As managers, we all have one. You know, that special employee we go to every time we want to make sure a job or task is done right. No matter how much potential the rest of our team has, we always give the special jobs or the best leads to our “reference guy”. Sooner or later, this team member becomes indispensable to our operation and to the success of our own leadership.
When this happens to you, there is only one thing to do. Find your indispensable employee and fire him. You may think this is harsh, but if you want to be successful in leadership, you must learn to lead without a “go to person.” Here are six reasons why you should. (A point of clarification, I am not talking about Leadership Development, but I am looking at an aspect of Team Dynamics).
you become dependent
Once you start using someone as a “referral guy,” you become dependent on that person to make sure your own work gets done. If you know they’ll do the work, don’t worry about learning how to do the job yourself. Worse still, it stops monitoring the work and doesn’t keep track of the results.
If one of your employees is that good, they will eventually tire of following in their shadow and move on to another job. At this point, he’s lost because he hasn’t learned how to do the work yourself or hasn’t developed the other members of his team to help him.
Failing to recognize your team’s talents
Often, by assigning the most challenging task to the same person every time, you fail to recognize that there are other team members who can do the job. If you have done your job well, you should have surrounded yourself with team members who are qualified and trained to handle whatever task the team faces. It is a known fact that many people will only meet the level of expectation you have for them. In most work situations, the majority of your team wants to be challenged in their work.
Failing to develop/train other team members
Another negative result of relying on a “trust guy” is that you fail to train and develop your team. A key part of being in a leadership position is offering training and mentoring to all team members to help them reach their full potential.
One of the most obvious problems with this glitch is that you will be left without a backup plan when your “favorite guy” leaves your team, because eventually he will leave. It is his job to train all of his team members so that any one of them can take over any task if another team member leaves.
fight in the team
Remember when you were in school and the teacher had a favorite student. What did you think of that teacher and the “Teacher’s Pet”? The same thing can happen on your team if you have a favorite “go to guy”. How do you think the rest of the team feels about the “boss pet”?
The most common result of favoritism is low morale among other team members. Unconsciously, your work begins to suffer and the team’s productivity begins to drop. The results are that you, as the team leader, look bad in the eyes of your boss.
It is also a possible result of having a “go to guy” that the other team member may sabotage the work and performance of the “boss’s pet”. Once again, the result of this is that you, as a leader, look bad in the eyes of your Boss.
Giving away too much authority
Another possible problem with your continuing to trust your “reference guy” is the tendency to give them too much power. If you give up too much of your authority, the “reference guy” can become the pseudo-leader of the group. The other members of the team begin to look to him for instructions and answers to work problems. This could result in him not being aware of what is going on within his team.
This would not be a problem if your goal is to develop a leader, but if you just trust them to get the job done, it could create problems for you as a leader. The final problem comes when your boss starts going to the pseudo-leader because he thinks he knows what’s going on in the team.
stabbing in the back
Finally, there is the possibility that your “go to guy” and/or the entire team is trying to sabotage your job and your relationship with your boss. This is usually a result of their losing respect for you as their leader due to the favoritism you show towards your “trustworthy guy”.
Most of the time it’s your “go to guy” that stabs you in the back. If he’s as good as you think he’ll eventually wonder, “Why do I need him?” The result of this is that he will start taking steps to make sure his boss knows who is doing all the work.
If we are good leaders, we are working hard to develop and train our entire team. Yes, there will be times when a team member shows greater leadership ability than others and we will focus more efforts on their development. But we can’t do this at the expense of the rest of the team. This is what leadership is all about.
Turning a “reference guy” into an indispensable employee will lead to your ultimate failure as a leader. Having a strong and well-trained team will help ensure your success.
Isn’t it about time you fired your indispensable employee?