Risky Business: Relying on a Few Go-To People
If you want something done, go to the busiest person you know. Right? You may get a quick answer, but it's a recipe for risk.
6 min read
If you want something done, go to the busiest person you know. Right?
We all know those special types of people who have tremendous work output. Somehow, magically, they seem to be able to handle everything. The more is heaped on their plate, the more output they deliver. No one can help themselves from going to that person who can help them quickly and dependably. Pretty soon, that person is being interrupted every few minutes, and the shop is paralyzed when that person takes a day off.
Every shop has people others count on: the dependable operations leader, the frontline leader who can get a difficult shift through the day, or the experienced employee who knows how to solve problems nobody else can figure out.
When that reliance turns to dependency, however, it makes a company—any company—vulnerable.
Dependency Creates Risk
Dependency creates risk for individuals, teams, departments, and the company as a whole. Those risks fall into six big buckets:
1. They are your human AI
Who knows why that customer gets a different specification? Who can tell when that machine is about to give you trouble or what the fix is? Who remembers what happened the last time you tried that scheduling change?
If the answer is the same name every time, a lot of your business depends on one person’s memory and judgment. And too much of your shop’s know-how depends on their availability.
A day off exposes it. A longer absence can leave the shop struggling to meet commitments. Retirement or illness can force you to discover, under pressure, just how much nobody else knows.
2. People learn to wait for the answer
Why work through a problem or tackle an unfamiliar task when you can go to someone who can handle it for you?
Let’s face it: going to the expert is faster. Letting someone else work through the problem takes patience, coaching, and sometimes a second attempt.
Prioritizing expediency is risky. The problem gets solved or the task gets done, but someone else misses the chance to figure it out and become a more capable and confident team member. Even highly capable people can become less effective when “Can you help me do this?” becomes “Can you do this for me?”
The capability of the entire shop is diminished over time. Instead of building a high-performing team, the business has taught the team to depend on a few high-performers.
3. Everybody has to take a number
Your go-to person may be remarkably productive, but they can still only answer one question or handle one problem at a time.
Which means everyone has to take a number. A scheduling decision, a customer question, a production problem—all line up behind whatever needs attention first. People who could be moving the work forward are stuck waiting for an answer.
And every interruption delays the work that person was already doing. Pretty soon, their availability determines the pace of work across the shop.
4. Resentment can spread in both directions
The overloaded person may begin to feel that nobody else pulls their weight. They become short with people who ask for help, then step in anyway because it seems easier than explaining.
Others see that person getting management’s attention, interesting assignments, and more say in decisions. They may resent it. Or they may stop offering to help because the work always goes back to the preferred few.
You can end up with one person thinking, “Why do I have to do everything?” and several others thinking, “Why bother?”
That’s a difficult atmosphere in which to build a stronger team.
5. Their work may begin to suffer
The volume of responsibility, combined with the stress from being the answer person, can cause even the highest performers to slip. They start missing details, rushing decisions, and then work that used to be dependable needs checking or rework.
Even a dependable person has limits. Starting earlier and working later can cover the gap for a while. The fact that they’ve managed so far doesn’t mean the workload is manageable.
6. They may decide they’ve had enough
Being trusted feels good. Being unable to get through lunch without three people needing something gets old.
Capable people become the default choice for new initiatives, larger teams, and leadership gaps. Responsibility gets added, but work rarely gets removed. Over time, their role becomes a collection of every job they’ve ever held.
They may ask for relief or keep trying to make it work. Eventually, they may decide the only way to get out from under the workload is to leave the company. And replacing them may take two or three hires to cover the workload of that one hyper-productive person.
Now try adding a shift or taking on a major customer in that risky environment….
Develop More People You Can Count On
So, what’s the answer?
Develop frontline leaders who can make decisions, solve problems close to the work, coach their teams, and follow through without checking every move with the same few experts. Give them clear authority and support as they learn. When they bring a problem, work through their thinking before supplying the answer.
Your experienced people have a part in that development. Make time for them to teach, and take enough work off their plates for them to do it. Otherwise, you’re adding “develop everyone else” to the list of things they already can’t get to.
The payoff?
More people who know what to do and can make decisions without waiting for the same few experts. Your shop is less vulnerable when someone’s out or leaves and better prepared for whatever challenge or opportunity comes next.
