Hard to Fire · Chapter 1 · Diagnostic

The Cost-or-Leverage Self-Test

Reveal whether decision-makers are more likely to see the role as leverage or as budget consumption.

Score the job you have, not the job you wish everyone understood. A 1 means “barely true.” A 5 means “painfully, obviously true.”

Revenue

Direct scored

Can you directly tie your work to income the company earns?

Would a revenue line move if you disappeared tomorrow?

Does your name come up when leadership discusses growth?

Category score:Incomplete

Margin

Direct scored

Do you improve the profitability of existing revenue?

Have you saved the company measurable money in the last year?

Can you quantify your impact on cost reduction or efficiency?

Category score:Incomplete

Risk Reduction

Direct scored

Does your work prevent expensive mistakes or compliance failures?

Would your absence create a gap in the company's risk controls?

Has your work specifically avoided a costly error or regulatory issue?

Category score:Incomplete

Speed

Direct scored

Do you unblock projects or clear bottlenecks for others?

Would timelines slip if you weren't there?

Do people come to you when something needs to move faster?

Category score:Incomplete

Control

Direct scored

Do you provide reporting, dashboards, or data that management relies on?

Would leadership lose visibility into something important without you?

Do you help decision-makers answer questions before they're asked?

Category score:Incomplete

Institutional Memory

Direct scored

Do you hold knowledge that isn't documented elsewhere?

Do people ask you “why do we do it this way?”

Would someone struggle to understand a key system or process without you?

Category score:Incomplete

Manager Leverage

Direct scored

Does your direct manager rely on you to handle difficult tasks?

Would your manager's workload increase significantly without you?

Do you make your manager look good in front of their leadership?

Category score:Incomplete

Cost

Reverse scored

Is your salary in the top 25% for your function?

Is your contribution described in effort language rather than outcome language?

Would a finance person looking at the org chart wonder what you do?

Category score:Incomplete

Clutter

Reverse scored

Are you in a layer of management that's being discussed for compression?

Could your role be combined with another role without much disruption?

Has your function been described as “overhead” or “support”?

Category score:Incomplete

Threat

Reverse scored

Have you challenged someone in power in a way that wasn't welcomed?

Does someone above you seem uncomfortable with your visibility or knowledge?

Have you noticed a change in how you're included in sensitive conversations?

Category score:Incomplete

Total scoreComplete all 30 ratings

Interpretation—

Lowest category score—

Evidence, concentration risk, and next action

How to read the result

Under 25: Cost may be easier to defend than leverage. Start with Chapters 5 and 6.
25–35: Mixed exposure. Build leverage now and identify who would defend it.
Over 35: More defensible leverage. Do not treat it as permanent.

This is a pressure gauge, not a crystal ball. The shape matters more than one tidy number. A score supported across several categories is sturdier than one being carried by a single manager, one relationship, or a heroic amount of institutional memory.