What does your vacation say about your leadership?

The leaders who struggle most to disconnect often have something in common.

As I prepare for vacation this week, I'm thinking about leaders.

Not the ones packing their bags. I'm thinking about the leaders staring at their vacation balance. The ones who keep saying they'll take time off "after this project," "after we hire someone," or "after things settle down."

And the leaders who do take vacation but spend the week checking email, answering texts, monitoring Teams, and dreading what they'll come back to.

I've worked with many of these leaders over the years.

They're often thoughtful, capable, deeply committed people. The kind everyone relies on.

Which is exactly the problem.

Somewhere along the way, they became the source of answers, the holder of information, the person who catches what others miss and makes sure nothing falls through the cracks.

At first, this feels like leadership.

Eventually, it feels like a trap.

Because if your presence is required for everything to function, you don't really have a team. You have a dependency.

And dependencies are heavy to carry.

One of my favorite moments in coaching is when a leader returns from vacation and says, "I didn't need to check in."

Or, "They handled it."

Or my personal favorite: "Nothing fell apart."

Not because they got lucky.

Because they learned a different way to lead.

One where ownership is shared. People know what they're responsible for. Conversations create clarity before problems emerge. Trust grows because everyone has room to carry their part of the weight.

The goal isn't taking a vacation.

The goal is building a leadership dance that doesn't require you to stay on the dance floor every second for the music to keep playing.

💜 Stacey

PS: If taking a week off feels impossible, get curious. What does that tell you about the way leadership is currently working around you?