Standing on The Shoulders of Giants
Just got back from an amazing short vacation in Quebec and Halifax for one of my good friends weddings. I’m not going to lie, after my first adult wedding I’m pretty stoaked for the string of weddings to come - good times. During the trip I had a lot of time to reflect out in the woods, went sky diving, lobster catching in the Atlantic ocean and almost got arrested for busking in streets of Old Quebec (apparently you need a permit to play guitar outside; oh well, the $18.75 was worth it :) ).
Anyways, one of the things that I wanted to talk about was the importance of surrounding yourself with people that make you better. I think it was Newton who said: “in order for us to see further, we must stand on the shoulders of giants”, or something like that. I think this must have been break-through number two after gravity.
In the book Good To Great, Jim Collins categorizes leaders from level one to level five. In his extensive research on what the differences are between good companies and great companies, he found that the great companies had level five leaders at the helm. What was unique about level 5 leaders? He found that the level five leaders weren’t afraid to hire people smarter than them and didn’t care who received the credit.
It’s amazing what you can achieve if you don’t care who gets the credit.
Most people’s egos are too big to have people around them all day long that are smarter, more capable and more experienced than them. Don’t be! It’s essential to getting where you want to go and becoming a great leader.
Lets face it, the people we choose to spend the most time with eventually define us and our organizations, so choose wisely!
