[In response to recent queries about ‘how to stand out at work?‘ and considering the current market conditions, I’ve decided to share my thoughts. This piece reflects my beliefs on a topic that is broadly applicable across various roles and professions. Let’s dive in.]

You’ve probably heard it before. Someone in your company is telling everyone she’s leaving, and because she was quite good at what she did, some people are raising concerns that her departure is going to be a real problem.

Then enters the group leader, or any other manager, and calms everyone down, saying: “Don’t worry guys, everyone is replaceable”.

I heard this phrase dozens of times myself over the years, and I devoted some real thought into whether this phrase is actually true. My first observation is that for most cases it is indeed true, but in some extreme cases it’s not.

My second observation is that you should always aim to be one of these extreme cases.

Why the statement ‘everyone is replaceable’ is not always true

Well, let’s start with a small clarification:

As a plain fact, this statement is true for all the cases I can think of because you can always replace a great professional in a specific role with a less competent person performing the same role.

But I think it’s clear to everyone that this is not what this statement means.

When someone says that ‘everyone is replaceable’ they mean that the organization or business group is not going to suffer dearly from the loss of this person. Meaning – no meaningful business KPI is going to be affected with this departure. This belief usually follows the logic that the organization is made of many individuals that together can compensate for the loss of any single individual until a proper replacement is found.

And again, I can agree that for most cases this is true. 

You see, we can put the term ‘professionalism’ on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means someone who is truly unprofessional and really lousy at what they are doing, and 10 refers to aces who ensure any area they touch blooms and becomes highly successful. 

Let’s say that 7 is ‘good’ and 8-9 are ‘very good’.

I claim that levels 1-9 are replaceable, and believe it or not, so are the 10s.

Yes, the organization should definitely aim to keep the very good ones and do even an extra effort for the aces. Offer them better terms, or see why they wish to leave and what can be done to change their mind. For aces you should definitely do whatever in your power to keep them and in fact – it’s even better to have a prevention mechanism in place that provides retention plans tailored for such individuals (so they won’t consider leaving to begin with).

However, if these people still wish to leave after the company did whatever it can to keep them – then fine. There is going to be a period of inefficiency, and some of the KPIs may go down for the term of this period, until a replacement is hired – and then things will gradually be back to normal.

So it definitely hurts, but in the long run – it will be forgotten.

However, I also claim that the case is different for some unique individuals. These people are not on this scale. These people are really unicorns.

These people, when present within an organization, leave an unforgettable positive impression. There’s a clear distinction between how things were before they arrived and how they are now. It’s very clear to anyone (even outside of their department) that the company is better now, because of their presence (and we’ll see what it means in a second).

Am I idealizing? Do those people really exist?

Yes, they are.

I’ve seen several of them in my career and you probably either know some yourself or heard about them.

I also claim you can become one if you are really determined.

But we’ll talk about it shortly.

Let’s go back to these unicorns – 

These unicorns are not only over-performing for their given tasks, but usually expand by nature to other areas of responsibilities and excel in them as well. Here are some hints on how to spot them in “nature”:

1. These individuals will deliver their tasks on time and in high quality. They are also more likely to outperform their peers in terms of both.
2. These individuals will revolutionize how things are performed in their department and maybe even beyond their department. I’m talking about aggressive optimization of processes, or even coming up with brand new play books on how to get stuff done.
3. These individuals will inspire the people around them, and the whole group, as a result will become more productive.
4. These individuals, if they ever leave (who is the idiot who let them??) – when they give you a call and tell you they need you by their side, you are most likely to wrap up your bag and follow them.

And given the above, and going back to my claim:

I believe that these people are irreplaceable. Meaning – when they leave – your organization or business unit will suffer a long term and maybe even permanent damage to its health or to some of its business KPIs.

If those are product managers – then without them your company may stir off-course, because they kept you focused and aligned. As a result – the company may chase the wrong customers or the wrong market.

If those are engineers – then without them the infrastructure will degrade over time, resulting in spiking costs and reduced velocity, or the overall code quality will just trend lower.

If those are sales people – then without them the sales templates and play books won’t be updated based on the ever evolving markets, and in the long term – the sales people will struggle with closing deals.

If those are marketing wizards – then without them the buzz will slowly diminish and the company will struggle to stay on top of trends and tell its story in a way that appeals to the masses.

And… well.. You get the picture.. Right?

Don’t ever let them go!

How to become irreplaceable

Becoming irreplaceable is not achievable merely by desiring job security. That I can tell you for sure.

Becoming irreplaceable is a by-product of becoming what the title of this post says – ‘being too good so they can’t ignore you’.

I actually first heard about this sentence from Steve Martin, the comedian. This is his mantra on how to be successful (you can see the essence of it here).

