Many people see predictability as a bad thing. But in a team setting, being predictable has a lot of benefits.

A boss who has a clear, consistent prioritization strategy, makes it easy for others to prioritize.

If you know that your teammate never drops an email, you don’t need to waste time sending another one.

When you work with a person who’s organized and diligent, there’s no need to follow up as often. You know that the other person will do his or her part (and do it well).

When people around you are predictable, things get easy. You can cross things off your todo list, and move on, without needing to constantly worry if someone dropped the ball.

You can’t have trust without predictability. Yet, many people, think that being predictable makes you replaceable, so they try to obfuscate their work and the decisions they make and hide information from others as much as they can.

The main problem with this strategy is that people who think that way end up creating a political and bureaucratic mess, impair the relationships between the team members, and this chaos sooner or later gets reflected in the products they make and the services they offer. Until eventually, the entire system collapses.

Being irreplaceable because of your work ethic, your diligence and organizational skills is hard, but it pays off in the long run.