The Indispensable Employee
The most recent Cowardly Leadership-Up Close and Personal blog discussed “bromance leadership” (if you missed it, click here). It explored how and why a bromance in local government leadership circles was not something to which elected officials should aspire. One of the examples I used was when an elected official develops a bromance with a staff member- a close relationship that combines friendship, captivation, and fascination.
I’ve been at leadership levels in local government for over three decades, and retired from the U.S. Navy with 30 years of service. But I recently witnessed bromance taken to a level I’d never seen before: Elected officials who acknowledged that, “x is an indispensable employee,” “can’t afford to lose them,” “has never made a decision I disagree with.”
Danger of indispensableness
(Yes it’s a word. I looked it up.)
If I learned my bosses defined me as an indispensable employee, I would feel like Charlie when he finds the Golden Ticket! Dissect this as any citizen and taxpayer should, and you will see it has the potential to create several problems. Pronouncing any employee as indispensable causes the following:
- Absence, or perceived absence of supervisory control
- Weakness, or perceived weakness in the character of the elected officials
- A reversal of the chain-of-command whereas the “indispensable” employee has significant power and leverage to do, or not do, as he/she wishes
- The creation of bargaining leverage on the part of the employee over the elected officials that employee works for
My assumption has always been that elected officials will hold those employees they supervise to the same standard they hold themselves.
Just how low- or high- is that?
Designated Survivor
The federal government has a process in place that ensures, even in the worst imaginable (unimaginable?) disaster, a succession plan is in place. During the State of the Union Address every year, one cabinet member remains in a remote location. If the entire leadership of the United States is destroyed in an attack, we still have a government. The Federal, Legislative and Judicial Branches created a contingency plan, and realized that even they, collectively, are not “indispensable.”
The television series Designated Survivor explores the obstacles that a designated survivor (the Director of Housing and Urban Development) might face. The Capitol is blown up in a terrorist attack and he immediately becomes President. Each week, a series of almost impossible to imagine scenarios face the HUD Secretary-turned-President. And since Kiefer Sutherland is the star, it’s easy to imagine this as 24 on the national political stage.
But what I take away is a guy trying to do the best he can and making it work. It’s difficult, he doesn’t know who to trust– but he makes decisions and moves forward. And shows that no one is indispensable. The country still functions. He is a leader.
When is someone indispensable?
I had to face this scenario (the indispensable employee, not the federal government being obliterated) several years ago. As Parks Director, a big part of our program was managing several softball leagues in the spring and summer. I had an athletic supervisor who did a solid job running and scheduling the games, umpires, scorekeepers, keeping the complex maintained, etc. Her husband was responsible for scheduling the umpires through the association we contracted with. In mid-March, about 3 weeks before the season was to open and at the time the schedules were to go out to approximately 100 teams, she came into my office and said she needed a substantial raise or she was going to resign. Furthermore, her husband would also resign as umpire scheduler.
I had two options- agree to her demands (i.e., acknowledge she was an indispensable employee), or call her bluff and let her walk out. I knew not having her for that 3 or 4 week period was going to be a nightmare. I knew it was going to double my workload during the spring, when it was already budget season and hiring season for summer programs. Spring was our busiest time of year. I knew the teams were not going to want to see her go, because she was good at her job, and they wondered what that unknown right before the season would mean.
If she had said something like, “hey boss, sometime in the next six months I want to sit down with you and talk about this job and my salary,” I would have given her every consideration. But when it became an ultimatum, and she self-classified herself as indispensable– she drew a line in the sand. In my view, an employee creating an ultimatum for her boss is a line you do not cross.
We could have taken the easy way out. But, I sucked it up for a couple of weeks, and re-learned our league scheduling matrix. Other employees pitched in. I had a couple of other umpires agree to do the umpire scheduling. I had the lady who had the concession stand contract volunteer to help make sure maintenance was being done since she was there every night.
In short, we patched it together and made it work. She wasn’t indispensable. Neither was her husband. Neither was I. Neither are you.
Anyone who believes, but worse, publicly acknowledges, that an employee is indispensable, is a long way down the cowardly leadership road.
II-3
