[incomingpain]

>I lead a software dev team at a small startup. One of my direct reports is way smarter than me. They come up with clever, simple solutions to business needs. They're also really driven, and will do things like find out what our stakeholders need and create the specs and do planning for those things. Generally we are a team and communicate pretty well on those things, but most of the time I'm left feeling like I'm not adding much value. Usually, they're the one rejecting ideas and having better ones.

Give appropriate praise but avoid flattery.

>Really what I want is to continue leading the team as best I can, and not let my ego interfere. But I guess I'm wondering how to best manage this person. Do I just sit back and let them do their thing? Try harder to meet them at their level and challenge them? How would you all like to be managed if you were in their position?

Do that then, contribute where you can. Stop comparing yourself to others.

Imagine real life is like Skyrim where there are skill trees, except there's hundreds of skills. Someone might have leveled up 1 skill tree higher than yourself but as you realize you have better skills in other ways.

Only compare yourself to yourself yesterday. Could you raise your level and 'meet them', that's your decision to raise this skill up. Or are you raising another skill up? You probably can't be working on more than 1 at once.