A linchpin is a term from mechanical engineering for a pin that passes through an axle to keep a wheel or gear in position.
If the linchpin falls out, the wheels could tumble off & you'd have a huge disaster.
Similarly, the linchpin of an organization is someone essential who holds everything together. You've probably worked with a linchpin person before. They know enough about the systems, projects, and people to keep things moving along. But they also represent a failure point for the organization.
If you want to get promoted, one possible way is to make yourself the linchpin of something. Be the person who knows about some system or project plan who everyone looks to as the expert.
But beware - that path can be powerful. It's also dangerous.
My experience
Not so long ago, I was employee #3 & the backend lead for a startup. I became the linchpin that the team relied upon to answer questions about how the code works or how we might solve a new challenge.
It was fun, sometimes! It was also exhausting.
Making myself the linchpin of the team didn’t help the team. It created bottlenecks where questions needed to go through me to get answers. I wasn't effective at disseminating knowledge & empowering the team to make their own decisions.
Moreover, being the linchpin didn’t help me! I learned a ton at first, but the learning quickly leveled off. I didn't get paid a ton more in exchange for being the linchpin or even get a fancy title. Instead, I mostly found burnout.
Questioning being the go-to person
If you think you're at risk of becoming an overloaded linchpin, ask yourself:
- What would happen to the team if you weren't there?
- Is there documentation of your knowledge?
- Have you helped your teammates become more self-sufficient?
- Are you hoarding knowledge because you believe it gives you job security?
- Do you get anything in return for playing such a vital role - e.g. salary, title, influence?
- Could you create tools to automate some of the things that you currently do manually?
Noticeably, these same questions to reduce your load are the higher-level questions that leaders ask to get the entire team to level up.
Once you become a linchpin, your next job is to do the work to share the load and stop being the linchpin.