The best leaders hire people who are smarter than they are

How to let other people shine.

Image created via Midjourney

Early in my career, I was a loan underwriter at a bank. I was responsible for training a new employee, one with very little banking experience. During the training, she caught something I had missed and asked about it.

I was shocked because I considered myself a diligent underwriter. But I quickly realized something: she was better than I was. She had a knack for noticing little abnormalities and was confident enough to point them out.

For a moment, I was nervous. We worked at a small bank, and I felt threatened by her skill. But I quickly realized that she was an asset. She could work on the detail-driven parts of underwriting, which freed me up for other work. So I encouraged her to keep learning.

Great leaders don’t compete with their teams. Instead, they build teams that complement them and recognize that the entire team is stronger with high-performing people.