Message of the Day - Dangers of the Go-To Guy

Good Morning,

 

Everyone likes to have their go-to people, and they have and will have save our butts many times over the years and for the years to come.

 

To some the go-to person is just indispensible making their absence, or worse, departure, even more challenging.

 

Sometimes the use of a go-to person actually creates problems if not watched out for.

 

I once worked in a unit where the former leader relied on two of their team members for nearly all tasks that they, themselves, did not do. The rest of the team was used for their regular functions, but none were tapped for any special tasks. These two people were, alone, the go-to people of the team.

 

When I took over, I split up the tasks between all the team members who were able to do them. This created two problems.

 

First, the go-to people felt that I was picking on them, and in truth, I was, in that I was not going to rely solely on them.

 

Second, when both of these go-to people left the team, the rest of the team felt like they were going to implode due to the loss of the two go-to people following shortly after the loss of their former leader.

 

This former leader was sometimes known as ‘Magic Hands’ as anything handed to them was ‘Magically’ resolved and it appeared that no one, besides the two go-to people ever learned anything about how the issue was resolved.  

 

Ultimately, the team became a team of go-to people as I engaged each and every person. The team improved its performance to best ever in the company up to that time. New people came in to replace those who left, and knowledge was shared between the entire team.

 

Singling out one or two people solely as your go-to people can be a danger to your team’s growth and productivity.

 

Spread out the knowledge and let everyone learn and grow daily!

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
Follow Me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sberenberg

 

http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"

502-533-9336