My wife has been gone most of the week to attend a conference. She left me a list of all the “time hacks” I need to meet – kid drop-offs, pickups, kid care routines.

Proud to say, I hit all the time hacks. And the kids survived my care. I’ll call that a win. (Thank God for baseball caps. The only hair skill I’m good at is shaving. My daughter turned that option down.)

Stepping into her shoes – even if just partially – helps me:

• Appreciate her load. Her mornings feel different than mine. We’re both busy – but hers feels different. And throughout the day, she has a very different timetable and logistics to manage. Different responsibilities to pay attention to.

• Learn parts of her job. When we married, we didn’t plan on or intend different roles. But as we had kids, we developed different ‘zones’ that we cover. But her absence allowed me to get in a little ‘cross-training.’

This directly relates to business.

In fact, it might be more important in business.

My office is located over a coffee shop. The manager commented to me that she is moving house today. She feels bad for not taking an extra shift to fill in for an absent employee.

My comment, “It’s fine. That’s how they learn.”

“That’s what my GM said,” She responded.

The fear of not being needed

As a leader, our absence is a more powerful tool than we might imagine. And one of the most difficult to be willing to use.

Almost all entrepreneurs, as well as most executives and experts, not-so-secretly desire autonomy. But they create dependency instead. This dependency is often created because of a desire for significance.

“If they don’t need me, then what value do I have?”

“If someone else can do my job, then I might lose my job.”

Those are real questions that both owners and executives ask me.

Trust me, I’m not about to replace my wife just because I learned a little bit about her job. It causes me to value her more, not less.

In fact, what I usually tell clients is: “Your team really couldn’t care less about what you do. They just want to know that their job is made easier – not harder – by whatever it is you do.”

Real quote from a real business owner.

“This is the first time I’ve been out of contact with my team for four days straight.”

Good for her.

And now she should start pushing that envelope. Go away more. Go away longer.

Especially if you are an owner. But for any executive:

• Make your team work without you.
• Pay attention to what slows down, doesn’t happen or breaks in your absence.
• Make changes so that when you go away again, performance improves.
• Then make them work without you again.

This doesn’t just apply to you.
Key people on your team should also go away. Others should learn how to cover for them in their absence.

The goal is to ensure that no function in your process is limited by a person who becomes a bottleneck, the one leg on your stool, the single point of failure.

So…Go away. And encourage everyone else to do so as well.

Take your PTO. Encourage all of your team to do so as well.

Kick people out of the office at 5 pm. Figure out what is jamming up and causing them to feel like they need to work late.

This is not about working less.

Use availability scarcity to create situations that force you to build better systems and more efficient workflows. Use these experiences to help your teams learn to think laterally across the company, to learn about and appreciate each other’s jobs more.

This creates:

• Appreciation and respect across the company
• Highlights interdependence (and possible improvements)
• Trains systems thinking (people see how decisions, policies or tools move or work across the company)
• Builds a deeper leadership or skilled bench

When can you “go away” next?

What is one thing you can do to ensure someone else grows while you are gone?

Take good care,

Christian