What is the Secret for Building High Performing Teams? Hire your Weaknesses

“Associate with people who are likely to improve you”
Seneca


Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx and one of the youngest and most successful businesswoman, on appointing a CEO to run the company she created:

"I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs end up getting in the way of the growth of their own business, because it's a totally different skill set, to run operate a business, grow it year over year versus be the one who started it. So, I knew, I had to be every department when I started it... I learned very quickly what I liked to do, what I didn't like to do, what I was good at, and what I wasn't good at, and as soon as I could afford to hire my weaknesses I did.


This is the best advice I have heard from someone about building a team: hire your weaknesses. 

Don't hire people like you (race, gender, background, alma matter, discipline, world views, etc.). Don't create a homogenous culture. Don't breed group think.

Hiring people who are less smart than you will make you stand above your team but surely will lead your team on an ever decreasing trend of mediocrity.

Hire those who are smarter than you. Hire those whose strength you don't have. Hire those who can outthink you and anyone else in the team. Hire those who are more passionate about the job than you are. Hire diversity and people who can challenge the established point of view.

Simply put. Hire what you don't have. That's the only path to ensure a high performing team stays energized and continuously increases its collective intelligence.



Photo credit: "Wanted Creativity" advertisement for Benetton Group Communications Research Center Fabrica