NOBODY IS INDISPENSABLE

It is a well-known fact that every team has to have interdependency within it and the end result has to be achieved by the collective effort of everyone but trying to retain knowledge with the selfish intent of getting the upper hand at the office or making the other members feel helpless without the input of that particular person is not acceptable in the workplace. One must never think that they are indispensable in any organisation, even the CEO or head of an organisation can be replaced. Many people work their jobs like their companies could never function without them. These people feel this sense of obligation towards their jobs possibly because they could be suffering from a perfectionism syndrome, may be control freaks, could be harbouring a fear of missing out on promotions and may be lacking self-confidence or a combination of these various factors.

Unfortunately, there is a vast amount of literature in print and social media about how employees should endeavour to make themselves indispensable in the job they perform such that they cannot be replaced. Employees are encouraged to increase their company knowledge, make the goals of the company as their very own by showing initiative and suggesting new ideas and optimising processes. People are invigorated to maintain a friendly environment and bond with the team members. Devoted employees are not expected to do personal work at the office space. But there is a very thin line between positive goal orientation of succeeding in the company and the negative role of retaining critical knowledge or skill without which the project or task cannot move forward. Hence in order to achieve such a position many employees resort to lingering at the workplace for long hours, try to endear themselves to their superiors by taking on more than that they can handle and try to be perfectionists in their jobs sometimes losing sight of the all-important people handling skills. Many a time it is the ego or unjustified pride that makes a person feel that they are indispensable. On many occasions it is observed that superiors appear impressed with slick and selective knowledge release but in effect such people just try to take advantage of the situation for personal gain. Very often, superiors willingly encourage such employees and take advantage such that they can build a coterie of people around themselves whose opinions can be manipulated and whose thought processes could be controlled thus succeeding in killing dissent and in turn creativity.

Most often the concept of indispensability is only in the minds of people. However, it is very often seen that higher echelons appear to be very happy to have employees serving under them who carry this notion of being indispensable as it suits them and their goals. This notion of indispensability sometimes drives employees to go to the office even when they are sick trying to show their dedication. Such an attitude does not serve the workplace as well as colleagues. Technology here plays an important part in establishing presence in these current times with work from home and virtual presence. Expanding one’s responsibilities is the most common path taken by many to boost one’s professional value in the company. Many people use their power of position, strong egos or financial wealth to pretend to be indispensable. They do this by keeping others unsafe and threatened through aggressive emotional or physical harassment resulting in hurt feelings and shame. Some examples are that of threatening an employee of pay cuts or withdrawal of an existing privilege. Sometimes, leaders tend to micromanage projects, reject other people’s ideas or withhold vital information up to the last minute so as to show their indispensability to the team.

Very often it is seen that due to excessive attachment to a company or individual, the feeling of indispensability creeps into human beings. It should be remembered that there will always be a person younger, more educated and more energetic than the indispensable person to perform the same role. All it would take this new person to adjust to the new surroundings would be some amount of time. In case a trusted key member is unavailable for any reason, work may be temporarily hampered for a while and somebody less efficient could take up that position causing a temporary slowdown but very soon efficiency is bound to pick up and the project can be made to work at optimal efficiency.

The main pitfall about indispensability is that it leads to stagnation in the job. If one is so good or efficient in a particular job that they are able to develop processes, skills or systems which only they can manage then from the management’s perspective they would like to retain such a person in that very job in order to improve productivity. Hence the indispensable person now is trapped by the work of their own doing unable to get promotions or make any personal progress.

Leaders therefore should ensure that no one on their team is indispensable. Always ensure that team members are interchangeable and that there is no single pivot on whom the whole project revolves. Hence productivity would be able to be maintained without any hitches. At the hiring stage itself, leaders must ensure that they inject adequate redundancy or hire multi skilled persons into the team. Grooming individuals to be able to work in different positions is a good strategy. Continual cross training through ‘doubling up’ or ‘shadowing’ with one another or through office skill enhancement programs should be included in team management. Another efficient method for leaders to ensure that redundancy is maintained is that every aspect of the project should be documented for others to take the lead when a crisis of absence occurs. Leaders should identify members of the team who are hoarding information and not passing it on to the other members. Such fiefdoms should be destroyed and individuals should be exposed for what they really are. However, leaders should always be aware that they do not fall into the trap of having too much centralised control thus snubbing creativity and innovativeness. A delicate balance should be maintained giving adequate freedom to function but within the parameters laid down by the leader. Employees who believe that ‘knowledge is power’ in the context of being selfish and uncommunicative with others merely to retain the title of remaining indispensable should be quickly identified and weeded out or reformed. No dedicated or specialist knowledge should rest with only one person. Leaders should give adequate thought to succession planning not only for themselves but at all levels of the hierarchy. Training a successor for all positions in the team should be a continuous process and kept at the forefront all the time. The mantra should be to substitute the word indispensable with replaceable. Leaders who pay attention to others’ success, survival and improvement at the same time increasing productivity clearly don the mantle of being called ‘leaders with compassion’.