Right Through Your Eulogy!

Things are going well.  Your team is performing at a high level and you’re all getting kudos for your efforts.  It isn’t out of the question for you to be feeling a great deal of pride, knowing how valuable you have become to the organization.  Why, I bet they couldn’t possibly get along without you!!  Oops!  This is an easy trap to fall into.

True, if you lose a member of your team, it will hurt a little.  But you’ll get the right person for the job and you’ll make things as seamless as possible.  Of course it will be much more difficult, if not impossible, to replace you.  That kind of thinking runs rampant throughout organizations where the supervisors and managers haven’t gotten a real dose of humility.

While in HR, my favorite way of responding to an individual who spoke in those kind of terms was to say:  “We’ll be xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx right through your eulogy.”  Of course all the Xs represent whatever was being done by that individual at any particular company.  It was my way of saying that business will continue, and even thrive, if you’re no longer with us.  I know it is cliche, but there really is no one who is indispensable.  Also remember that nothing good or bad lasts forever.

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