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How indispensable are you at work?

1 min read

Leadership

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.

Last week, we asked: How indispensable are you at work?

  • I’m critical — the place falls apart without me: 5.2%
  • I’m important — I would be sorely missed: 34.6%
  • I matter, but they’d get along OK without me: 51.94%
  • I’m dispensable — they wouldn’t miss a beat without me: 8.26%

We’re not that critical. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing we’re indispensable at work and then acting like it. The good news is, most of us realize things move along without us. Try to let that perspective show up in your actions. Take your vacation time. Let your team members take over. And if you’re unhappy in your role, remember not to stay out of some false sense of obligation. After all, if the pope can quit, so can you!

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”