Most business challenges can be distilled down to a single gap: the difference between where the organisation is now and where it wants to be.
Leaders spend significant time and energy trying to bridge that gap, often framing the central question as ‘How do we get from here to there? It’s a logical question. It speaks to planning, execution and strategy. But it’s not the most effective question a leader can ask.
A far better starting point is: ‘Who can get us from here to there?’.
So let’s look at why who is more important than how. When you focus on ‘who’ rather than ‘how’, you shift the focus from theoretical solutions to real-world capability. The right ‘who’ usually comes with the best answers, a deep understanding of what needs to be done (and ‘how’) and the experience to ask the questions you haven’t yet realised need asking.
Surrounding yourself with people who are already experts in their fields doesn’t just speed up progress – it dramatically reduces the likelihood of costly mistakes, missed opportunities and wasted resources. When you have the right people in the right positions, the ‘how’ usually takes care of itself.
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People: The Most Powerful Element of Any Business
Businesses invest heavily in strategy, processes and systems. These are all essential components of success, but they are not enough on their own. You can have the most sophisticated processes and the most meticulously documented strategy, yet you will still fail if you don’t have the right people in place to execute them.
People bring strategy to life. They identify opportunities, navigate challenges, innovate under pressure and adapt when circumstances change. The single most powerful element of any business is not its plan – it’s the people who create and carry out the plan.
Why Who is More Important than How: The People Who Make Up Your Team
It’s an obvious truth, but one worth repeating: no single businessperson excels at absolutely everything. Even the most visionary leaders have blind spots. Some are exceptional at sales and networking but lack operational discipline. Others excel at innovation but struggle with the patience required for process management.
The goal of any business should be to assemble a team of the most skilled and capable people possible and position them in roles that suit their strengths. This is not about filling seats, it’s about deliberate, strategic team composition.
Lessons from Elite Sports Teams
In many ways, the best businesses resemble the best sports teams. Winning teams are made up of individuals who excel in very specific roles.
Success comes from recognising that each position demands a unique set of skills and that synergy among these different talents produces a result greater than the sum of its parts.
The same principle applies in business. A stellar marketing lead may not have the skills of a seasoned CFO. A brilliant software architect may not possess the leadership qualities needed to manage a large team. What matters is that each role is filled by someone who not only excels at their own tasks but also complements the strengths and weaknesses of others.
Avoid the ‘Clone Hiring’ Trap
One of the most common mistakes leaders make is to unconsciously hire people who are similar to themselves. While it may feel comfortable to work with like-minded individuals, this approach limits diversity of thought and skill. A well-rounded team is built from difference, not duplication.
Instead, aim to hire people who challenge your thinking, offer alternative perspectives and possess skills you lack. This diversity creates resilience, sparks innovation and ensures that overlooked elements are spotted before they become problems.
The Extended Team
It’s also important to recognise that your ‘team’ extends far beyond your payroll. In today’s interconnected business environment, your network of collaborators (such as suppliers, contractors, consultants, distributors and strategic partners) plays a significant role in your success.
A reliable supplier can make the difference between meeting a client deadline and losing a contract. An experienced consultant can identify operational inefficiencies you’ve overlooked. A strategic distribution partner can open access to new markets you couldn’t have reached alone.
The more broadly you think about your ‘team’, the more opportunities you create to access specialised skills and perspectives when you need them.
Why Who is More Important than How: The People Who Surround You
If your immediate team is the engine that drives your business, the wider circle of people you interact with is the ecosystem that sustains your growth.
The truth is, we are all shaped by the people we surround ourselves with. Proximity to the right individuals – those who operate at the highest levels of performance – has an outsized impact on your thinking, decision-making and achievements.
The Power of Proximity
Being around high-performing individuals forces you to elevate your own standards. It creates an environment of positive pressure – the kind that challenges you to improve because excellence is the norm, not the exception.
When you regularly engage with people who are ahead of you in skill, experience or results, you absorb their habits, mindsets and problem-solving approaches. You also gain direct access to their advice, their successes and failures and their networks.
This isn’t just motivational, it’s practical. Surrounding yourself with experts saves enormous amounts of time and money. Why struggle through trial and error when you can learn from someone who has already navigated the same challenges?
Always Aim to Be the Least Experienced in the Room
One powerful principle for personal and professional growth is to intentionally position yourself in situations where you are not the most knowledgeable person.
When you are the most experienced in the room, you are in teaching mode – valuable for others, but limiting for your own growth. When you are the least experienced you are in learning mode. You are challenged to rise to the level of those around you, to adopt new ways of thinking and to ask better questions.
Over time, consistently placing yourself in environments where you are stretched accelerates your development more than any formal training program ever could.
The Value of Diverse High-Performing Networks
While proximity to excellence is vital, proximity to variety is equally important. Engaging with a diverse group of high-performing individuals (across industries, disciplines and cultural backgrounds) expands your mental toolkit.
