The Best Leaders Aren’t the Best at Everything

“I can read balance sheets and plans and proposals, and I have opinions on the future. A lot of times, I’m right, but I didn’t climb the ranks because I was an investor. Goldman Sachs has great investors, great salesmen, great traders, and great bankers. Fortunately, I didn’t have to be the greatest at any one of those things. I was a pretty good manager, a pretty good strategist for the business, and a good partner to others. That was what my job required.

Look, maybe once upon a time, the captain of a ship got to be captain because he could do every job on the boat. I will tell you, maybe there was a time when the person who ran a financial firm was best at every job in that firm, but I couldn’t have been. No one could be at a firm as complicated, as big, and diverse as Goldman, so I didn’t have to be.”

— Lloyd Blankfein, Former CEO of Goldman Sachs

Listening to Lloyd Blankfein on the My First Million podcast, I immediately thought about our team at OrangeBall. Hopefully, as you keep reading this, you’ll be thinking about your own team as well.

One of the gifts of building something meaningful is realizing that success isn’t about finding people who can do everything. It’s about surrounding yourself with people who are exceptional at different things. When we launched OrangeBall, there were only three people on the boat. In those early days, we all felt pressure to be good at every job: strategy, writing, design, sales, project management, client service, and finances. Whatever needed to be done, someone had to jump in and do it.

As we’ve grown, we’ve stopped trying to build a rowboat powered by a handful of people doing everything. Instead, we’re building something much more sophisticated, powered by amazing individuals who bring different strengths, perspectives, and expertise to the table. The result is better work, better outcomes for clients, and a business that can move farther and faster than it ever could when everyone was trying to wear every hat.

The most important benefit is what this does for leadership. Building a great team removes the pressure to be the smartest person in every room or the best person at every task. Leaders get to shift from feeling like they have to have all the answers to creating environments where the right people can contribute their best work.

It’s a freeing realization. Your role shouldn’t require being great at everything. Your job is to build a team where greatness exists across the whole.

Three Questions for Your Own Boat

• Where are you still trying to do a job that someone else could do better?
• Do the people on your team have clear opportunities to contribute their unique strengths?
• If your organization doubled in size tomorrow, what responsibilities would you need to stop owning personally?

Many leaders unknowingly become the bottleneck in their own organizations because they continue carrying responsibilities that others are capable of owning. Growth begins when we stop asking, “How can I do more?” and start asking, “Who can help us do this better?” Great teams are built around many strengths working together, not one person doing it all.