Injuries suck. I hurt my right shoulder this week, and it turns out I’m a terrible patient. I don’t rest well – not just because of my personality, but because, like many of you, I have a lot of responsibilities. I’ve got three kids, clients who need me, and a practice that depends on my deliverability.
It’s easy to misinterpret responsibility as indispensability.
Worse, it’s easy to define our value by how much we do and how needed we are. This makes sense – how can we demonstrate our value if things run well without us?
When it comes to real leadership, that’s upside down. The mark of an effective leader is not that the place falls apart without you but that you’ve created such an effective system and environment that you’re hardly needed.
Leadership can be a key person risk.
When we manage people risk, we ensure we aren't too dependent on one or two heroes so that one of our staff leaving wouldn't totally throw us off track. Leaders are familiar with managing this risk in their teams and organisations but don’t always adopt the same attitude to themselves.
Last week, I discussed aligning our intentions with reality. In an organizational setting, this is largely the job of our operating model. In a recent strategy off-site with my team, we walked the talk and took a good look at our model. Most of it was pretty easy to get right, but we’ve struggled to clarify some of our roles and responsibilities.
Your value is what you build in others.
Thankfully, the universe has thrown me this timely curveball. When I’m back on deck, my focus will be reducing my key person risk at home and at work, building the right capability in my team and family, getting our systems right, and working with my clients to ensure real ownership so we don't depend on my energy for continued momentum.
Your value isn’t in your indispensability; it’s in what you build in others. That means I should be able to lie on the couch and tend an injury for a few days without the world caving in!
What about you?
Are you a key person risk?
How can you uphold your responsibility without indispensability?
Alicia McKay