You hire great people so that they can tell you what to do.
If you’re having to tell somebody “great” that you’ve hired, “Here’s how you do your job,” they may not be that great.
My goal is that everyone that I hire is better than me — that everybody that is leading a team or leading a department could do it better than I could, has more knowledge, and ultimately knows that area where they’re in the business.
Obviously, you should still know enough that you have a pulse on every area of the business. But at the same time, I can tell you that every single team lead that we have within the organization (and everyone in their department) knows much more about what it is that they’re doing than I do. So I want to know from them, “Hey, what do you think we should do?”
As the leader, you lay out the vision. You say, “Here’s where we’re going. You guys tell me how you think we should get there.”
From there, your job is to listen to the feedback from the experts around you and use that to make informed decisions.
When you hire people that are better than you — that are smarter, more talented, better looking, etc. — you’re going to have a much easier life.
That said, however, if it’s very important to you (for reasons of ego) to be the smartest one in the room, then you’re going to eventually feel like you’re surrounded by idiots.
But guess what?
Those idiots were the ones that you hired. You either failed to hire them effectively or failed to train or develop them. That is always on you.
Every single outcome in your life is on you.
The outcomes that you have are based on decisions that you’ve made.
Even if you’ve made bad decisions, there’s a chance that you can correct them, and there’s a chance that you can ultimately learn to approach things with different decision-making and different habits.
But you are where you are because of the decisions that you’ve made.
So make the decision to surround yourself with people that are better than you.
It’s made a world of difference in my business and my life.
