Stop Asking “How?” Start Asking “Who?”

I recently finished reading Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy.

The central idea of the book is very simple:

When we have a goal or a problem, our natural reaction is to ask:

“How am I going to do this?”

But a better question is often:

“Who can help make this happen?”

As I was reading the book, I kept thinking about how closely this connects with the way we are trying to build Klizer.

Leaders Don’t Need to Know Every “How”

As leaders, it is very easy to fall into the trap of believing that we need to know how everything should be done.

How do we solve this technical problem?

How do we improve delivery?

How do we generate more leads?

How do we build this new capability?

How do we use AI effectively?

The bigger the organization becomes, the less realistic this becomes.

A leader’s responsibility is not to personally figure out every “how.” It is to create clarity about where we need to go and bring together the right “whos” who can take us there.

This is something I have learned repeatedly while building Klizer.

This Changes How You Hire

One of the biggest connections I made while reading Who Not How was with hiring.

Sometimes we hire by looking for someone who can follow an existing process.

We define the tasks, write the job description, hire someone and then tell them exactly how to do the work.

But for many important roles, I think we should approach hiring differently.

Instead of asking:

“Who can do these tasks?”

we should ask:

“Who can own this outcome?”

There is a big difference.

If we are hiring someone to build a practice, I don’t want to give them a 20-step instruction manual for building it.

I want someone who understands the destination, takes ownership, brings ideas that I haven’t considered, finds the right people and resources, and figures out the path.

The best hires don’t just reduce your workload.

They expand what the organization is capable of doing.

Hire People Who Are Better Than You

This also requires a certain mindset from leaders.

You should be comfortable hiring someone who knows more than you in their area.

In fact, that should be the goal.

If I hire someone for sales, technology, delivery, AI, marketing or operations, I don’t need to be better than that person at their job.

I should want them to be better.

Otherwise, everything eventually comes back to me for an answer.

That isn’t delegation. It is dependency.

At Klizer, as we grow, I want us to build teams where expertise and decision-making are distributed. Leaders provide context, direction and accountability, while people closest to the work have the space to determine the “how.”

“Who” Doesn’t Mean Delegating Everything

There is an important distinction here.

Who Not How doesn’t mean passing every difficult problem to somebody else.

Leaders still need to think.

We still need to understand the business, make difficult decisions, set expectations and stay accountable for the outcome.

The difference is recognizing that our job is not to become the bottleneck.

If every decision needs to come through one leader, we haven’t built a scalable organization.

This connects strongly with our K-6 philosophy at Klizer.

I believe leaders should have a manageable number of direct relationships so they can genuinely spend time coaching, listening and helping people grow.

And those leaders, in turn, should be developing other strong “whos.”

That creates leverage.

Not one person trying to do more and more, but capable people creating more capable people.

Sometimes the “Who” Is Already Around You

Another thought the book reinforced for me: finding the right “who” doesn’t always mean hiring someone new.

Sometimes that person is already inside the organization.

Someone may be ready for a bigger responsibility.

Someone may have an interest or capability we haven’t fully recognized.

Someone may simply need a clear outcome and the freedom to own it.

Before asking, “Do we need another person?”, it is worth asking, “Who already here could grow into this opportunity?”

That is also how leaders are developed.