The weather is nice and your kids are finally free from the shackles of basic schooling. Camps are being planned and trips are set, but how will you leave your work projects for so many days. Let’s be real, you are pinging your team multiple times a day and have status calls, planning calls for the status calls, and team wide debriefs on what they are doing. How can you truly step away?
Here are straight up rules for all the bosses, leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, and folks that have a passion where they are instrumental in it’s success. These approach changes for YOU … for your business, and expose some areas that are worth improving.
3 Rules to you actually having a vacation
- Rule #1, be really inaccessible. This is more for you than for anyone else. You are the problem. You are the controlling one (i.e., you are super controlling of yourself), so the only way to sever this tie is to actually sever it. (go on a cruise, go to the wilderness….)
- Rule #2, set systems with your teams. This is a must before you leave, and it takes time. Simply put — your team needs to know HOW you would manage a situation. This might be a wiki site that details your process, or a mission statement that defines your decision process. This needs to both be practical, accessible, and allow for nuanced situations
- Rule #3, take practice runs. Literally create mini events where you are not accessible. Where you simply let the course of events unfold with an eye on them. This means you allow your team to execute, but have shared you are unavailable and empower them to lead it. The goal here is — YOU don’t do anything, only monitor like a lifeguard, and let the kids swim (or struggle and then figure it out). You are only monitoring to prevent any life damaging events, otherwise let people fail and expose what you can do as a team to correct in the future (if you save the situation you’ll never see what needs fixing).
Your business is better without you
Yes, your team is better. Your business is better. All are better without you.
Don’t be offended, because it isn’t personal. By you creating a framework and infrastructure of empowerment for your teams through systems, you are actually hitting a few achievements:
- Your business is more resilient because now it has guide posts to execute without you in every interaction and client
- Your team WILL become more senior, develop individually, become a tighter unit, and the cream will rise
- You’ll identify succession planning candidates AND individuals who you could employ to expand your business — you want to expand your impact and make more revenue don’t you?
Do it for you
In the end creating systems and empowering your team are the healthiest way to build a business that can scale. One that can scale achieves greater impact both by those you employ / coach and those you serve with your offerings.
Better still — you get to step away, recharge, enjoy the world, and spend time with family. When it isn’t vacation season, it also allows you to take time to think strategically and as a result steer the ship.
No matter how you view it — vacation is a powerful impetus for scalability, better strategic thinking, and a stronger team.
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About Me
I am a father, study of human behavior, strategist, cybersecurity executive, and a coach and mentor on a journey to give more than I receive everyday. I lead teams globally, build products, and daily an executive for a leading company where I serve the largest companies in the world using the largest cloud deployments in the world impacting the financial services, healthcare, and fintech industries. I provide these publications and content through my media agency to deliver insights and advantages. Mindset, mental strength, mentorship, personal improvement, health, fitness, and humanist ideas are drawn from personal research and practice. Everything read and heard is my original works and my own perspective. All rights reserved for noted authors and sources. I produce research and strategy, as well as provide advisory services that include inquiries, briefings, consulting projects, and presentations on published findings as well as bespoke speaking engagements where I often keynote at conferences, seminars, and roundtables annually.