Tomorrow I’m heading to Kansas City for the Orange Tour, but first I’m hanging out with the kidmin team at Westside Family Church. I’m spending a couple of hours talking with them about building systems and processes. I’m pretty passionate about systems, processes and automation because when we do it well, it helps us hand off the things that anyone can do to others allowing us to focus on doing only the things that we can do.

In this training, I’m going to unpack an idea that is pretty critical. It’s something that most of us don’t see correctly. It deals with how we bring value to our organization. This is the idea:

It doesn’t take long for anyone (worth hiring) in a position at an organization to create value. Pretty quickly, you feel like you’re “earning your keep.” It’s very easily to get a false sense of the value you are creating. We think, “If I stopped doing what I’m doing, this place would fall apart.” Because the organization becomes dependent on you, you feel valuable. I have one thing to say about this.

You’re being delusional and your thinking is dangerous. You’re bringing less value that you realize and you’re actually becoming a liability to your organization.

Let’s look at a different scenario. What if you created a system that provides values to your organization. You’ve created something that brings value without your direct intervention and if you left, this critical thing would still get done because the organization is not dependent on you.

You have become valuable and indispensable to your organization not because of what will fall apart if you left, but because of all that you will continue to add if you stay.

I encourage you to take a thorough look at your influence in your organization. Is your organization dependent on you or are you creating systems that bring value outside of your direct involvement? Pursue the latter and create a legacy that will long outlast your tenure.