When Your Team Runs on Heroics Instead of Systems ⚙️

There’s a pattern I see all the time:

The work gets done.

Clients are happy (mostly).

But behind the scenes? It only works because a few key people are constantly catching what the system doesn’t.

• They remember the exceptions.

• They know which client is waiting on what.

• They keep the “real” process in their heads, not in your tools.

That’s not a lack of effort. It’s a lack of structure.

The Hidden Risk of “We Just Figure It Out”

When delivery relies on individual heroics, a few things usually show up:

• Capacity stalls at the same point every time – you can’t add more clients without someone burning out.

• New hires take months to ramp because the process lives in conversations, not in a clear path.

• Quality depends on who’s doing the work, not on a standard way of delivering.

• Leaders get dragged back into the weeds to fix “one-off” issues that actually aren’t one-off at all.

Nothing is obviously “broken,” but it never feels calm.

You’re always one absence away from chaos.

Turning Expertise into a System

What changes things isn’t a new tool - it’s making your way of working visible and repeatable.

For example, instead of:

• A senior team member remembering the steps of onboarding each client,

• You have a clear workflow that shows what happens when, and who owns it.

• Delivery tasks being created ad hoc,

• You have standardized checklists and views aligned to each service you offer.

• Project health being discussed only in meetings,

• You have a simple dashboard that tells you: “Are we on track, at risk, or off track?”

The value is not in complexity. It’s in making the core of how you serve clients consistent and transparent.

A Different Question to Ask This Week

Rather than asking “Where are we wasting time?” try:

Common hotspots:

• Client onboarding

• Handover between sales and delivery

• Approvals and sign-offs

• Reporting and client updates

Anywhere the answer starts with “It depends who’s handling it” is a good candidate.

Pick one of those areas and document how it should work - step by step, from trigger to “done.”

From there, your tools (ClickUp, your CRM, your comms platform) can be shaped to match that path, instead of everyone working around them.

Why This Matters

Systems aren’t there to replace judgment.

They’re there to protect it - so your team spends their energy on client thinking, not on remembering who needs what and when.

When your operations are built around your real way of working, you get:

• More predictable delivery

• Less firefighting

• Easier delegation and scaling

And most importantly: your business stops depending on a handful of people doing quiet heroics every day.

If you’d like an outside eye on where you’re relying on heroics instead of systems, that’s exactly the work I do.

Hina

Systems Specialist & Creator of The Systems Edit

Systems That Give Time Back

P.S. Want a quick read on your operations? Take the 5-minute Operations Health Check: