Intro
Early in my career, I looked for escape, but struggled to disconnect.
For single days of time off, or any non-travel, I canceled and worked all the time. Did it like it was no big deal. It was almost like some kind of martyr mentality of look at me, how dedicated I am. Like I was looking for someone to say, hey you’re good, you’ve earned it, go take a day off. Or, no one will look at you differently, you’re not going to lose business, or that promotion if you take time off.
For longer time off for actual trips, I wanted to go to the mountains to not have consistent connectivity and escape the day-to-day, which was more of running away from noise, pressure, demands, and pace.
I was so consumed, I worried about business running without me. Taking my laptop, “checking in”, watching what’s going on. Again, look at how present and how dedicated I am, working on my PTO.
I missed some opportunities to truly develop others and show my value through what I had built, versus what I had propped up like Jenga, teetering at any sizable blow or to my perception, my lack of being on call.
If business requires you to check in, I get it, and there are points in time that really makes sense, and I fully embrace that depending on your role and circumstances. Opportunities and challenges of course do require leaders, at times, to be available and engaged at some level, depending on where you and your business sits currently, especially the more senior you get. Periods of business, points in time, and phases require a flexible and adaptive approach. It’s not, yes I always work, or no I never work on vacation.
But that doesn’t mean we want to let that be a forever state, ongoing, whether it’s busy, slow, steady, or wild. Many of us do—it goes on forever in our careers until we break, a partner puts their foot down, or even a boss.
The Story
I learned, especially for more staff level roles early in my career, yeah, sure, in the short run some may notice and care if you go the extra mile and sacrifice yourself and your PTO, but in the long run, no one cares, it’s not worth it, and it’s only hurting you and your personal relationships.
The guilt you feel for taking off, is often nothing to do with the PTO itself, it’s actually because deep down, you know, you haven’t prepared others on the team like you should have or could have, you’re over-valuing the immediate dependency of your presence, your insecure about your performance, or you’re actually just in job protection mode, due to your own head or the environment you’re working in.
Again, no judgement, but when you look inside yourself for your own development and growth, see the truth so you know what you’re working with and how to evolve. Not for someone else.
At times, when I know it will allow my own mind to let go and relax, I may work on something specific so it’s not lingering, work on stuff that I love to work on that takes a fresh mind, or is more self-development related. Stuff that is more refreshing than draining.
I’ve learned:
- Once you’ve built the team, they’ve got it
- If you don’t have the team, the business is only sustainable over time with those key players in place
- If business doesn’t run without me, generally speaking, that shows where we need to improve, opportunities to develop, it’s not something to run from. Those challenges that come up while I’m out are the answers to the test—“problems” to embrace, as your next level efficiency, value, or margin
- The feeling of being needed makes you feel like you need to insert yourself into challenges, issues, or opportunities, versus fully empowering our teams to take the lead and run. It’s a challenge for leaders that reach that level and state of business—what do I do with my time once my team has this thing running? Can they do this?
That feeling is the right feeling because early on we are often the bottleneck or are truly indispensable at times, but that’s not sustainable. Real, valuable, and sustainable operations, divisions, or companies run well whether a leader, or a contributor, are present or not.
Closing
Often the team just needs your confidence and space to execute—you’re in the way more than you think.
Building your dream team with key players over key activities provides freedom to take that time truly off, and allows the groundwork to build something special beyond your dreams.
And if you love to work, and find that creative energy best when you’re OOO, go for what brings you energy and builds you up, leaving behind what drains you or tears you down in the day-to-day.
Lead10x OS | Building the Organizational Leadership Framework of the future
Supporting Content - For More to the Story
Hopefully, this added a little value to your business or leadership journey. Thank you for reading. If you think this may help someone else, please repost ♻️ or share. Thanks for being here. 🌍🏔️
Want to follow along on LinkedIn -> Hit the 🔔
Climb Higher —> Realize your potential through building up others
For additional content, check out articles on Medium.
"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
- Mark Twain
About the Author, Graham Peelle
