Can Your Team Lead Without You? Why Rest Is a Leadership Issue
I recently returned from 16 days in Italy with my wife, Faith.
I mostly disconnected from work. I checked in when I needed to, but I wasn’t managing every decision or trying to keep LeadingSmart moving from another country.
That didn’t happen because the work disappeared. It happened because I prepared to leave.
And I think that may be one of the best tests of healthy leadership:
Can you step away without everything stopping?
Rest Is a Leadership Issue
Most leaders know they need rest, but knowing you need rest and actually being able to rest are two different things.
You can leave the office without mentally leaving the work. You can sit on a beach while still answering questions, solving problems, and making decisions all day.
That’s why rest isn’t only a calendar issue, it’s a leadership issue.
Your ability to disconnect is often connected to how well you’ve prepared other people to lead.
What Happens When You Step Away?
Before I left, I worked through the projects, clients, and responsibilities that would keep moving while I was gone.
I completed what needed my attention, scheduled what could wait, and made sure our team knew what they owned.
That meant I didn’t have to carry the entire company around in my head while I was away.
If stepping away feels impossible, it may be helpful to ask why.
Does your team know what they own?
Are expectations clear?
Does important information only live in your head?
Are you still making decisions someone else should be trusted to make?
Have you created systems that help the work continue, or have you unintentionally made yourself the system?
If everything stops when you do, the answer probably isn’t to wait for a quieter season.
The answer may be to lead differently.
Build a Team You Can Leave
Healthy leadership doesn’t mean making yourself unnecessary. It means building a team that isn’t paralyzed by your absence.
People need to know what they’re responsible for, what decisions they can make, and when they genuinely need your input.
At some point, you also have to trust other people with meaningful responsibility. They may approach it differently than you would, but different doesn’t always mean wrong.
Rest rarely happens accidentally. It requires clarity, trust, and preparation.
The goal isn’t to eliminate every interruption, it’s to create enough clarity that the work can keep moving without requiring your constant presence.
You Have to Build for Rest
You may not be able to take 16 days away right now.
Depending on your season, rest may look like one uninterrupted day, a long weekend, or a week when you fully turn off your email.
The length matters less than the intention.
What needs to be clarified?
What needs to be documented?
What responsibility needs to move from your shoulders to someone else’s?
And what do you need to put on the calendar now instead of waiting for work to slow down?
Rest doesn’t begin when you turn on your out-of-office reply. It begins with the way you lead before you leave.
Gatherings: An Opportunity to Disconnect
Our Gatherings are designed to give leaders space to get out of the day-to-day, think about the ministry instead of only working in it, and connect honestly with other leaders who understand the weight you’re carrying.
There’s meaningful work, but there’s also breathing room, great meals, laughter, and time to leave feeling refreshed rather than depleted.
Many leaders bring their spouse and add a few days before or after the Gathering to truly disconnect.
Our Gatherings are intentionally small, highly relational, and designed around honest conversation. We build the content around what leaders are actually facing, which is why conversations about leadership load, team ownership, burnout, and sustainable rhythms almost always make their way to the table.
If you’d like to see what upcoming Gatherings might be a fit for you or your team, you can learn more and register here.
Listen to the Full Conversation
In this episode of The LeadingSmart Podcast, Holly and I talk more about how I prepared to disconnect, the systems that helped the work keep moving, and the rhythms my wife, Faith and I have practiced throughout our marriage.
We also talk about why leaders need something outside of work to look forward to and why truly stepping away requires more than putting vacation days on the calendar.
Listen here:
We’re Here to Help
At LeadingSmart, we help churches strengthen leadership health, clarify roles, build healthier teams, and create structures that don’t depend on one person carrying everything.
Sometimes that means helping a senior leader delegate more effectively. Sometimes it means clarifying ownership across an executive team. Sometimes it means identifying where leadership capacity or structure is creating a bottleneck.
The goal is to help you build a healthy organization where the work can keep moving, your team can lead with confidence, and you can step away without everything stopping.
If your church is trying to build a healthier, more sustainable approach to leadership, we’d love to help.