“My manager has been on annual leave so I have not been able to…”

We create ‘managers’ for many reasons. Often as a ‘reward’ for experience and long service. Or as a career development route. Or as a buffer between us and the people doing the work.

But by definition, hierarchy creates bottlenecks, because any given node is in demand by many nodes below it. And when that node is absent, the work of everyone underneath gets held up.

And every time we add a node to our hierarchy, the more that ‘work about work’ increases; the more opportunities for miscommunication we create and the more we encourage the creation of silos, making our business less efficient, less agile, less customer-centred.

When people are looking up they can’t be looking out.

The answer?

Put the checks and balances into the process, and make sure there are enough people with the right qualifications and experience to play the Role of coach/enabler/checker/balancer when that is needed.

Pay those more experienced, more qualified people more, by all means. They deserve it.

No need to put them ‘in charge’.

Discipline makes Daring possible.