Rule #9 : Hire People Smarter Than You

I have been compiling rules that I live by as a CEO. Many of these I picked up through the years and learned some through difficult real world lessons. From time to time I'm going to outline one of them to give you all a deeper insight to how I run a business.

Today's rule is number nine, Hire people who are smarter than you.

9.Hire people smarter than yourself:
A confident leader realizes that hiring people who are smarter than they are or better at certain tasks will bring even more success to the project and the leader gets just as much credit for bringing the talented personnel on in the first place. They may be smarter than you when it comes to the task at hand, but would they have been creative enough and brave enough to hire themselves if they were in your shoes?

I found myself CEO of a public company at age 25. My COO was a 52 years old lawyer and my CTO was a 35 year old [brilliant] engineer. I remember feeling threatened as all hell and really wishing they weren't around to point out my deficiencies. Out of the gate I am embarrassed to say I was looking for a reason to can them both. But, as the project went on, I was thanking my lucky stars to have them. lesson learned. Many leaders steer clear of anyone they think has skills in areas they are deficient. Some leaders are afraid to face the fact that they have flaws at all. That's when projects fall apart.

The few leaders that are not afraid to hire someone who's knowledge or creativity may match or exceed their own, are the leaders who succeed. I always give my people proper credit and always go to bat for them so they don't feel they have to try to outshine me to investors or superiors. This allows me to get the job done in the best way, and take credit for it too. After all I was the one that hired (or supported) them wasn't I? I also recognize leaders within my organization who are bold enough to give credit to their subordinates when credit is due. This behavior is rewarded and it should be.

Never be afraid to hire and give support to those who may be better than you at certain skills, as their leader you get as much credit for choosing them as they get for a job well done.

Thank You
Raymond Barton