Why you need to start hiring people who are "better" than you

I’m sure you’ve heard one or more of these famous quotes before – in fact, it was only the other day when Jobs’ profound quote popped up in my LinkedIn newsfeed, amassing many likes and comments. But I’m sure some of you reading this would argue that these quotes are clichéd and that, actually, they aren’t saying anything particularly ground breaking - surely hiring good people is just common sense? And they’d be right, it is common sense. But, worryingly I don’t think enough people heed this advice in reality.

So, in this blog, I want to explore why, in today’s ever-evolving world of work, I think it is now more important than ever before that leaders hire people who they believe have the potential to be ‘better’ than them one day, or, indeed, already have ‘better’ expertise than they do in certain areas. I’ll also take a look at what I think are the reasons why this doesn’t always happen, and lastly, what I think leaders should be doing differently when it comes to hiring.

What it means to hire people who are ‘better’ than you

Hiring people who are ‘better’ than you doesn’t mean hiring people who you think can do your job right now. I’m not talking about hiring someone who could walk into your business and replace you today. Far from it.

In my mind, the word ‘better’ in the context of hiring can and should mean hiring those people, who, as Branson says, have skills in areas you don’t – after all, as successful leaders it’s impossible for us to be an expert in every area we oversee. We therefore need individual experts to be our eyes and ears on the ground – Peter Drucker referred to these people as ‘knowledge workers’ and noted in his book, The Landmarks of Tomorrow, that these workers would be the most valuable assets of the 21st century organisation due to their high levels of productivity and creativity.