Book Look: The Art of Being Indispensable at Work by Bruce Tulgan

By William Carmichael

Please pardon two brief but necessary word characterizations for this month’s review; art– the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, and indispensable– absolutely necessary, essential, or requisite. In an occupational setting, these words expressed together prompt the vision of someone who is absolutely in command of his or her job. We all know someone like this. That “go-to” person your office or business just can’t do without. In The Art of Being Indispensable at Work: Win Influence, Beat Overcommitment, and Get the Right Things Done, author Bruce Tulgan describes what makes that person so effective at what they do and describes the characteristics of how they got this way. In this game-changing yet practical book, Tulgan shows us how “go-to” people not only behave differently but also think differently, basing their decisions and actions on their own personal influence rather than on any formal designation of authority. Perhaps most importantly, Tulgan teaches how each of us can master this art of being indispensable at work, even during a pandemic.

Overcommitment vs. Collaboration

Early in this excellent management guide an uncomfortable familiarity began to set in for me and likely will for readers. That regardless of the industry we have trained in, each of us is guilty of saying yes way too often. Of overcommitting! In The Art of Being Indispensable, Tulgan talks about something called over commitment syndrome, which the author defines in the formula:

Inundation of requests + No Accountability + EIMJ (Everything is my Job)
= Over Commitment Syndrome.

Sounds familiar doesn’t it? I, for one, am guilty of this. But why exactly do we too eagerly overcommit? To be thought of as a team player, certainly. To be someone who can be counted on, definitely. But honestly, we each want to be thought of as indispensable . . . of being that “go-to” person. But how?

To complicate things, another reality is that these days doing our job has also become a lot harder. We collaborate with a lot more people than ever before. But our author teaches us that collaboration for the sake of collaboration presents a problem of accountability. There is a simple reality that getting what you need from your lateral colleague or even your boss is difficult at best because there is no way to hold them truly accountable without clear authority. Tulgan explains how collaboration manifests in different ways with different names in any organization. It can be called matrix management, dotted-line reporting, cross functional coordination, self-managed project teams, lateral cooperation, inter-dependency, etc… But according to the author, the main goals of collaboration is to speed up and improve: information exchange, decision making, planning, resource sharing, and execution. There has to be a solution and Tulgan shares it with us.

What Exactly is a “Go-to” Person?

Bestselling author and corporate advisor Tulgan, teaches us that Go-to-People have the ability to:

• Understand the peculiar mathematics of real influence. Go-to people make the right decisions and get the right things done.
• Lead from wherever they are. Today, many of us are constantly being asked to do things by people who aren’t our boss, and where we must ask things of others who don’t report to us.
• Know when to say no and how to say yes. The secret to saying yes is to ensure the project is set up for success with a concrete plan—a clear sequence of events and ownership of next steps.
• Work smart. Go-to people identify what they do best and what they want to be known for.
• Finish what they start. Go-to people understand that the way to win is to complete projects so they can take on new ones.
• Get better and better at working together. Relationships are key, but go-to people know the way to build them isn’t through politicking and personal rapport.

Structure and Layout

At 218 pages, its eight short chapters can easily be read over a weekend. What readers will also appreciate is that beyond a helpful summary found at the end of each chapter, here is an author who clearly understands what is going on in the trenches as well as in the C Suite and makes recommendations that are clear, concise, and doable.

Who Will Benefit Most from This Book?
Management (at all levels)

About the author: Bruce Tulgan is a bestselling author, an adviser to business leaders all over the world, and a sought-after keynote speaker and seminar leader. He has worked with thousands of leaders and managers in hundreds of organizations, from Aetna to Walmart, the US Army to the YMCA. He lectures at the Yale School of Management and is the author of several books, including the bestselling It’s Okay to Be the Boss and Not Everyone Gets a Trophy. He is the founder and Chairman of RainmakerThinking, Inc.