Of course technical expertise is required in many if not most industries. The question is how much expertise.<p>And the question is also how much management expertise does a great technical person have.<p>Personally, I think it is vastly easier to learn the techical aspects of a company, and learning management techniques is much more difficult. Because management has to do with personality. Learning the technical aspects only requires intellectual capacity.<p>It's usually much easier learning 2+2=4, rather than changing one's entire personality from being volatile or aloof or condescending to being a good calm manager. It can be done, of course, but much harder.<p>I have been the head of organization and everyone was always better than me, and by far. So many times. But it isn't to say I didn't know anything, I did.<p>But it took WAY longer for me to figure out how "office politics", in the good sense of the term, works.<p>This part is kind of bogus:<p>"A common solution to this problem is for leaders to say that they will surround themselves with good people who have the requisite expertise that will allow them to make good decisions. The problem is that without actual expertise, how do these leaders even know whether they have found the right people to give them information? If managers cannot evaluate the information they are getting for themselves, then they cannot lead effectively."<p>You know because you are working with a team. You have other people on your team that can give feedback on whether they have found the right people. It's the exact same thing if you and I need a lawyer or a doctor. We cannot judge them either, yet we have to make a decision. When I look for expertise, I will always look at the licensing bodies to see if there have been any kinds of disciplining, it takes all of 30 seconds. I get referrals. I look at "Best Doctor in Sacramento" or Chicago.<p>I never ever told anyone who worked for me that I was smarter than they were. I said that they were all better than me in their areas, and I knew they were, and not giving me a line of garbage. I knew who they were beforehand.<p>Like most things, there are thousands of variables to take into account. You need technical expertise, you need leadership skills. And a bunch of other skills. The question is in what proportion.<p>In some areas, though, that require super tech skills, then yeah, you need a LOT of tech skills. That made me think right now about CERN and the Large Hadron Collider. I hope they have actual physicists running the show, not an MBA. So I look it up and the Council President is Eliezer Rabinovici, a theoretical physicist, and Director General Fabiola Gianotti, an experimental particle physicist.<p>But those super high technical industries are fairly unique, where you need a PhD to understand the most elementary things.<p>Everything just depends on a myriad of factors. There's no real easy answer.