The Genius of One by Greg Holder

Author:Greg Holder [Holder, Greg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Ministry / Discipleship, RELIGION / Christian Life / Social Issues
Publisher: The Navigators
Published: 2017-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

ASSUMPTION #2: CERTAIN PEOPLE MUST BE INVOLVED FOR THE BEST IDEAS OR WORK TO EMERGE

There’s often a natural logjam that builds up around certain individuals in any organization or team. Without ever intending to do so, they have now become a hindrance to workflow because of their helpfulness and undeniable usefulness. As the Harvard Business Review observes, “Soon helpful employees become institutional bottlenecks.”[79] In other words, there are a few people in most organizations with whom everyone loves to work—and for good reason. They work hard. They are fun. They are insightful. Nuggets of brilliance fall out of their heads as soon as they’re apprised of a situation. Such teammates don’t just succeed—they help you succeed.

Who wouldn’t want them at a meeting or on a project?

Based on that description, it seems almost foolish to move forward without such input. And sometimes it is foolish—so don’t. But the limitations of even the highly talented inevitably emerge. As it turns out, they are human. Their lack of omnipresence makes their constant availability a bit of a struggle. Projects and people needing answers start piling up outside the door of these valuable teammates, leaving them overwhelmed at their inability to help everyone and keep up with their own jobs.

Does this sound familiar to some of you? Being invited into such an intoxicating array of conversations is fun . . . until it isn’t. You will run out of gas and ideas. It’s only a matter of time. The best part of your day was just spent solving everyone else’s problems. Meanwhile your own problems are still waiting patiently for you. No wonder the research is not too optimistic about those who collaborate too much: “They are so overtaxed that they’re no longer personally effective.”[80]

That can’t be what God had in mind.

Meanwhile, those who have grown too dependent on this overcentralized person start panicking at missed deadlines, and ideas aren’t as fresh as they used to be. Workflow congeals and frustration seeps to the surface.

It almost seemed easier back in the silos.

However, there is a way to unclog things: The super collaborator must learn to say no earlier.

If people are lining up outside your door right now (do you even have a door?), what is keeping you from using that two-letter word? Henry Cloud’s very important Necessary Endings is worth more than a passing glance. He rightly suggests that “endings often are absolute necessities for a turnaround or for growth to occur.”[81] This is not a suggestion that your super-collaborating should come to an end, but that it should become more refined and intentional. Do not allow all this activity to swirl around your schedule and significant abilities.

If at this point you’re thinking this particular chapter is a direct contradiction to the last, it is not. It is, however, an essential counterbalance. The nature of effective collaboration is both yes and no. But healthy boundary-setting does not mean saying no to everything. It certainly does not justify a Grumpy McBitterpants routine where you keep telling everyone to get off your respective lawn—at home, work, school, or church.

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