Why Doing Things Alone At Work Is A Very Bad Idea

Doing things alone has its perks.

You take complete ownership of the project. You can contemplate the pitfalls before they happen. You can prepare for questions from others in advance. It makes you an instant expert on the “thing” where others want to work with you.

If you get fired, well, you probably won’t. You developed this “thing” that no one else knows how to do but you.

I see this more prevalent in older workers, workers near retirement age, and others who have an insecure job or are just insecure. Doing things alone at work is based on fear. It is also working from a defensive stance than offense. Automatically rigged in a weak mindset.

Why You Need To Stop

You don’t need to stop doing things alone immediately.

All ideas start in our mind. We can put it down on paper and lay it out. Next step is to invite others. Other people need to see it. You need “buy in”. This is very similar to a tech startup’s MVP. No one knows the idea is good unless others want to pay for it, learn it, or curious about it.

You also need others to actively collaborate and participate. With their feedback, you engage others, and scale the project with other features, even you didn’t know.

The biggest perk of ending “doing it alone” is when you can hand the project over and it runs itself. That’s freedom and autonomy without isolating yourself. You create, invite, scale, repeat.

Originally posted 2019-04-29 08:00:44.