How to Be Irreplaceable at Work and in Your Industry

And she asked me, how do I become irreplaceable? Is it even possible to beat irreplaceable? Or is that just the concept that people invented? Well, I answered her question. I thought to myself, well, how many others might be wondering the same thing? I'm Dr. Grace Lee, and you're listening to the Career Revisionist podcast for executives, team leaders, people and managers, and ambitious professionals from all backgrounds. It's for those among us who can't stay stagnant and admire anyone who demonstrates exponential growth. We challenge ourselves to step out of our comfort zone and into higher levels of leadership. And we are determined to rise confidently in our industry so that we can make our greatest contribution using our knowledge and expertise. We have worked hard to become great at what we do, but only so we can achieve the goals that give our lives meaning and purpose. And while we persevere through a college education to get us here with our technical skills, we understand that to get to the next level where we desire to be, it requires a different kind of skills. And we're not comfortable with failure because we experience satisfaction when we are advancing. And while some of us work well under pressure, all of us perform the best when we are part of a winning team. And instead of just hoping to achieve what's important to us, we choose to become a more optimized version of ourselves to make it happen. We're not just A players. We are A plus players. And we are the source of consistent output that makes positive advancements in the world around us. - Do you ever wonder what it's like to be irreplaceable in your company or your organization? Well, one of my clients in my executive coaching program has asked this question in terms of, how do I become irreplaceable? She's an executive in her organization and she wants to continue working there. So she asked me this, she posed this question to me on one of our weekly coaching calls. Is it even possible to be irreplaceable? Well, I answered her question and I thought to myself, well, how many others might be wondering the same thing? So my team and I put together this clip, we just cut out this clip where I answered my clients question on irreplaceability. And I'm sharing with you. So enjoy the answer to that question and comment below. Let me know what you think and let me know if this served you as well. - Okay, your last question was, how do you make yourself irreplaceable? Is there even such a thing? So there's no, okay, with respect to replaceability, right? What you're talking about is absolute irreplaceability. And of course, there are no absolutes. So if you're thinking about, I wanna make myself absolutely irreplaceable. Irrevocably, unquestionably irreplaceable, well, then that's a tall order because remember, life gives you both an equal balance of opposites. But you can do is increase your probability of having value in your industry and in your organization, which makes you more irreplaceable than you used to be. That's the progression, that's the mindset. How can I be more valuable in my industry, in my team and in my organization at large? And the more valuable I can be, the person I can be, then the more irreplaceable I will have become compared to what I used to be, that's the progression. So irreplaceability goes back to your corporate values, the company's values and your leader's values. How can you continuously help them fulfill those values? Who do you need to become to continuously help them fulfill those values? What skills do you need to constantly develop to help them fulfill those values? What new knowledge and new information and new individuals you need to bring on to help them fulfill those values and so on. It's a progress, it's a journey. We never arrive like a destination of, oh, now I'm irreplaceable. I can relax now. It's not a destination like that. It's a constant journey. Right, so this is about when you become more irreplaceable compared to where you were before, now you become more of an asset. You're the asset. And the way that I think about it is your team members are the greatest assets in the organization. Your team members, yourself, every person in that organization are the assets. The assets are not the vendors, it's not the cash in the bank, it's not the products that they have in the supply chain. No, the greatest assets are the people. So this like, how can I become greater and greater asset every year? How can I become a greater asset to them year on year, quarter on quarter? And it's a journey. It's a journey. And if you find that once you develop a skill that you didn't have last year, or you develop new knowledge that you didn't have last year, you better believe it. You've become more irreplaceable than you were last year. That's how it works. (upbeat music)