When I came back from holiday, one of the first things I did was not to work through every email in order. I wanted to understand what had actually happened while I was away. What had been resolved without me? What had waited? Where had people made decisions themselves, and where had they stopped because they were not sure whether they were allowed to? Those things say a lot about a team.
A holiday quickly shows where responsibility really sits
When you are present every day, it is easy to feel that the team works independently. People ask, you answer, you approve something, point something in the right direction, and work keeps moving. It is only when you are away that you see how much was actually tied to you.
If people know what they are responsible for, can make decisions and understand when something genuinely needs to be escalated, work continues. If everything waits for the manager to return, the problem may not be the people but the way the system has been set up.
Sometimes people know what to do, but are not sure they are allowed to do it
That is one of the more interesting things about leadership for me. You can have people who know exactly what needs to be done, yet they have become used to asking for confirmation. Not because they are incapable, but because over time they have learned that asking is the safer option.
A holiday exposes exactly that. Some things do not wait because they are complicated. They wait because nobody wants to be the person who made the decision without the manager.
What is waiting for you when you return says a lot
If you come back to fifteen small things that everyone has carefully saved for your first day, that is not really a sign that everything worked. On the other hand, if you return and realise that people resolved most things, made some decisions without you and the work did not fall apart, then perhaps you did something right before you left.
Not because you are unimportant, but because you are not the only person everything has to pass through.
A good team is not a team that does not need a manager
Of course a manager still matters. Someone needs to set direction, make certain decisions, take responsibility and support people. But to me there is a big difference between a team having a manager and a team being unable to do almost anything without one.
If everything has to wait for me, then I have not built a good enough system.
For me, it is one of the better tests
I do not see a holiday as some kind of official team test. But when you come back, you often get a fairly honest picture. You can see where people have confidence, where they need more room, where processes are clear and where there is still too much dependence on one person.
That is more useful to me than a lot of theory about delegation.
If I come back from holiday and realise everything worked without me, I do not feel less needed. Quite the opposite.