Editorial draft based on Alan's leadership themes. Final text subject to his approval.
After an aggressive cost-reduction exercise, several departments became dependent on a single person. The immediate financial indicators looked better. The organisational consequences were less visible.
Then an experienced employee requested leave for an important family occasion overseas. The organisation faced an uncomfortable dilemma: risk an operational interruption, demand remote availability during the occasion, or ask the employee to choose between personal life and duty.
The deeper failure was not the request for leave. It was the organisational structure that made an ordinary absence a crisis. A leader responsible for institutional stewardship must build resilience, not celebrate a dependency merely because it lowers a short-term cost line.
Approving leave is only the beginning. Leaders also need cross-training, clearer authority, contingency arrangements and better succession within each team. People should not have to surrender their personal lives to compensate for weak systems.