Deep in your soul, you understand that you have no idea what you’re doing.  You’ve been faking it for years.

You have years of experience and an important-sounding title.  But you know the truth.

Now that it’s time to hire someone to report to you, who do you want?

“Someone young I can mold,” said an ED acquaintance recently.  What he meant was, “Someone who won’t outshine me in front of my board.”  Idiot.

“Someone who has fought the fight,” said a board member I know.  “Someone who can offer great perspective and can innovate intelligently.”  Wise.

We are imperfect. We have weaknesses.  So when you accept that you don’t know everything, the best thing you can do is hire to those weaknesses.

When you do, you’ll be a leader.  Until then, you really are a fake.