When I heard it the first time I got hooked, as I understood that this is what I believe in, though I never managed to describe this belief in words. Steve nailed it for me. So thank you Steve.

Now, back to becoming irreplaceable – I do believe that the way to such greatness goes through ‘being so good so the people around you can’t ignore you’.

And how are you becoming that good?

Here are my guidelines in a nutshell:

1. Be professional. That’s really the basics. You need to know the profession if you wish to excel. No way around it. Read books, listen to podcasts or whatever works for you. Ask for feedback and improve based on that. Feedback and results are your best mirror to your performance. Additionally, get a mentor. My personal recommendation – get the best one you can find. Don’t compromise even if it takes time. The best mentor will take you to new heights. A mediocre mentor will ‘plant’ a lot of mistakes in your head and it’d be hard to root them out.
2. Focus on the impact. Taking features from ideation to production is important. So does writing great code and nailing down sales calls. There are plenty of things that will make you ‘good’ or even an ‘ace’. But there is only one thing that will make you great – delivering a great impact for your organization. Impact is when the bottom line KPIs for your company are positively affected by something you did. You helped generate new revenue streams, you helped conquer new markets or you helped significantly reduce the churn of existing customers. This is an impact. The rest is just cute. Therefore, get rid of all the bullshit and politics. Don’t try to please anyone. Don’t wonder what will get you your next promotion. Don’t be distracted by the noise around you. Focus on just one thing – how to create a positive huge impact for your company. Someone is paying you to move the needle – so try to kick it to the sky. Everything else is just a distraction.
3. Don’t limit yourself. There is no box. Get out of the Matrix. Everyone around you is working according to some play books or falling in love with their routines. Don’t be that guy. Yes, you need to know the play books and best practices in your domain. They hold some wisdom. However, the mistake most people make is that they follow these play books word-by-word. “This is how you do it” – they will tell you. No, it’s not. Each case, each challenge is different. The play book and best practices are here to serve you and not the other way around. You are not getting points by following a play book or a best practice. You get points by getting stuff done and creating a positive impact. These best practices can give you some hints, and maybe you want to adopt some of them, because it makes sense for your current challenge, but you should never follow blind. For example – people who have worked with me know that one of the quickest ways to annoy me (and it’s quite challenging to do) – is to tell me that ‘this is how you do Scrum/planning/testing/MVP/whatever’. If we stick to Scrum as an example – then Scrum has a very detailed playbook, with all its ceremonies. When I start working with a new team – we sit together and discuss what makes sense to us, based on our personalities and dynamics. We adopt the ceremonies that we find useful and ignore or modify the rest.
4. When you are done with some task, examine everything that is still on the table and ask yourself one question – ‘what is the most impactful work-item which is still left on the table?’ Focus on that one and not necessarily on what others think you should work on. Additionally, if you don’t believe any task which is still open is impactful enough – ignore all of them and look for new initiatives that will get the impact you’re looking for.
5. Don’t be a jerk. You may be very talented and you may have tons of experience. That doesn’t make you a superior human being. Yes, even if you are that good. Stay humble and don’t let it go to your head. If you start to act like an ass eventually people will turn against you and will stop cooperating. Like it or not – you can’t create the impact you desire by yourself. This is a team effort. No team – no impact.

So to summarize my guidelines:

• Be professional
• Focus on impact
• Don’t be a jerk

Now, if you learned something from what I wrote above – then you’ll understand that these are my guidelines. You can take whatever you want from it, but eventually you need to find your own way to greatness.

How can you tell whether you are irreplaceable?

Here are some hints you can check:

1. You consistently meet your goals and your goals are impactful.
2. Everyone you talk to tells you that things are much better since you arrived.
3. People ask you to mentor them.
4. You can easily name a few projects you initiated that generated a positive impact on the business KPIs of your department.
5. Your peers and manager reviews are great.
6. Your reputation precedes you. People are reaching out from other companies telling you they heard great things about you and trying to ‘steal’ you.
7. When you finally decide to move on – the top managers are getting involved trying to make you stay with strong determination.

To summarize

There are a few who are irreplaceable, whether the organization officially acknowledges that or not. Those unique people are not becoming like that because it was their goal. 

They became like that because they understand what the business needs in order to be successful and they are working relentlessly to achieve that with a pure heart while not binding themselves to any known convention or practice.

That’s also my interpretation to ‘Being so good so they can’t ignore you’. Meaning, constantly delivering results no one can argue with, while leaving ‘no casualties’ by the road sides.

While I could delve deeper into this topic, my goal was to keep this discussion concise. If you have any follow-up questions or comments, please feel free to reach out. 

In the meantime, I wish you the best of luck in your journey to greatness!

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