I was thinking the other day about being free, for real. So free that no one bothers you with calls about work. Many of us can probably feel that it’s fun when someone calls us to ask us about something. Something that only you know and that the others really need you for. It makes you a little happy to be needed.
But being in demand, on the other hand, can be too much. Unfortunately, many times in business, and personally, we have put ourselves in such a situation. We have built an organization that depends on certain individuals to solve certain problems. There is a lack of personal independence in the business, which makes it work anyway, regardless of whether you are there or not. Some, of course, have substitutes who step in. You can see this not least in the auto-reply to the email, which says “I’m on vacation and difficult to reach, but if it’s an emergency contact instead…” and a name, email and phone number. In other cases, it does not exist and then it is like submitting an inquiry or request in a black hole. It just disappears and nothing gets done for a few weeks. If there is a substitute, someone else will take care of the work while you are away, which can feel good. But does that mean the person in question has the same skills as you? No, probably not. If you have less pressure on your cases during the summer, for example, then you can manage thanks to that. The substitute will be more like a sentry for the function and may be able to answer that it will take a little longer this period. If there is no lower pressure on the need for service, which there is not around building permits, for example, then you solve it by delivering lower quality in the service instead. The lower quality is in the building permit example that it simply takes longer to solve the tasks. Maybe long enough for you to get back and then it was the customer, whatever it is called, who had to bear the cost of your personal dependence. If your business is based on a multitude of personal dependencies, it is neither good for you as a dependent, for the customer you serve or for the business as a whole. As a person, it is fun to be needed, but not fun to be indispensable.
The individual suffers from personal dependence
At first glance, being needed is flattering. But when the tenth call comes in during the holidays, just as you’re about to spend time with the kids or grill dinner, it’s not as fun. Nor when you come back and find that either the pile of “to do” is higher than ever, because only you can manage to work it off, or that there is something wrong with what is done. Then the stress level increases a lot. The fun of being needed soon turned into frustration of being indispensable.
The client suffers from personal dependence
It’s not good for the customer either. Because they do not get the same quality as they expect. It is someone else, with less competence, who takes care of the customer’s needs and tries to solve it to the best of their ability. An ability that is often not at all sufficient. You probably recognize this when you go into a shop or restaurant during the summer and meet temporary workers who are supposed to cover for regular staff. They don’t provide as good a service and they can’t answer your questions. But the price for the service is often the same, even though the quality is not as good as usual. It’s up to us, as customers, to be a bit lenient, which is not always easy.
The business suffers from personal dependence
Person dependency is not good for business either. A business that does not have the ability to reduce personal dependency will, in the long run, have frustrated customers who do not receive the quality of service they are used to. It will also have stressed and frustrated employees. Both those who are indispensable and are disturbed or feel guilty about being away from work, but also those who have to cover for those who are away. The temporary worker standing there in the shop naturally feels that he or she is not enough to meet the needs and demands of customers. A business that does not function properly will not have a good reputation either.
For someone running a business, it is a sure path to reduced revenue and soon bankruptcy.
For a public organization where revenue is not directly affected, a bad reputation makes it more difficult to recruit staff, for example. I talk to many organizations and they say the same thing; that it is difficult to get people. Not that the applicants are not qualified enough, but that they do not even get any applicants.
Working for personal independence
The solution is to work purposefully to remove personal dependency. You do this by having control over your value-added flows. You need to see the flow of your business, that is, you need to see your processes. When you design these properly, the way you want them to work, you make sure you define roles instead of people.
The role acting in the process needs to have a certain level of competence to carry out the activities assigned to the role. When you see that, you can describe the competence and then also teach it to more people than just one.
In addition, you can describe the different activities with routine descriptions, checklists, etc. so that others can learn how to carry out the activities. This gives people the opportunity to step into different roles and take part in the description that is available, and then also carry out the work required.
You are needed, which is nice. Make sure you don’t become indispensable too, because that’s not sustainable in the long term; neither for you, for the customer, nor for the business.
