LEADERSHIP
“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” — Steve Jobs
I came across the following anecdote this week while reading Philip Norman’s Paul McCartney: A Life. It’s similar to advice we hear routinely in business, though my guess is that it’s seldom applied.
Kudos to John Lennon for having made the wise decision. Had he not, we’d have never heard of a group called The Beatles.
When as a teen Paul McCartney became serious about playing guitar — and he’d been playing it constantly, even when sitting on the toilet — he began looking for a group to play with.
It was a quest that led him to The Quarrymen, with John Lennon the front man. Upon making introductions, and showing his stuff, John had to make a decision, a decision that would change music history.
Up until then he’d been the kingpin of the band, leader and Alpha male of the pack. As he weighed the pros and cons of accepting Paul into the group, he was conscious of the reality that if Paul joined, his own “head-and-shoulders-above-the-rest” stature could be reduced. On the other hand he also knew that the group would be a better group and have a stronger, more powerful stage presence.
