You can get by with charm for about 15 minutes; after that, you'd better know something

The title of this piece was some sage advice shared with me by Betty, one of my peers, who worked with me at a large (15,000 employees) hospital in Pennsylvania many years ago. Betty was the manager of the Emergency Departments at the two campuses, while I managed the three psychiatric units.
In our nursing management group (our official job title was Director of Patient Care Services), Betty was a leader. While she had a doctorate in Education, you would never know it because she was more focused on doing the job competently and professionally than flaunting academic credentials. She led by example and was someone who genuinely earned your respect.
We reported to a Senior VP of Nursing and her group of Nursing Administrators. While all were academically qualified for their positions, and generally polite and professional on the surface, the Administrators seemed to often rely upon bullying and intimidation when challenged in a situation beyond their skills. Both Betty and I experienced bullying and, like many others in the nursing management group, moved on  jobs elsewhere. While the Senior VP of Nursing and her Administrators were eventually fired, an environment had been created which posed a major challenge to the nursing executive who took over (who ultimately did a fantastic job of turning things around).
Being recruited to come to Vermont, I had an opportunity to start over in a new organization. In the seven years I was there, I worked for four different Senior VPs of Nursing and three different Nursing Administrators. Nursing leadership could best be described as unstable because of the turnover, with three of the four Senior VPs of Nursing being forced out because of the institutional politics.
Of the three Nursing Administrators for whom I worked, the first two were fine, the last not so much. (My severance agreement with the hospital prohibits me from saying anything negative about the institution or its' officers, so I will omit names of both.)
This individual, while she had two Masters degrees, could best be described as "highly intelligent without a corresponding level of competence". The fact that she is also married to a chairman of a politically powerful department of the hospital would seem to go a long way to explaining how she got the job in the first place and continues to survive with apparent impunity.
While it is regrettable that people like this rise to positions of power and inflict themselves upon others, they also serve as important examples to myself and others on how not to do things. People like this are (regardless of reality) never wrong, and are feared rather than respected.
When given a choice between Betty and this unnamed individual, I will always remember Betty as a  positive role model. It is OK to say "I don't know" or to change ones' position on a subject if someone convinces you. While that other individual is still around, it is not a positive and certainly not because of practicing "you'd better know something". I guess I should thank her for the lesson she gave as well.