WHAT THE " HEROICS " TAX IS COSTING YOUR AGENCY by Katlyn Eggar, Katlyn Eggar Consulting, for IA magazine
There’ s a pattern hiding in plain sight inside most growing organizations. It lives in the gap between what your systems can handle and what your best people absorb through sheer effort. It looks like high performance. It gets celebrated. And it is slowly degrading your ability to scale. It’ s called the heroics tax.
The heroics tax is the compounding cost an organization pays when it relies on individual effort to compensate for broken or absent systems. It isn’ t paid once. It accumulates – in burnout, fragility, institutional knowledge that walks out the door, and the ever-growing gap between what your organization can do and what it would take to do it without your best people propping it up.
The cycle looks like this:
• A gap in systems, process or accountability creates a crisis.
• A top performer fills it through talent, determination and personal sacrifice.
• The crisis resolves, leadership moves on and the gap never gets fixed.
• Then, the next crisis is larger – because heroics have now become the strategy.
A few conversations can change Someone’ s career.
BECOME A MENTOR
The problem isn’ t the hero. Heroes are often your most committed, capable people. The problem is that heroics are rewarded instead of diagnosed. Every time someone saves the day, you get two outcomes: a short-term win and a compounding cost you’ ve just agreed to pay again.
Heroics rarely announce themselves as a problem. They’ re dressed up as dedication, hustle and high standards. Here are the patterns worth recognizing:
The“ fixer” who keeps getting promoted. They’ re so good at solving crises that leadership elevates them. The org has now institutionalized the role of crisis manager and called it leadership development. When this person leaves – and they will – the wheels come off.
The customer service rep with a 98 % satisfaction score. They’ ve been personally compensating for a product defect with handwritten notes and goodwill calls for 18 months. The product team has been completely insulated from customer feedback, while no one questions the gap.
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