If you’re the smartest person in the room every day, you’ve hired the wrong person.
I say this without judgment.
Because I’ve been that person.
In the early part of my career, I saw leadership as performance.
You’re expected to have answers.
To carry the meeting.
To set the pace.
But over time, I learned something that changed how I built teams:
If you’re the only one pushing the thinking, you’re not leading.
You’re 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴.
In every high-functioning business I’ve seen, the pattern is the same,
The leader doesn’t know more.
They hire better.
People who:
• Think independently
• Challenge assumptions
• Own outcomes without waiting for instructions
That kind of talent does more than execute.
𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴.
But here’s the catch,
You can’t hire strong people and still run everything through yourself.
You have to let go of control without losing visibility.
And that’s where most leaders 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗰𝗸.
They confuse control with competence.
They keep decisions centralised.
They resist pushback.
But real scale only happens when yo𝘂 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗲𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴.
So, if you’ve been in the same room for months, always the one answering, deciding, and directing, it might be time to ask a harder question:
Have I built a team that stretches me, or one that just follows me?