Offer reassurance
Keep your heroes onside while you reduce the risk they create.
Your heroes aren’t going to enjoy your attempts to reduce the risks they present to your team. After all, they love being seen as essential - it’s part of who they are. Looking after your team may feel, to them, like a personal attack.
To counter this, help your heroes see what’s in it for them: why being too essential is a bad thing for them personally, and for the team as a whole. Use the ideas you came up with in your personal development time to sell them on how else they could retain their role as vital members of your team, but with less risk.
Reassure them:
- “I really value what you do, and I need your help to scale up how you do it”
- “I want to be in a position where I can help advance your career, but with all the things you cover right now it’s hard for me to see how I can lose you from your current role”
- “I love how committed you are to your work, but I worry what would happen to our team if you left us, let’s say if you won the lottery. Can you help me work that out?”
- “You know so much about how our team operates, but we’re growing and there’s only one of you. How might we work together to share what you know with the rest of the team?”
When to take this action
This action is from 'No heroics' and should be used when a one of your team is taking on too much, when you need to stop heroics
Need something else?
personal-development
Who are your heroes?
Constant heroics lead to long term damage. Who are your constant heroes and how risky is their behaviour?
personal-development
Reveal the damage
You may have to make drastic steps to convince your heroes that things need to change, but you don't want to cause disaster.
personal-development
Look for new battles
Prepare to reassure your heroes by looking for new opportunities to engage and excite them. Help them feel valued even as you change their roles.
with-your-boss
Enlist support
Help your boss understand what you're doing, and build a case for change together.