Last year, my husband took a 2 week vacation from the company that he founded. Needless to say, it was incredibly hard for him to right himself with the idea that he would not be available to his staff during this time, and he did a ton of worrying and planning about it.

When we got back from our 2 week trip, what he found was not an office in disarray or a company that had fallen apart, but actually that his absence had empowered his employees and strengthened the leadership of his managers. He found that his direct reports, in his absence, had a new sense of ownership over their projects and that his absence had helped to clarify for them when he was really “needed” on a project or task.

He shared with me that he felt that leaving for those 2 weeks, and being really gone the whole time, was actually the best thing he could have done for his company and is part of what helped usher them into a new phase as a mature company.

So, as we think about our vacations and how we want to be available or not, I think a critical question to ask is, “what does it mean about my organization if would crumble without me?”

I think we all want to be building organizations that can stand on their own two feet, even if for a short time a single team member, or even a leader, is unavailable.