Hire your weaknesses

As entrepreneurs, we are on a continual learning journey, and it’s always useful to get invaluable insights from other hugely successful women entrepreneurs. A media interview with Sara Blakely, the founder of revolutionary US underwear company, Spanx, caught the attention this week. She was asked about the biggest lessons she had learned in her business over the past ten years, and her answers were: fire faster, hire your weaknesses, and stay in your lane. Sara makes a lot of sense, and the continuing success of her business is testimony to those lessons she has learned. She is a big fan of hiring people with specialist skills sets that she does not possess. She knows what she is good at, focuses on those skills, and then builds teams of people who bring their own knowledge, expertise and talent to the business. We can all learn from this approach and harness the same self-awareness to recognize when we need help in the best interests of our businesses.