Making Ourselves Redundant Enthusiastically.

I guess I could also call this “An Advocate For Deliberate Redundancy”. The term “Redundancy” is probably about as anathema to the average business leader as anathema can get. We are constantly exhorted to get rid of the redundant. People involved in business processes, logistics, supply chain management and similar operations look out for and squash redundancies whenever they are detected. And well they should, for useless procedures or processes do not contribute to productivity and are certainly not profitable. Perhaps engineering folks might be more sympathetic to the term “Redundancy”, especially if it is inbuilt to ensure higher levels of reliability within systems.

What about ourselves? Before you snort in disgust, think about it! Are you indispensable? Is being indispensable profitable for your business? Do you provide increased value to all your stakeholders by being indispensable? Think further. Do you realize that by being indispensable, or making yourself so, you are actually diminishing the overall value of your business? Our egos like to make us think that we are indispensable, that the business would somehow flounder and sink in the vast ocean of today’s business environment that can provide a maelstrom at any moment. Reality check, my friend. The only way to go from “Good to Great” is by acknowledging the fact that we are totally replaceable at any time.

Ok, you get my drift. Now, how do I mean, make myself redundant? Just two essentials:

1.     Grow.

If we ourselves do not grow continuously in knowledge, understanding and wisdom, we have absolutely no business leading others, providing counsel or providing advice, no matter how scintillating our reputations may be. It is your responsibility to grow. You know very well that time is not the issue. It is a matter of priority. Do it. Be it.

2.     Reproduce.

What are you doing to reproduce yourself in others? You know that I do not mean making clones of yourself! What structures, mechanisms, processes, other leaders, have you made available for your people to grow under your leadership? How have you endeavoured to make your protégés greater than yourself? Growth and reproduction are the two vital signs of a living, breathing enterprise. Do you have one?

After all, if you take the first letters from the words in the title, they spell the word M-O-R-E, don’t they?

Skip to toolbar