Mister indispensable executive

I once met a man whose story still sticks in my mind.

Let’s call him the Indispensable Executive.

His biggest pride was simple: nothing happened without his approval.

Every decision, every approval, every “Let me check with the boss” was something he was proud of.

“My team needs me,” he’d say, his voice full of satisfaction.

When he finally took a two-week family vacation, things started to fall apart.

He barely lasted 48 hours.

By day three, he was in their hotel room bathroom, phone to his ear, whispering orders as his wife knocked impatiently.

By the end of the trip, his kids had renamed the bathroom: “Daddy’s office.”

He came home and laughed about it.

Was it really funny?

The truth he missed was this:

He hadn’t built a team at all.

He’d built an audience.

An audience gets quiet the moment the performer leaves the stage.

So I asked him a question.

Imagine a year in which your wife takes you on an Alaskan cruise, then a South African adventure, then a trip to the Bahamas, adding up to two whole months away from your desk.

Would your business keep running without you?

It was actually a polite way of saying, “If you were to die and depart from this planet, would your business continue or not?”

He shook his head.

“I don’t think so,” he said.

I looked at him and said, “Then you’re in trouble.”

David Finkel, co-author of Scale, writes extensively on leadership.

Finkel makes a point that the Indispensable Executive needed to hear:

Servant leadership is not weak.

It is strategic.

It is not about being needed.

It is about building people who do not need you for everything, which ironically is the only way a leader becomes truly valuable.

Let me repeat that because pride likes to argue.

Leadership’s goal is not to be irreplaceable.

It is becoming unnecessary in the details.

Finkel says servant leadership has a branding problem.

The word servant makes people think of a leader who absorbs every demand, nods to everything and leads nowhere.

That is not the truth.

A servant leader does not carry everyone’s bags.

A servant leader teaches others to carry their own and, one day, to help shoulder someone else’s load.

So what does this actually look like?

Finkel lays out the moves.

First, trust your team.

Empowerment starts here – or nowhere.

You cannot tell someone to “take ownership” while watching over their shoulder and rewriting every sentence.

Trust is shown, not announced.

Here is the uncomfortable question:

If your people will not decide without you, the problem may not be them. You may have trained them, year after year, to wait.

Second, celebrate the victories.

We are conditioned to wait for the splash, the massive deal, the record-breaking quarter before offering praise.

But people do not thrive on annual applause.

They thrive on being seen.

A small win recognized today fuels tomorrow’s effort more than any speech at year’s end.

Notice people doing things right.

It costs nothing.

It grows like interest.

Third, nurture a culture of innovation.

This means giving people space to experiment and to make mistakes without shame.

No one brings ideas where boldness is punished.

If every failed attempt is met with embarrassment, soon you will have a team that offers safe, stale, pre-approved ideas.

Safe ideas never built anything.

Fourth, offer support.

Listen closely because this is where leaders often overcorrect.

Empowerment is not the same as abandonment.

It is not “I trust you” tossed over your shoulder as you disappear.

Empowerment without support is not freedom.

It is just neglect in disguise.

The servant leader stays close enough to mentor, remove obstacles and ensure resources are available.

You hand over the wheel.

You do not leap from the moving car.

If you work on these, then you stop gathering an audience and start building a pipeline.

Your best people become leaders.

Those leaders nurture others.

The organization outgrows its need for any hero, including you.

Not because the leader is diminished. Because the leader is confident enough to raise others higher.

So I leave you with the question tucked inside my friend’s vacation tale.

If you disappeared for two weeks, with your phone off and bathroom door wide open, would your team rise to the challenge, or would everything grind to a halt?

If your honest answer stirs a bit of discomfort, that is a sign.

That unease is not weakness.

It is your assignment calling.

Build people strong enough to shoulder the weight.

That is not you making yourself obsolete.

That is you finally fulfilling your role.

Join me for another run of my one-day Level Up Leadership: Agile. Able. Adaptive. seminar-workshop on Aug. 26, 2026, for a practical and inspiring learning experience designed for leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals who want to lead with greater clarity, confidence, courage and competence in a disrupted world. Seats are limited. For inquiries and registration, contact April at +63 928 559 1798 or Sylene at +63 976 638 8974. Visit www.levelupleadership.ph