(Extracted from Startup CEO by Matt Blumberg)
If you hire people who complement your strengths, you’ll never grow. Do the opposite: shore up your weaknesses with people who excel where your talents are lacking. Of course, that means you’ll have to admit your weaknesses and embrace team members who are strong in those areas.
…it often results in underhiring in the areas where the CEO thinks, “I know how to do this”: CEOs who come from sales tend to underhire the VP of sales; CEOs who come from marketing underhire the VP of marketing, and technical CEOs underhire the VP of engineering. Furthermore, once they’ve hired this person, they tend to overmanage or undermine them.