Out of Office
Step Out of Office with Confidence and Purpose
Leadership isn’t measured only by how you show up, it’s revealed in what happens when you’re not there.
Too many executives hesitate to take time off, worried the business will stall or mistakes will pile up. But here’s the truth: if your team can’t thrive without you, that’s not a workload problem, it’s a leadership problem.
Time away isn’t indulgence. It’s a strategic necessity. Because the leaders who never pause eventually burn out, and when they do, their teams and organizations pay the price.
How to Lead Effectively When You’re Out of Office:
🗣 Communicate Clearly → Set expectations before you leave. Define roles, timelines, and decision paths. Ambiguity breeds mistakes; clarity creates momentum.
🤝 Delegate With Intention → Don’t just hand off tasks, hand off responsibilities that stretch your team’s capability. Absence can be their growth opportunity.
🧭 Empower Decisions → Equip your people to act without constant escalation. Trust is built when you let go and they rise to the occasion.
🌱 Protect Recharge Time → Rest isn’t weakness, it’s strategy. Clarity, creativity, and resilience only surface when you step away from constant noise. Protect your downtime like you protect board meetings.
🔑 Let Go to Grow → If time off feels impossible, you’re leading from control, not trust. Strong leaders design teams and systems that function seamlessly in their absence.
Why Time Off Matters for Leaders:
When executives pause, they don’t just rest—they reset. Time away allows leaders to:
Recharge energy to meet challenges with focus rather than fatigue.
Regain perspective that gets lost in the daily grind.
Reignite creativity and problem-solving that only happens when space is created.
Return resilient, sharper, steadier, and more effective than when they left.
A leader who never steps away runs on depletion, not strength. And depleted leaders can’t inspire, innovate, or influence at the level their teams need.
The strongest leaders don’t just drive performance, they design organizations that run smoothly when they step away.
⚡ If you want to know the true strength of your leadership, look at how your team performs while you’re out of office, and how you return once you’ve taken the time to recharge.
Leaders: When’s the last time you gave yourself permission to unplug and come back renewed?
“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
Resources to Dive Deeper
Ready to ditch the "check-out" mentality and embrace true delegation? Here are some resources to fuel your journey:
Books
Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman — A powerful book on how great leaders amplify the intelligence and capabilities of their teams, especially when they step back.
Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang — Research-driven insights into how strategic rest boosts creativity, productivity, and leadership.
Podcasts
The Look & Sound of Leadership (Tom Henschel) — Short, actionable episodes on executive presence, communication, and empowering teams to lead in your absence.
Give and Take by Adam Grant
Adam Grant reveals how leaders succeed by giving more than they take. Drawing on research and real stories, he shows that generosity creates stronger networks, deeper trust, and lasting influence.
The book also highlights how to give wisely, avoiding burnout or exploitation. For leaders, it’s a guide to building cultures of collaboration and sustainable success.
Give and Take is essential reading for anyone who wants to lead with both heart and impact.
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“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”
— Anne Lamott
