Update (Aug 8, 2019):

I’ve been seeing a couple quotes make the rounds on LinkedIn that made me think about this post.  One is attributed to Steve Jobs:

“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

And my personal favorite from Michael Dell:

Try never to be the smartest person in the room. And if you are, I suggest you invite smarter people … or find a different room.

As I start an unplanned, unexpected job search, I’ve naturally been reviewing my resume and LinkedIn profile. I’ve been reaching out to recruiters and coworkers from my past. And after telling LinkedIn that I’m actively looking for opportunities, I’ve had a few folks from my past reach out to me. Since my last day at work I’ve been trying to focus on my future, yet I find the activities one must engage in to promote oneself require reflection on one’s employment of yesteryear. Just wait until I start going on interviews….. I’ll really have to start reliving it all!

My employment history is more or less a steady progression up the proverbial career ladder. Albeit the last few years I’ve experienced some events that have forced me to step laterally onto increasingly rickety ladders. I got to thinking today about the notion of what a leader’s responsibility is and what part a leader’s self-confidence plays in hiring and interacting with one’s reports.

I took my first management position between seven and eight years ago. It was a very hands-on role to the extent that I actually had two roles – the IT engineering manager AND the lone systems engineer. So in a way it was the perfect transitionary role for me. I say “in a way” because as perfect as the role may have been, I was very green at the manager part and it was a steep learning curve.

I hired for several positions during my time with that organization and conducted many interviews. And I can distinctly remember feeling threatened by some of the candidates, either because they were more technically savvy than me or because they were smarter than me. If they were ambitious on top of that then I felt even more threatened. I convinced myself that the candidates with more IT experience than me were overqualified. Surely some of them may have not been right for the role on offer, but there were some I did not give a fair shake. And that is a mistake. It is within the realm of possibility that one of them may have gunned for my job, impressed my boss and eventually replaced me. It’s unlikely, but possible. But that doesn’t matter. When a company entrusts you to make a hiring decision, they are depending on you to select THE BEST CANDIDATE FOR THE JOB and to do whatever you can within reason to convince them to join the team. And what’s more, if you come across someone exceptional who is not right for that particular role, you should try and figure out some way to hire that person. Talk to HR and see what other roles are available, check the website for open roles, ask other managers, etc. Organizations can always use great people.

Whenever I’ve hired a non-ideal candidate, it has been either because I felt threatened by great candidates or because I was giving up on finding the right candidate. Every single time without exception it has made my life more difficult, hurt our department and by extension hurt the organization. This is a big mistake for a manager to make and demonstrates poor judgment. It’s truly a learning opportunity.

Fast forward a few years in my professional development and I moved on to work with some very talented engineers – some more technically savvy, some flat out more intelligent than me. And you know what? It worked out great. It worked well because they were happy in their roles as trusted subject matter experts who were passionate about their work and who I would rely on daily. And it worked great because I became comfortable in my role. I realized these two things as I matured as a leader:
A) As the amount of time I spent on hands-on technical tasks decreased, my technical skills became less sharp and I HAD TO depend on others.
B) There are other indispensable skills that I bring to the table. There is no need to feel threatened or to be insecure.

Point B is where the self-confidence comes in and it’s really a game-changer in the career of a technical person transitioning to a leadership role. Your job is not to out-perform the people on your team. Your job is to get the most out of them. Your job is to remove obstacles from their path. Your job is to deal with the C-level egos and pressure from the board of directors and insulate your stars from all of that. It’s your job to understand the business strategy and competitive landscape and to help create the vision and to give your team direction. It’s your job to motivate and develop the team and help them to understand how what they’re doing is positively impacting the organization. It’s your job to mind the finances and foster collaboration. It’s their job to be brilliant and do all the magic that makes everything happen.