CEO advice: 3 steps to take an actual turn-it-off vacation

“I feel like I can’t take a vacation. I’m afraid they won’t step up and things will totally fall apart if I don’t check my email for a week.” 

A visibly overwhelmed CEO shared this with us during a pre-workshop strategy call. She added that her to-do list was so burdened by fire drills that the big-picture strategic projects had been on the backburner for months. She fielded a barrage of nonstop questions team members, she believed, should already have the answers to. 

Sound familiar? 

You’re not alone. Mercer’s 2024 Global Talent Trends report found a record number of CEOs stepped down last year and over 80% of the workforce are at risk of burnout this year. 

Beyond the day-to-day challenges of this reality, it has two deeply rooted consequences: long-term talent retention and organizational adaptability.

When team members are reliant on their boss in this way, they tend to lack role clarity, opportunities to use their strengths and a connection to their company’s mission — directly impacting their engagement (i.e. involvement in and enthusiasm for work). Gallup’s Workforce Survey concerningly found that engagement in 2024 has dropped to its lowest level in more than a decade. It’s hard to keep disengaged talent productive and in seats.

Without team engagement in the “why,” a leader is further isolated from potential thought partners, strategists and innovators. When CEOs go it alone, their internal and external strategy is driven by one brain instead of many.

These are common symptoms of a performance culture founded in a command-and-control leadership style. So, what’s the move? How can leaders genuinely trust their bench? 

The answer lies in investing in every team member’s hidden leadership potential. Every individual has innate talents that promote success, but greater success is achieved when we develop our character skills and motivational structures. It is therefore the role of leaders to unlock people’s potential to maximize their own performance.

Doing so takes three key steps: Identify it, nurture it and reinforce it.

Identify it

The challenge is hidden leadership potential is just that — hidden. We often have talent blinders on, seeing only the loudest team members, those who have been promoted quickly and those most like us. Strengths-spotting, an intentional practice of labeling and appreciating strengths, is the first step in uncovering potential. 

Your action plan:

• Observe your team members in action this week and look for more than just technical know-how and industry or content knowledge. Instead, pinpoint modern leadership characteristics: determination and resilience, self-discipline, innovation and creative thinking, conflict resolution, collaboration and relationship building and curiosity (Spot their Strengths, first!)
• Offer your team members an online strengths assessment, and use the corresponding tools to have conversations about leveraging their individual strengths in the day-to-day. (VIA offers a free assessment; Adam Grant offers a free hidden potential assessment; and Gallup offers a low-cost assessment). Gallup StrengthsFinder assesses talents and skills in the workplace, while the VIA Survey measures strengths of character, or positive traits of personality present not just at moments of peak performance but in times of resilience. 

Nurture it

This is not a one-and-done conversation. Leaders must set clear expectations, and also involve team members — every day — in the process by which those expectations are met. Initially, these efforts may feel like extra items on the to-do list and that it’s simply faster to just get things done yourself. But it’s worth the investment of your time. When they win, you win. 

Your action plan:

• In your next one-on-one check-ins, share your strengths-spotting observations, and ask each team member: “When during the work week do you feel the most powerful, engaged or in flow?” “What is the primary strength in action during that time?” “How might we integrate more of that into your week?”
• Add a standing agenda item to your one-on-one check-ins to provide each other with authentic feedback. Specifically, “What’s one thing I’m doing that I should continue doing?” And, “If there is one thing I could adjust about how I work (or how we work together), what might that be?”

Reinforce it

Leaders must focus on building a culture centered on learning. Workplaces today need agile, adaptable, collaborative, problem-solving team members. And things are simply moving too fast to risk leaders becoming gatekeepers and bottlenecks for all the answers. Thus, foster a culture in which the team is expected to propose solutions.

Your action plan:

• For an upcoming project, ask your team:“What is working?” “What could improve or What might we try differently this time?” Then, for that project, actually try something new.
• This week, ask more questions than you answer. And talk less. Lead with genuine curiosity — not to judge or critique, but to spark new insights.

Investing in these action steps takes intention — perhaps pick one this month to focus on, then schedule that PTO to hold yourself accountable to practicing it. When your vacation arrives, have confidence in putting up that out-of-office message.

Courtesy images

Kristen Lessig-Schenerlein is an executive coach, keynote speaker and founder of Koi Coaching and Consulting. Hannah McGowan is a professional trainer, coach and founder of Hannah McGowan Coaching. Together they are the co-founders of CORE Leadership, a transformational leadership development program designed to unlock hidden potential in the next generation of leaders in the Sarasota community.