The Vacation Test

Here is the question I ask leaders when we first sit down together:

If you went on vacation for two weeks — genuinely unreachable — what would fall apart?

Sit with your answer for a moment. Be specific. Not "things would be fine" (they might not be) and not "everything" (it wouldn't be). What, exactly, would slip? Which decisions would stall? Who would wait?

Whatever came to mind just now — that's a map. Not of your team's weaknesses. Of everything you're holding that you have not yet built the team, the systems, or the trust to carry without you.

And here's the kind truth, the one I say because I care and because someone once needed to say it to me: if two weeks away breaks it, you built it to need you. Becoming a bottleneck is not a character flaw — it's what high-performing leaders do on the way to their next ceiling. You got here by being the person who could carry it all. The next level requires becoming the person who doesn't have to.

The move this week is small: name one thing from your list. Just one. Then ask yourself what it would take — a person developed, a decision right handed over, a process made boring and reliable — for it to survive two weeks without you.

That answer is your real development plan. Everything else is calendar management.