How to Reclaim Team Flow Fast by Relieving Your Dependency on Experts

Heroes don’t actually help you get things done faster.

An Expert Businessman Buttoning Suit on a Walkway, Looking Confident | Photo by Gregory Hayes on Unsplash

Heroics. Who doesn’t love a hero?

Yeah, I’m hearing that Bonnie Tyler song, “I Need a Hero,” in my head, too.

I’ve been on many teams over the past 20 years who depend on a hero. It’s that one person who pulls off a hat trick to save the day in the eleventh hour. It’s the specialist who knows the one skill that everyone needs to get their work done. It’s the manager who makes all the decisions.

Even I have found myself playing the role of the expert. It made me feel special, needed, and crucial. These feelings are addictive.

But heroics aren’t a good long-term strategy, even though they make the expert feel purposeful.

Heroes can help you win, but they also slow you down.

The expert is in high-demand and serves many people and, at times, many teams. You will often find a queue of requests piling up behind these crucial members.

We run into trouble when our heroes become the bottleneck.