Don’t be too Indispensable
Could it actually be bad for your career to be indispensable to your boss?
It certainly shouldn't have to be, but in many cases a boss knows to lean and rely on a great employee; it makes sense after all in so much that the responsibility of any management employee is to have the strongest department possible, and leaning on your stars is an easy way to accomplish that.
However this isn't the right answer, either for your career or the bosses.
Of course, as an employee you want to do everything you possibly can to be regarded as indispensable. However, it is very important, while displaying your normal level of performance and loyalty, that you take a couple of key steps to ensure that you not be kept down as a result of being regarded as indispensable.
First, make it known to management that you desire to move up the ladder. Ask for a career growth plan. During evaluations or at any other appropriate time, make your goals known and ask what is necessary to rise to the next level. Make it clear that you are open to changing to a different position or department in order to achieve promotion.
Bosses in some cases will not only lean on their indispensable employees because it's good for the boss, but also on occasion because your boss may be worried that you may want their job, and job protection for the boss may be a motivating factor. Making it clear that you will accept a position that doesn't threaten your immediate Supervisor can be a critical step to achieving your goal.
Possibly the most important point however, is to do everything possible to ensure that other(s) are ready to step in for you when it comes time for you to be promoted. Once upon a time, I was in the "indispensable" role and was having a hard time breaking out of it. My Division Vice President actually had a rule to management in my Division as to when I was allowed to be off-site and when I wasn't. I was leaned on to the point that it quite often was illegal, working over 40 days in a row, upwards of 30 hours in a row and as little as 4 hours between shifts.
What I slowly came to realize though, is that even if no one wanted to help me get into management, I did have a degree of control over my situation. I had to be honest with myself first and admit that I liked being indispensable, and instead of hording knowledge and responsibility I had to become more open with sharing and teaching others to do what I could do.
That may initially seem counter-productive, but it not only was good for the overall operation it was invaluable for me personally as well, as I learned how to teach and how to share information in a way that helped prepare me to move to a better role in the company.
The other key component when getting others involved, is learning how to say no. Again, this may seem extremely counter-productive, and I would certainly recommend getting others trained first and then taking the step of saying no, but management can lean on people for no reason other than insecurity at times, and once you have brought others to where they can handle more complex functions, it becomes good for everyone to get both management and the other employees used to handling the toughest and most high stress functions. That brand of "tough love" is simply telling your boss you have plans and you are not available.
In my case, that was the step that was necessary to allow me to achieve my goal of getting into management. I actually had to become less indispensable by bringing others up to a higher level, and then I could move on...
