Patio Pondering: No One Is Indispensable, Even You
It snowed overnight here in NE Indiana, and the whole landscape is covered in a clean, white blanket as the morning sun hits the fields. My coffee is hot, and I am tucked into the Annex Patio trying to get back into the groove after travel and the holidays.
As I look out across the fields, I have been thinking about what I call our operational rhythms. These are the natural ebbs and flows of a team’s availability over the course of a year. People travel for work. People take PTO. There are conferences, family needs, sick days, and the crush of year-end responsibilities. No team stays at full strength for all fifty-two weeks.
A recent example is my own schedule. I spent ten days consulting in China and came home just in time to roll right into Thanksgiving. That back-to-back stretch would have created real challenges for any team I was part of, and it made me think about what leadership can do along with what each of us can do individually to prepare for those inevitable absences.
For leaders, the responsibility starts with building teams that can function smoothly when someone is gone. That means setting expectations early, making sure responsibilities are shared, and avoiding single points of failure. A leader can create a culture where stepping away is manageable or a culture where people feel like they must lug a laptop into a tent on vacation just to keep things afloat. I have seen that happen. I have done versions of that myself.
Employees also carry responsibility. This part is a little uncomfortable to admit.
Sometimes we do not prepare our coworkers for our absence because, deep down, being the only one who can do something feels good. It feels secure. It feels important. If I am the only one who can fix a problem, then I must be indispensable. I have fallen into that mindset before, and it helped no one, including me.
Looking back, I wish I had been better at making clean handoffs before I stepped away. I wish I had communicated more clearly about what might come up, what needed covered, and what could wait until I returned. Preparing others is not a burden. It is a responsibility that strengthens the whole team.
Operational rhythms are not going away. They are part of the business cycle, and they can create chaos or build resilience depending on how we approach them.
As we move through the year with its travel, PTO, deadlines, and life events, how do we prepare each other so the work continues smoothly and no one feels forced to carry the load alone?