I just returned from a week camping on Lopez Island in the Puget Sound. Cell service was spotty, but it didn’t matter. Before I left, I gave clear instructions, confirmed ownership, and put simple guardrails in place. The team knew what good enough looked like—and they ran with it.
As I watched the tides slide in and out and listened to the quiet, a conversation with a friend came back to me. He runs a thriving company with a strong team. When I asked if he could take a week off, he said no. Why? Because he “had” to be available for calls and emails. When I asked what would happen if he wasn’t, he paused, then admitted: “They’d handle it.”
He trusted his team—yet he didn’t trust the feeling of not being needed. That’s the tricky part. We don’t just get attached to work; we get attached to being necessary. It feels responsible and even loving. But it can keep us from the very clarity, partnership, and momentum we’re trying to build.
I just returned from a week camping on Lopez Island in the Puget Sound. Cell service was spotty, but it didn’t matter. Before I left, I gave clear instructions, confirmed ownership, and put simple guardrails in place. The team knew what good enough looked like—and they ran with it.
As I watched the tides slide in and out and listened to the quiet, a conversation with a friend came back to me. He runs a thriving company with a strong team. When I asked if he could take a week off, he said no. Why? Because he “had” to be available for calls and emails. When I asked what would happen if he wasn’t, he paused, then admitted: “They’d handle it.”
He trusted his team—yet he didn’t trust the feeling of not being needed. That’s the tricky part. We don’t just get attached to work; we get attached to being necessary. It feels responsible and even loving. But it can keep us from the very clarity, partnership, and momentum we’re trying to build.
The Comfort of the Chain
Walking the same path to the beach each morning, I realized how quickly routine becomes invisible. You stop noticing the trail; you only notice when it’s blocked. Leaders do this with availability. We answer, we fix, we solve—until “always on” becomes our identity. It once solved a real problem; now it is the problem.
My friend wasn’t chained by necessity. He was chained by familiarity. The leash was a feeling: the quiet unease that shows up when you’re not in the middle of everything. He started experimenting with time away and—no surprise—his business grew faster. Distance gave him perspective; perspective gave him better decisions; better decisions created momentum.
Out on Lopez, I felt the same release. No inbox. No calendar pings. Just tide lines mapping where the water had been while I wasn’t looking—like a gentle reminder that most things keep moving without supervision.
Why Time Away Helps (without the mystique)
- Detachment restores judgment. Brief, genuine breaks replenish the mental resources that good decisions draw on (Sonnentag, 2018).
- Distance reveals patterns. When you change your setting, friction and bottlenecks appear in high relief.
- Creativity likes “low tide.” The brain often connects ideas after you stop forcing it—the classic incubation effect (Sio & Ormerod, 2009).
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” —Anne Lamott
What I Noticed on Lopez
- Leadership isn’t a 24/7 hotline. It’s building clarity so others can move without you.
- Trust is a muscle. Saying “I trust you” is kind; defining decision rights and escalation gates is leadership.
- Being useful isn’t the same as being used to being useful. One gives the team oxygen; the other quietly takes it back.
The Concise Playbook
Use these as small experiments. Keep it light, repeatable, and clear.
- One-Page Out-of-OfficeState outcomes for the week, who decides what, when to escalate, and your definition of good enough. (Clarity is kindness.)
- 72-Hour “Last Resort” TestFor three business days, be reachable only in a short daily window. Note what truly requires you versus what merely prefers you.
- Name Your Value—Beyond AvailabilityWrite the few things only you can do (vision, coaching, high-stakes calls, culture). Align your calendar to those.
- Daily No-Ping Window (90 Minutes)You and your directs go unreachable for deep work or field time. Protect it. The habit makes longer breaks easier.
- Debrief FastOn your first day back, ask: What worked? Where did we hesitate? What two improvements ship this week? Then ship them.
Questions to Regain Clarity
- If I stepped away for seven days next month, what would need to be true for me to genuinely relax?
- Where am I still the bottleneck out of comfort, not necessity?
- Which single decision will I fully delegate this week—boundaries stated, outcome defined?
Closing: The Path You Stop Seeing
When we walk the same path over and over, we stop noticing the path. Camping, traveling, or simply changing your weekly rhythm interrupts the autopilot long enough to gain clarity. Leaders don’t earn trust by being everywhere; we earn trust by building systems and people who thrive when we’re not.
Try one small step this week. Tuck the phone away for a while. Give your team the map and the keys. See what your business shows you when you give it room—and notice what you see when you step back far enough to take in the whole shoreline.
#Leadership #Clarity #Delegation #BusinessGrowth #Momentum
