I’m a big believer that heroics are an unsustainable business process. If the business breaks because one person is out on a wrong day or for a week or takes another job, they didn’t do a good job. No one should be irreplaceable. All processes should be able to survive turnover.
I’m going on vacation next week which is what makes me think of this. There are a few people nervous about something breaking while I’m gone (lucky for them, I travel with everything I need to re-establish my home office in a pinch). I view this as a failure on my part. Delegation is not one of my strong suits and I know it. I need to make sure more of the things I do are spread out better.
While I’m out, this is where a lot of my thoughts are going to be. How do I make myself less critical? Said another way, how do I free myself up to move onto the next things?