I Took a Vacation and - Guess What! - Nothing Fell Apart
I just got back from vacation and I have a true confession to share: When I first started Reimagine, if I had taken two weeks off and actually turned off my email (like, for real), I would most likely have returned to a disaster. Not because my team wasn’t capable enough or smart enough or experienced enough, but because I had built a system where they relied on me for every answer. I was the bottleneck. And while that might have made me feel indispensable, it wasn’t true leadership—it was micromanagement, repackaged.
Fast forward to now. I just spent two weeks in Thailand, completely unplugged for the first time in years, exploring, connecting with friends in real life, and guess what? The work still got done without me there. No frantic messages. No fires to put out. Just my team, doing the work that needed to happen, troubleshooting and navigating challenges, and doing it without me.
The Problem With Over-Prescriptive Leadership
For years, even as an experienced leadership coach, I operated under an unacknowledged internal belief that being a “good leader” meant having all the answers. Meant being available 24/7. When my team hit a roadblock, I gave them a solution. If they were unsure about a decision, they knew they could call me anytime and I would make it for them. It felt efficient at the time, and it felt good to always know exactly what was going on and have so many touch points with people I loved collaborating with, but it created a culture of dependency. Without realizing it, I had trained my team to look up for answers instead of looking around—or within.
Shifting to a Coaching Mindset
Fast forward to this year. When I planned this long-awaited celebratory trip, I knew my team had the tools they needed. More importantly, they knew they had each other. They aren’t just solving problems solo—they know how to coach each other through challenges, bounce ideas off one another, and find solutions without needing me as their safety net.
I just got back, I didn’t have an inbox full of crises. And I knew there wouldn’t be one.
Coaching works. Period.
No matter what your job title is, if you’re still in “hero mode,” solving every problem and making every decision, I get it. It feels good to be needed. But real leadership at any level isn’t about being the smartest person in the room—it’s about building a room full of smart, capable people who don’t need you hovering over them. It’s about empowering them to ask impactful, powerful questions of each other, and of themselves.
Coaching isn’t just for executives; it’s for anyone who wants to lead with purpose.
My agenda with sharing this: I think we all deserve to take a vacation and be able to (actually) turn off our email alerts. We’ve put together a coaching intensive that will give you the skills, clarity and confidence to do that. Start your journey here.