Mediaboss Marketing

Youve probably experienced massive delays, major setbacks, or sudden drops in productivity at least once in running your business. Part of preventing such problems from happening again is determining what caused them.

Did your bakerys delivery trucks run into terrible traffic? Did your clothing boutique upset its best customer? Or did your local SEO company lose its best analyst?

Although all of these cause issues with your companys productivity, the last one happens because your company relied too much on one person.

This is called talent dependency, and its a serious stumbling block for businesses of all sizes.

Talent dependency, also known as key person dependency, refers to a situation where your company or segments of your company rely too much on one person. This excessive dependency can have dire repercussions for your business, especially if this key person decides to leave your organization or becomes otherwise indisposed.

Removing this person from your company would be like removing the keystone in an archway, which is problematic at best; disastrous at worse.

There are a few simple ways to tell if your organization is dealing with talent dependency. Here are some sure-fire symptoms that someone is a key person:

If youve noticed these things happening in your organization, then you have a talent dependency problem.

Talent dependency can sprout anywhere and manifest in anyone in your company. Maybe it is a charismatic salesperson for your online store, an SEO consultant or an innovative pastry chef in your caf who can all become the source of key person dependency.

Critical knowledge refers to information about your company or its processes that is necessary for it to perform or retain an advantage over competitors. Tacit knowledge, on the other hand, refers to data and information that can only be found inside someones mind.

Its the accumulation of information and instinct that someone develops over time that makes them effective in their job. So long as only one person has tacit critical knowledge, they are poised to become key persons.

When a key person departs, it could cause the following issues:

Large companies can suffer these effects just as much as smaller companies. For example, automotive and energy company Tesla has suffered from the erratic behavior of its CEO, Elon Musk. Executives are prone to becoming key persons because of their authority within the company and level of expertise.

But smaller companies cant bounce back from major setbacks as quickly as their larger counterparts. Although a single delayed shipment because of talent dependency would be a nuisance for a multinational corporation, the same problem could be ruinous to the finances of a small business.

What can you do to prevent talent dependency from ruining your company?

By taking the following advice, you may be able to mitigate the damage that talent dependency can wreak on your business. If you implement enough of these tips in advance, you may prevent talent dependency from taking root in your organization at all.

Essential personnel arent always a disadvantage for the business. A brilliant employee can be the one who discovers something new or inspires others to greater productivity. Key personnel only become a problem when they dont want or fail to share what makes them important to other employees.

Nurturing a company culture that helps employees raise each other up can go a long way in preventing your business from depending on one person. By making your organization a collaborative effort, you ensure that everyone on your roster is working together toward a better tomorrow.

See more here:
How to Stop the Negative Impacts of Talent Dependency - News & Features