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Here's an element you want to consider: **if I'm reading about a group of characters coming up with a plan, and then I read about them enacting that plan without a hitch, I've just read the same thing twice**. That's boring.

You have two ways out of this problem, and both serve you for creating "genius" characters.

 1. The plan is not discussed beforehand. First time I read about it is when it is enacted. In this case, I see the success of the plan. It appears a stroke of genius because it worked. I get a partial explanation of how it worked *after the fact*, when I'm already duly impressed. If there were any holes in the plan, I don't get to see them.

2. The plan is discussed beforehand. It appears smart because you don't leave any *gaping* holes - you have, as @Amadeus points out, an infinite time to come up with a plan. But then, because of some circumstance that could not have been foreseen, the plan fails, and your genius has to solve the new problem you created for them, looking even more impressive.

Note also that **you are the creator not only of the solutions, but also of the problems**. You needn't write your character into a corner and then find a genious way out of it. Instead, you can tailor the problem to the "genius" solution you want your character to find. Consider, for example, Orson Scott Card's *Ender's Game*. The solution is taking a 3D approach. Now let's create a set of problems to which this is the correct approach, and *voila!* Ender is a genious.