By far, the worst-off CEOs I've met are the ones who have surrounded themselves with a junior team.
"I'll hire people at the beginning of their careers on the cheap, and level them up while we grow," they say. "This will be the cheat code to keeping costs low while we scale."
It blows my mind how many times I've heard this, and how every time, the outcome is the same: they don't grow, because they can't. They've signed themselves up to be a people manager, and not a CEO.
They become a "CEO" whose life is solving every miniscule problem, spending huge amounts of time coaching, and is butt-deep in every project. Just another set of boots on the ground, instead of guiding things from above.
The solution? Hire talented/experienced lieutenants for your main departments (design director, development manager, head of SEO, etc).
Tell them that the craft and the people are up to them—you'll help, but people management is on their plate. And by all means, let them hire junior team members and devote their time to levelling them up. It's actually a great strategy, as long as you're not the one doing it.
In this scenario, you've made yourself a strategic manager to a very small senior group, and the team can grow infinitely beneath them. Your boots are off the ground.
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