Hiring direct reports who are smarter than you.
Unpopular but honest question for managers in tech: 1) What is your opinion with respect to hiring people who have better credentials than you? 2) How do you manage your direct reports so they don’t usurp or replace you? Im trying to change my view that they are extra competition but I find myself hesitant to provide information since my seniority with the team might not the only thing giving me an edge right now. For example new grads who have a ton of time and energy and have the latest technical foundations (such as heat transfer technicals or the latest programming language)
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Hiring a great team makes work easier and reflects well on the lead. I would only hire people smarter than me if possible.
I briefly managed someone who I would consider smarter than me and it was totally awesome. I learned a lot from him, we had lots of great chats, and I was able to advise his career trajectory to help him be really successful. The world is not a zero sum game, we can all be better together. I hope I can find someone smarter than me for my next hire. That would be great. I’ve also managed several people who had deep expertise in areas I’m lacking, which is also awesome. I love making my reports teach me things.
What’s preventing them from taking ownership of your role though? At my company project leads and entry level managers are the same ICT. I understand where OPs coming from. I’m going on paternity leave and I just hired a new tech lead and afraid I just hired my replacement by the time I come back
I hope my top ICs grow to take my current role, so I can move up too.
I manage a team. I’m responsible for making things happen. If my team gets shit done, I look good. Why wouldn’t I want the best possible employees?
That mentality and culture is changing rapidly, especially in tech. Leaders wants smart and capable teams. Problem with smart direct reports is not intellect but attitude. Sometimes they know they’re better and they play games. In those instances, shut them down quick before it becomes toxic.
On point.
Man if you are the kind of manager at Apple now then apples doomed . Apple used to pride itself on getting smart engineers- Steve was very particular about it , with all the A players hiring A players bit. Competent engineering managers don’t worry about smarter reports - it makes them look good in fact.
I keep thinking about the flip side of this... why on earth would you want a bunch of dummies working for you?? Come on.
A players hire A+ players. B players hire C players.
Its good that you’re asking this question, OP, so that you don’t become a completely worthless piece of shit. You sound like a B-player, and a quick way to make yourself an A player is to start hiring people at the A level. If you can’t get over this fear, you’ll eventually become a C player and not meet the bar for Albertson’s.
You should be more worried about retaining these people than competing with them.
Excellent, on point response!