When Your Best People Become Your Biggest Risk
Now, this is a story we are all too familiar with. Your best people become indispensable, turning into your absolute go-to team members.
Now, this is a story we are all too familiar with. Your best people become indispensable, turning into your absolute go-to team members.
I am not sure we will ever really understand how these people are made, but they enter the business in one role, eager and excited to learn and grow. They have an energy and enthusiasm that is inspiring—along with a real grá for understanding how things work and, better still, how they could work better.
The Rise of Key Person Dependency
Then, suddenly, one day you wake up and realize Mary in Finance is now also your Finance, Ops, Purchasing, and HR lead! She is playing an absolute blinder. She helps across the board, answers the questions, knows who to talk to, understands the systems, and normally knows where to look when something goes wrong.
BUT—and here is the danger—a huge amount of that critical knowledge sits purely in Mary's head.
If Mary takes a day off, gets sick, or suddenly cannot work, what happens?
There are no documented processes.
The system hasn't been updated in forever.
Half the team is standing around saying, "Mary normally does that."
Now the business has a massive operational hole.
How Hidden Bottlenecks Develop in Growing Companies
We see this all the time in growing companies. The focus is naturally on revenue, growth, sales, engineering, production, and getting the product out the door. The rest of the business can very easily fall under the "needs must" category.
This is precisely how operational dependency builds:
Mary is capable, so someone asks Mary.
Mary fixes the problem, so the next time it happens, they ask Mary again.
Someone leaves, and Mary picks up a few of their responsibilities because she knows how to do them.
An issue pops up in purchasing, numbers, or system errors? "Don't worry, Mary knows the workaround."
Before we know it, Mary hasn't just learned the processes. Mary HAS become the process.
The Hidden Risk of the "Hero" Employee
While Mary is there and everything is working, this can actually look like a strength in the business. We have this amazing person who knows everything and gets stuff done.
The risk only becomes obvious when:
Mary isn't available or takes a two-week holiday.
Mary decides to leave or becomes completely overloaded.
The business grows beyond the amount of information and responsibility one person can realistically hold.
And just to be clear: this isn't Mary's fault.
We have rewarded Mary for being indispensable. Every time she saves the day, everyone is delighted, the problem is sorted, and we move on. But how often do we stop afterwards and ask:
"Why did Mary have to save the day in the first place?"
Preparing Your Business Systems for Scaling (and ERP Success)
That question is where we start to uncover the real operational issue. To test your business resilience, ask yourself:
Is knowledge sitting with individuals instead of within the business?
Are operational processes fully documented?
Is process ownership clear?
Are people actually using the system, or are spreadsheets and manual workarounds happening everywhere?
Could somebody else step into the process tomorrow and understand what needs to happen?
This is also where companies need to be careful when introducing a new ERP system. The system can automate and improve an unbelievable amount, but it can only work with the processes and information we give it. If everyone is doing their own thing before the system goes in and we don't understand those processes first, we risk putting a shiny new system on top of the exact same old dependencies.
Transitioning from Individual Expertise to Scalable Structures
There is another side to this that many owners miss: If Mary is this capable, imagine what she could be doing for the business if she wasn't spending half her life answering questions that only she knows the answer to!
Our best people should absolutely be valuable to our businesses. We want their experience, knowledge, ideas, and ability to solve problems. But there is a big difference between valuing someone's expertise and building a business that cannot operate without them.
Getting knowledge out of people's heads and into the systems, processes, roles, and decision-making structures of the business doesn't make those people less valuable—it gives them the space to become more valuable. And it gives the business the ability to operate, perform, and grow without everything constantly coming back to the same handful of people—or ultimately, back to the owner.
You will know you have a "Mary" in your company when someone leaves, and you realize you must hire two or three people just to replace them!
Uncover Your Hidden Operational Dependencies
If this feels familiar and you recognize a risk that you may have in your business, it is exactly the kind of hidden dependency The Chain Reaction™ is designed to uncover.
Book an Operational Diagnostics Review with Maureen or explore The Chain Reaction Framework™ to build a resilient, scalable business.
>> Explore The Chain Reaction™ Pressure Map
