's opponents are trying to use against the mayor is straightforward: the more experience you have, the better your chance of success, because you'll understand the tasks and processes.

Interestingly, this isn't necessarily true. In fact, a recent meta-analytic study (across 81 samples) published in Personnel Psychology didn't find a significant relationship between pre-hire experience and performance.

This is because relevant experience doesn't always equate to good experience. Years of status-quo performance in prior positions won't magically transform into stellar performance in the next. In fact, experience in one setting may actually impede performance in the next setting because individuals are unable to adapt to new routines and processes.

In addition, it's worth noting that unless a candidate is a second-term president, they will not have perfectly applicable experience to the presidency. This includes the usual suspects such as former governors, senators, and vice presidents. The office of the president is unique, though it's been argued that the day-to-day executive functions of being a governor are more applicable to presidential responsibilities than serving in congress.

Perhaps, then, it's not too far of a stretch to suggest that Buttigieg's experience as the executive of a mid-sized city is similar to serving as a governor, and in turn, more representative of the presidency than serving in congress. South Bend is a far cry from Washington DC, but the experience argument isn't based on context, it's based on assumptions of day-to-day capabilities.

If not experience, then what is the holy grail of leader performance? The closest thing to an evidence-based silver bullet is likely to be intelligence.

Research repeatedly illustrates a strong association between cognitive ability and leadership performance. Smart leaders are better at acquiring, processing, and applying information, which is quite helpful when managing the many moving parts associated with a large social entity such as the US government.

It's impossible to know how intelligent Buttigieg really is. But absent a Wonderlic test, the best signals we have are that he's a Rhodes scholar, a graduate of Harvard and Oxford, and he speaks eight languages. Keep in mind, however, that it will be challenging to differentiate among candidates using such metrics, as the pedigree of all of the candidates are pretty impressive.

Don't count Mayor Pete out based on experience

To be sure, I'm not advocating for Buttigieg. My argument that experience is a limited construct when evaluating presidential potential applies across the board.

What I am advocating for is a broadening of horizons as it relates to evaluating candidates. In my view, being a president is less about being a politician, and more so about being the leader of our country.

Being a successful leader is complicated; it necessitates the ability to develop and articulate a clear and strategic direction, the ability to work with and through others, and the ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances. Good leaders also don't blindly advocate for a specific direction. They understand the big picture, they recognize and respect alternative views, and they use evidence and logic to make decisions that they believe are in the country's best interests.

Experience is tangential to these leadership abilities. If Buttigieg, or any of the candidates for that matter, can convince me that they are a leader, someone who gets things done and has the long-term interests of our country in mind, they have my vote, regardless of their "experience," whatever that word really means.