Last week, I was asked on a podcast what was the single most important item a leader can implement.  My answer was quick – hire people smarter than you.  This shouldn’t be considered a threat to your leadership—it’s one of the strongest signals of it.  Surrounding yourself with people that can carry and excel in their respective workloads – especially in areas that require specific expertise – makes the entire team, under your leadership, stronger.

Sometimes a manager can ease their way into this way of thinking, other times it is thrust upon them.  In my early late 20s/early 30s I was sadly, a micromanager.  I literally tried to do everyone’s job, and I was called to the mat and told to “stop being a micromanager”.  It wasn’t until I was put in charge of 1,400-stores to manage (facilities and later, a real estate department) that I realized that both areas required operational expertise.  My days of micromanagement were over.

So, I surrounded myself with technical experts that better understood purchasing, construction, environmental, real estate leases, etc.  My role was to lead them administratively to help them navigate corporate decision-making; understanding interdependency of departments; budgets and timelines; and whatever hurdles/walls I could eliminate.  My job was to make their job easier.

Here’s how to think about it and do it well.

Set the Table:  Surrounding yourself with smart people helps to raise the ceiling.  When you are a micromanager, you put guardrails on your ability to unlock ideas, skills and speed to implementation.  You simply can’t generate alone enough forward inertia to move the needle.  When I hire, I look for two attributes:  smarts and passion.  Strong hires challenge assumptions and reduce blind spots so the manager can move from “doer” to the architect of the team.  By bringing on the smartest people, it creates a very pleasant byproduct – it helps attract additional top talent.  Don’t be afraid to surround yourself with champions.

Put the Fears Aside:  At the end of the day, if the team is successful, the leader will get their share of praise.  That’s the bottom line for great leaders – they are measured by results and outcomes and less about their own personal ego.  Put the ego aside and be the leader that sets direction and standards.  What your team yearns from you more than anything else is clarity, integrity and decisiveness.  Give them the opportunity to be successful in their roles and quite candidly, get the hell out of their way!

How do I Hire Smart People?   Be explicit with interviewee’s about expected ownership of their role.  They are to be the ones that manage their role – not you.  As leaders we all have certain strengths, but we also have weaknesses.  Hiring people that complement skills that you don’t possess (i.e., technical strengths) help strengthen the overall team.  I always look for self-starters when I hire hoping to attract individuals that can design the path for success after I define outcomes and constraints.   Lastly, look for people that will relish the opportunity to contribute to your curiosity of “what am I missing?” and create paths of solutions.  Surrounding yourself with smart, self-starting and passionate teammates can foster an environment that can be pure excellence.

From Micromanager to Leader:  By far, this is the hardest migration to make as a leader – from being the “know-it-all” doer to the one that sets the vision and priorities.  Sometimes visionary, sometimes negotiator.  The leader of a smart team knows when to make the final calls when tradeoffs exist and can run through the corporate red tape with the best of them.   Your team doesn’t need you to do their jobs, they need you to help them do their jobs easier.  While autonomy can be given to each member of the team, it is the leader that holds them to a high bar for results and behavior.

How do you know if you have surrounded yourself with enough smart people?  Simply put, if your team can’t outperform you without you stepping in, you haven’t hired smart enough yet.  Go ahead, be brave.

Want more ideas?  For more information on Gray Cat Learning Series, visit: https://www.graycatenterprises.com/gray-cat-learning-series