Great People Flywheel
Learn under exceptional people, then hire exceptional people and help them flourish
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 95%
The Great People Flywheel has two career phases. Early on, deliberately work for people whose judgment, integrity, discipline, and encouragement improve your own standards. Learn not only their technical skills but how they treat others and respond in consequential moments. Once you have hiring authority, reverse the relationship: recruit people who are better than you in important areas, give them real responsibility, motivate them, and let their strengths expand the organization’s capacity. This requires suppressing the desire to remain the most impressive or controlling person in the room. As those hires develop, they become leaders and mentors for others, creating a reinforcing cycle of stronger judgment, higher capability, and broader opportunity across the organization.
Origin
Greg Fleming connected lessons from mentors Jerry Kenney and Larry Fink with his own approach to hiring and motivating talented teams.
Core principles
- 01The people around you compound your capabilities
- 02Strong leaders hire people who outperform them in important areas
- 03Motivation turns talent into organizational results
- 04Great mentors enlarge rather than belittle ambition
How to run it
- 1
Choose Exemplars
Seek leaders who combine strong performance with character, integrity, and constructive ambition. Prefer people whose conduct is worth imitating over prestigious names alone.
Pro tip Notice how prospective mentors behave when incentives and values conflict.
Watch out Technical excellence without integrity can teach destructive habits.
- 2
Learn Their Operating Standard
Observe how excellent leaders prepare, decide, communicate, and persevere. Ask for candid advice when facing consequential choices.
Pro tip Compare multiple mentors so that you learn principles rather than mimic one personality.
Watch out Proximity to a great person produces little value without active observation and reflection.
- 3
Hire Beyond Yourself
When you gain authority, recruit people who exceed your abilities in important functions. Treat their superiority as leverage rather than a threat.
Pro tip Name the specific discipline in which each hire should raise the team’s ceiling.
Watch out Hiring mainly to preserve your status creates a weak and dependent team.
- 4
Transfer Real Responsibility
Give talented hires meaningful ownership, resources, and room to exercise judgment. Remain available without reclaiming every decision.
Pro tip Define outcomes and boundaries, then let the person choose the method.
Watch out Responsibility without authority is delegation in name only.
- 5
Motivate and Multiply
Encourage ambition, recognize good work, and help strong performers become leaders for others. This restarts the cycle at a larger scale.
Pro tip Praise specific decisions and behaviors that others can repeat.
Watch out Belittling ambition may preserve control temporarily but drives exceptional people away.
In the wild
Fleming described Jerry Kenney as a high-integrity executive who worked hard while operating in a principled way. He described Larry Fink as tenacious and obsessive about doing BlackRock well, and as someone he consulted after Merrill Lynch’s sale. Fleming later applied the lesson by hiring people who were better than him in many areas.
→ Mentorship shaped Fleming’s leadership standards, while strong hires expanded what he could accomplish.
Common mistakes
Needing to Be Most Impressive
A leader who must dominate the room will avoid hiring people capable of elevating the organization.
Choosing Prestige Over Character
A famous mentor whose behavior is not worth copying can distort a young professional’s standards.
Hiring Talent Without Empowering It
Strong people cannot flourish when the leader retains every meaningful decision.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for ambitious professionals choosing mentors and leaders building high-performing teams.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for managers unwilling to share responsibility or tolerate colleagues who surpass them.
From the transcript
“worked for great people. And then when you get in a position to do this, hire great people.”
“I've been able to do so much in my career because I've hired people that are better than me”
“higher great people, motivate them and watch them flourish.”
From the episode
Greg Fleming on Shaping Wall Street (Podcast)
Greg Fleming