Last week I was asked to speak about something that doesn’t get talked about enough in our industry. Not AI, not growth, not disruption. Just people. But not the obvious ones. Not the loudest voice in the room or the ones constantly visible. The people who quietly make everything work.
If you’ve spent any real time in events, experiential or MICE, you’ll know exactly who I mean. Think about the best team you’ve ever worked in. Not the biggest brand, just the team where things genuinely worked. There was someone in that team who held it all together. You relied on them without even thinking about it.
They were the person you went to when you weren’t sure. The one who always seemed to have the answer, or at least knew where to find it. The one who could sense something drifting before anyone else had noticed. They weren’t the loudest or the most senior, but they were the one people trusted.
That’s who this is about.
In my world, I spend most of my time talking to founders, MDs and leadership teams about hiring. What’s working, what isn’t, and where things are starting to creak. What’s interesting is these people come up all the time, just not directly. It shows up in comments like, “Something feels harder than it used to,” or “We’re not as slick as we were.”
When you dig into it, it nearly always comes back to the same thing. Someone has left.
Not dramatically. No big fallout. They’ve just gone. And for a while, nothing seems that different. The same team is there, the same clients, the same projects. On the surface, everything looks fine.
Then things start to shift. Decisions take longer. Small issues hang around instead of being fixed quickly. Projects feel heavier to run. Nothing breaks in a dramatic way, but everything becomes just that bit harder.
It’s like taking a small bolt out of a machine. At first, nothing happens. Then there’s a slight rattle. Then things begin to slip. Eventually you realise something important was holding it all together.
Most businesses underestimate this. Because these people don’t leave with noise. They don’t make a fuss or list everything they’ve been doing. They don’t post long messages about their impact. They just go. And that’s when you realise how much they were carrying.
The challenge is that most organisations aren’t set up to reward this properly. We reward visibility, confidence and the loudest voice. Meanwhile, the person quietly delivering, consistently and professionally, gets a quick “thanks” and moves on to the next problem.
What makes it worse is these are often the safest pair of hands in the business. The people you trust with your biggest clients. The ones you don’t worry about. And that’s exactly where the problem starts, because “not worrying about them” quickly turns into not investing in them.
They become dependable to the point of being taken for granted. And because they don’t push for recognition, they can go a long time without anyone really stepping back and understanding their impact.
By the time it becomes obvious, it’s usually too late.
These people don’t tend to leave with drama. They don’t force attention. They simply make a decision and move on. And that’s when the realisation hits. Not in the job description you write to replace them, but in the day-to-day reality of what no longer works as smoothly.
So what do you do about it?
It starts with identifying them early. If you ask your team one simple question — who would we really struggle without if they left — the same names come up quickly. It’s rarely the loudest person. It’s usually the one quietly making everything work.
From there, it’s about paying attention to where problems don’t appear. We’re all good at spotting noise and reacting to issues. But quiet professionals operate in the opposite space. Deadlines are hit. Clients are calm. Projects run smoothly. That’s not luck, that’s someone holding it together.
If something always works, it’s worth asking why.
And then there’s recognition. Quiet doesn’t mean they don’t want to be valued. It just means they won’t ask for it. These are often the people who notice being overlooked and say nothing. They’ll just make a decision quietly, and by the time you realise, they’re already gone.
Making their contribution visible, rewarding them properly, and not taking advantage of their reliability isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s what keeps them.
Because the reality is this. Strong businesses aren’t built on the loudest voices. They’re built on the people quietly holding everything together.
So here’s the question.
If that person in your team handed their notice in tomorrow, what would actually happen? Not the job description. What would really break?
Most businesses don’t lose these people in one big moment. They lose them slowly. Through being relied on but not recognised. Through consistency being mistaken for ease. Through silence being mistaken for satisfaction.
And by the time it becomes obvious, they’re already out the door.
If this resonates, then when you’re back at work next week, don’t overcomplicate it. Make sure that person knows their value.
And if you’re reading this thinking, “this is me,” then don’t assume people automatically see everything you do. Being quiet doesn’t mean being invisible.
Because whether you lead them or you are one of them, these people are the difference between things working and things just about holding together.
And most businesses only realise that when it’s too late.