Different industries solve problems in different ways. A manufacturing leader might offer insights into process optimisation that could transform a logistics business. A creative director in advertising could inspire a new approach to customer engagement in a retail company.
The broader your network of high-calibre contacts, the more likely you are to encounter ideas and strategies you can adapt for your own challenges.
Why ‘Who’ is More Important than ‘How‘
When leaders ask ‘How do we get from here to there?’ they often end up trying to devise a step-by-step plan themselves or assigning it to existing team members who may not have the required expertise.
The result can be slow progress, costly missteps and solutions that fail to fully address the problem.
By contrast, when you ask ‘Who can get us from here to there?’ you open the door to:
- Immediate expertise: People who have already solved similar problems can apply proven methods quickly.
- Better questions: Experts often identify overlooked factors and ask questions that reshape the entire approach.
- Faster execution: Skilled people know the shortcuts, avoid common traps and achieve results sooner.
- Long-term capability: Bringing the right people into your orbit doesn’t just solve today’s problem; it builds a stronger foundation for the future.
Practical Steps to Build the Right ‘Who’ Around You
Shifting your focus from ‘how’ to ‘who’ requires deliberate action. Here are practical ways to start:
1. Conduct a Skills Gap Audit
Identify the skills, knowledge and experience that are missing from your team. Be honest about your own limitations as a leader – self-awareness is the first step to effective delegation and collaboration.
2. Recruit for Complementary Strengths
When hiring or engaging external partners, prioritise individuals whose abilities fill gaps rather than mirror existing strengths.
3. Invest in Relationships, Not Just Transactions
The most valuable ‘whos’ are not just skilled – they are invested in your success. Build relationships with suppliers, consultants and partners based on mutual trust and shared goals, not purely on contractual terms.
4. Join High-Calibre Networks
Actively seek out professional groups, industry associations and masterminds where you can connect with people operating at a higher level. Choose spaces where you will be challenged to grow.
5. Curate a Personal Advisory Circle
Just as your business can have a board of directors, you can build a personal advisory circle – people whose insight and feedback you trust on critical decisions.
6. Embrace Diversity of Thought
Avoid the comfort of echo chambers. Deliberately seek input from people with different perspectives, backgrounds and areas of expertise.
The Long-Term Payoff
Focusing on ‘who’ over ‘how’ is not a shortcut – it’s a strategy for building sustainable capability.
When you consistently bring the right people into your orbit:
- Complex problems become solvable with less friction.
- Innovation accelerates because ideas flow from a variety of sources.
- Decision-making improves as you draw on a wider range of experiences.
- Your organisation becomes more adaptable to change because it has the human capacity to pivot.
Ultimately, people are the competitive advantage that cannot be easily replicated. Competitors can copy your systems, reverse-engineer your products or undercut your pricing. What they cannot copy are the unique combinations of skills, experiences and relationships that make up your team and your wider network.
Final Thoughts – Why ‘Who’ is More Important than ‘How’
Every business journey is, at its core, a journey between two points: where you are now and where you want to be. The temptation is to focus on the path – the ‘how’. But history consistently shows that the organisations which move fastest, adapt most effectively and achieve the most enduring success are those that focus first on the ‘who’.
Surround yourself with people who are already operating at the level you aspire to, who bring skills and insights you lack and who challenge you to think in new ways. Build your internal team to be complementary, not identical. Extend your definition of ‘team’ to include every supplier, partner and collaborator who contributes to your success.
Do this, and the ‘how’ becomes less of a mystery and more of an inevitable outcome.
In the end, success in business is rarely the result of a lone genius executing a flawless plan. It is the product of many skilled individuals working together toward a shared destination. Choose your ‘who’ wisely, and the ‘how’ will follow.
To explore issues around company culture, see our article ‘How to Create a Great Company Culture’. To examine whether personality tests are useful in executive coaching, take a look at our article ‘Personality Tests in Executive Coaching’. To harness the self-fulfilling prophecy at work, see our article ‘Self-fulfilling Prophecy in Business’. For more insights about how business coaching can help businesses when the coaching is high quality and a good fit, read our article ‘Best Business Coaching Services’. For information about how to choose the best business consultancy fit for your business, take a look at our article ‘Best Business Consultancy Services’. |
Business Development & Transformation – Mary Taylor & Associates
At Mary Taylor & Associates we work with ambitious businesses who want specialist expertise, extensive experience and proven results.
Mary Taylor brings a rare blend of legal, psychological and organisational experience and expertise to her business consultancy and business coaching work. With more than two decades of experience, she has partnered with companies across a broad spectrum of industries from fast-growing start-ups to global established companies, helping them steer through periods of transformation, scale and key strategic decisions.
We produce measurable outcomes and guarantee our services.
To understand more about what business consultancy offers, explore our article ‘What Does a Business Consultant Do?’ To find out more about exactly what business coaching is, read our article ‘What Does a Business Coach Do? |
Get in touch with us today to discuss your business transformation.
