Total abilities? We’re all about the same on the bottom line. Bosses, coworkers, & subordinates.
If we were to all sit down and take some variety of IQ or aptitude test I’d be one of the top 2 depending on how good a day I was having. And the day the other 1 was having.
OTOH, my boss has people skills that I was never interested in developing. And she’s smart enough to disregard my suggestions that most users can be trained with cattle prods. I’ll keep mentioning it though.
Define “about as smart.” IQs within a standard deviation of each other? Closer than that?
I’d say I’m smarter than boss–but that boss is me. See if you can figure out what I mean.
I went for the brownie option (then again, I always do).
My boss has people skills. He can make sales, haggle with clients, play hardball if need be. If he’s a pitbull frothing at the mouth, then I’m a nice retriever wanting a belly rub. On the other hand, I he can’t write code for shit, so I’d say that out relationship is mutually symbiotic, which is how I like it.
I’m pretty smart, but my boss has a Nobel Prize.
So, No, i’m not as smart.
I’m as smart as my boss, which is good because I work for myself.
My boss is plenty smart, but not very alert. I find myself correcting all sorts of silly errors.
I used to work for a couple of guys who were NOT smart. It was terrifically annoying trying to figure out why they made the decisions they made, until finally I figured out they were just operating on a level below the one I operate on.
Indeed. A smart-but-scattershot approach is very costly and only suited to high-margin businesses like professional services, where the major costs are tied up in sweat equity, like yours 
Smart folks who are dumb managers can be insufferable - physicians are notorious. Because they are trained to decide, and they are typically very smart, they assume their capabilities translate to business.
Let me just make this observation: They do not.
He’s smart about running his business, and I’m smart about teaching my (our) students. There’s more than one kind of intelligence you know.
I’m another who is more intellectual and book-smart, but most of the people in my office have more experience and are go-getters whereas I am mostly content to let things lie.
I no longer have a boss, altho my dog and cats try to tell me what to do all day. However, my last boss was very sharp, except for his use of smokeless tobacco (ick!) We are both engineers in different specialties, and he’s about 10 years younger. I don’t know if I can claim to be better technically than he is, but he is truly a better manager than I could have ever hoped to be, plus he liked doing all that boss stuff. And one of the factors that led to me retiring was knowing that he wouldn’t be my boss much longer - the organization was restructuring… again… and most of the bosses on his tier were being replaced. So I didn’t so much retire as escape, and he’d have followed me if he’d been old enough.
What mistakes are typical when it comes to physicians or more geneally, professionals, who make business decisions?
There are definitely a few dummies 'round these parts, and on the other side of the coin, some certifiable geniuses, but for the most part we’re on a pretty level playing field here.
Two immediately come to mind:
Reacting situationally, not managing strategically - evaluating a set of options and deciding based on immediate impressions, not with an eye towards the long term. Physicians must make care decisions quickly and with an eye to the immediate situation; most business decisions are best left to marinate for some time, and should be tied to long-term strategic objectives.
Not sticking to the basics aggressively. Profits = Revenues - Costs, and yet everyone thinks that they can pick the time that it makes sense to go *all in *and bet the farm on some new approach. You *never *bet the farm - your job as leader is to minimize down-side risk while *maintaining solid profitability *AND exploring growth options and pursuing the ones that deliver results. Physicians and other smart-but-dumb business leads are notorious for believing their own hype to the point that they make a below-the-waterline bet, lose and get sunk.
In terms of pure intellectual power, I’m sure I’m smarter. However, my boss has several skills that I lack. For example, he can add up a column of multi-digit numbers without writing anything down. I am likely to get a different answer on two consecutive tries using pencil and paper.
I don’t currently have a boss, but I’m usually smarter than my boss and almost all of my co-workers. In fact, I’m so smart that I usually try not to let on how smart I am (especially since I’m always lowest man on the totem pole). 
I’m just there to make a little money with as little stress as possible; I try to completely avoid all office politics and interpersonal conflicts.
The smart thing doesn’t bother me much; where I have a problem is the competence thing. I am often the most competent person in the office, and it is difficult for me to dial that down at work.
My boss is perfectly smart and self-aware as well. She also demonstrates empathy and compassion, two qualities that are often missing in mid- to upper-level management. However, she often tells me to do things the wrong way or gives confusing, incomplete instructions. This isn’t a function of her intelligence. I think it’s more about she has eleventy billion things to keep straight in her head and most of it is convoluted and complicated. I would make similar mistakes (and have) if I were in her position (and have been).
However, I will keep asking the same question repeatedly if I sense that she’s told me something wrong, mostly because I don’t want to catch hell for making a mistake later when I was doing what I was told. She gets really defensive and says I’m being difficult and I offend her if I try to explain that the information she’s giving me is conflicting with something she said previously and I’m simply trying to ferret out what “true” is because now I’m mightily confused. She will blame my confusion on me and refuse to recognize that she just told me two conflicting pieces of information in the same conversation. Hey, if I wasn’t listening to you, I wouldn’t have noticed that you just told me conflicting things.
At least you have your humility.
My current boss is fine, but one of my former bosses - hoo boy!
Example: One year he invited us to go caroling, because he thought that Jewish people went Christmas caroling!
I forgot that - I’m usually the most modest person in the office, too. 