How do you become irreplaceable?
By replacing yourself.
It’s an oxymoron, I know.
Here’s where I’m going with this. When you hog all the information and share none of it, you are not helping anyone and you are certainly not helping yourself. If you ever want to take a few days off work, how are you going to do that if you are the one with all the information? No one can help you.
And I know why you do it. It makes you feel special. THEY have to come to YOU for the information. And that makes you feel needed.
But that exchange of information can’t go on forever. As the team grows, you WILL need help. You will need someone to take the load off your back.
When you surround yourself with people who can do a better job than you did, you become irreplaceable. Those you hire depend on you to train them. You are their mentor. You give them permission to make the job their own and to make it better and amazing.
Don’t get me wrong. When you had that job, you did it well. Now that you’ve passed it off, the new person, with your guidance, took it and ran with it. They made something new out of it and you look at them, not with jealousy, but with pride. Let’s face it, if you had the time, you would have done some amazing things with those job duties too. But you didn’t. Instead, you gave away that part of your job so it could be done better.
With your leadership, that role has taken off. With your leadership, the team is happier and functions better than before. Suddenly you find yourself with more time to do
the other parts of your job better, and it comes easier to you. You are happier for it.
Then you repeat the process again and again. Giving away parts of your job until you are left as the leader. You make sure each person is happy doing what they what they love, because you hand-picked them knowing they would love the job you were offering them. You encourage them, love on them, work with them. And they become great; and you are great because of it.
So don’t withhold information. Share. And be great.
Have you been able to hire someone to replace you in some capacity? Tell us how it went in the comments below. Or, reach out to me at egilbert AT kw DOT com. I’m always happy to chat with you!
