Bottleneck: Bottleneck literally refers to the top narrow part of a bottle. In engineering, it refers to a phenomenon where the performance or capacity of an entire system is limited by a single or small number of components or resources.

But what if the bottleneck you are facing is a human being?

If the “entire system” (aka: company) is limited by a “single…component…” then something is severely wrong.  Especially if that person is high up on the chain of command.  In fact a managers job is to do the opposite of bottleneck; their job is to disperse the workload and then:

1. follow up to ensure the work gets done
2. oversee the process and the people to determine who holds potential to manage other people and processes in the future
3. build automation into the process

Failure to execute in the above manner is failure as a manager.  But being a bottleneck is like treason to a company; grounds for dismissal.