To strengthen Jiang's position in spite of his relatively thin political resume, Deng advanced the idea of the "leadership core", referencing Mao as the core of the party during the revolution in the early years of the People's Republic, and declaring himself the core of the party since the beginning of economic reforms. The term "core", which invoked a concentric, non-hierarchical image, was a clever political innovation that avoided designating any individual as "supreme" and "above the rest". It implicitly recognized the political ills of the personality cult during the Mao era while also allowing for the embodiment of unity around a single leadership figure.[2]