The Fixer

I coached a director who could fix anything. Customer escalation? He got the call. Project off the rails? He got pulled in. Cross-functional breakdown? He sat in the room and put it back together.

He was the person everyone depended on. And he could not figure out why he kept getting passed over for VP.

He’d made himself so essential that nobody could imagine the team without him. Promoting him would leave a hole nobody knew how to fill — because he’d never developed anyone to fill it.

The leaders above him were thinking: results are there. Could the org function without him? They’re not sure. That uncertainty is what kept him stuck.

Irreplaceable people don’t get promoted. They get depended on.

If you were unreachable for forty-eight hours, what would happen?