When Being the Best Isn’t the Goal

At last week’s She Leads – Bold by Design event, one comment stayed with me. In the Q&A, Jen Kerr, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Waikato Management School, said:

“I only employ people who are better than me at something.”

I’ve heard versions of that before, that great leaders hire people who outshine them, but this time, it made me think less about leadership and more about productivity.

If you don’t employ people who are better than you at something, you become the bottleneck.

Your limits then define your business. Every decision, every approval, every problem filters through you, and progress slows to the speed of your own availability.

When you hire people who are better than you in specific areas, you expand what’s possible. Capability compounds. Your business grows past your personal ceiling. It’s not about ego, it’s about designing so the whole system runs better than any one person ever could.

The Two-Week Test

Here’s where I like to take that idea and turn it into a practical challenge:

Could you step away from your business completely for two weeks, no checking in, no sneaky emails?

If that feels impossible, it’s a signal worth listening to.

Because if your business can’t survive without you for two weeks, you don’t really have a business; you have a dependency.

The benefits of running this test are profound.

1. It forces your knowledge out of your head.
   Everything you do instinctively, the tiny decisions, the shortcuts, the “only I can handle this” tasks, has to be captured, documented, or shared. Those systems create independence, clarity, and consistency.

2. It reveals what breaks.
   The truth is, something will break. But that’s good news, because now you can see what truly needs your attention instead of patching cracks that only appear when you’re looking.

3. It creates perspective.
   Space from your business gives you time to think like an owner again, not just an operator. Two weeks can reset your energy and sharpen your strategic thinking far more effectively than another long weekend “off.”

And if you’re already able to step away easily, look one level down. Could each of your team members also take a full two-week break without everything wobbling? Strength isn’t found in individual endurance; it’s found in shared capability.

Breaking the Dependency

Building a business that doesn’t depend on you starts with clarity, clarity about the systems, the strengths in your team, and the gaps that need structure.

If reading this makes you think, “I could never step away for two weeks,” that’s exactly the kind of challenge we can solve together.

Book a Clarity Call - a focused 30‑minute conversation where we uncover what’s keeping you stuck in the day-to-day and map a clear path toward a business that runs smoothly without constant input from you.

Because your time shouldn’t be spent holding things together.

It should be spent designing something that holds itself.