The greatest strength?

Way back in history, when the master of all self-help books was one Dale Carnegie, I remember reading in one of his books that a successful industrialist attributed his own success to the fact that he surrounded himself with people who were more brilliant than himself. (Oh, yes, I did read self-help books in those long gone days. How else do you think I know that reading them is useless unless you diligently apply what you learnt from them? Of course it was because I never applied anything and thus...)

Even more way back in history, Tiru said this...

Thammir periyaar thamaraa ozhugudhal vanmaiyu lellaanth thalai - Tirukkural

To behave in such a manner that those who are greater than you stick with you is the greatest of strengths - Loose Translation

If you jump up with ideas like "Why would an Adani stick with a mere coder?" and things like that, you are quite unlikely to get much further in understanding Tiru. In fact, it is very likely that you'll never live by this lesson. Thinking of 'greatness' as a power game and assuming that he who is greater than you will show you up as inferior IS the way to push such people away from you.

Tell me, have you not seen CEOs who knows lesser engineering than the production guys, less about finance than the finance guys, less about marketing than the marketing guys? So, when the CEO discusses production issues with the production guy, he knows less about it than the CTO; ditto with finance and the CFO; and marketing with the marketing head. The CEO who can keep those about him who are greater than him in their respective areas IS the chap who is likely to succeed. It is enough if the CEO understands the others when they proffer advice AND is respectful of their opinions and advice.

On the other hand, the leader who feels threatened by the abilities of those around him and tries to put them down will, sooner or later, push them all away. AND surround himself with those who know less about their own areas than he himself does. How well is THAT leader going to perform, then?

It IS the greatest strength to have the ability to keep capable people around you. It is not delegation that is the strength here though THAT is also a component of the leadership ability to keep people around you. It is the ability to listen and understand, the ability to take a different decision without making the other person feel disrespected, the ability to harmonise varying opinions from people with differing strengths...in short, it is EQ of the highest order.

THAT is what one should look for in your top leaders. Technical abilities are much more common; the ability to harness various technical abilities to achieve a common goal - that's rare and, indeed, that's probably the greatest strength.