I am an assistant manager reporting to the head of department as well as some executive officers on some projects, and broadly manage all the execution and operations as well as make some strategic level decisions. I am responsible for consolidating product and ideas of the team reporting to us and act as a middle man between management and them.
I have a nagging problem: one of our best employees does a lot to compete against me, e.g. by belittling me openly on the tiniest matters, telling ideas directly to the boss rather than discussing with me, showing his worth to everyone in the company but bypassing me. I can't help feeling that he is trying to compete against me rather than respecting my authority.
And since he is good technically, I do feel bad and sometimes even threatened. I sometimes would like to just leave.
How can I take the higher ground in this kind of scenarios?