My mentor always said that Outside-In leadership involves letting others take a rest when they deserve it. That leading by example can mean letting your newest employee take off on Christmas Eve or skip a late shift on a Friday night, even if you have to step up as the leader and work in their place. We are all equal in importance, we all have value and as leaders, we want to send the right message. As a leader, we should be prepared to allow others the opportunity to go home when we would normally be the first in line.

During my college years, I worked in retail and my manager never worked Sundays. She always told us that once we put our time in and were leaders ourselves that we could set the schedule as we saw fit. Ironically, in order to maximize her weekend she also did not work late on Saturdays (and in many cases had that day off too). That logic seems funny – to leave the assistant managers and newest employees to manage the busiest and probably most profitable time in this business. What she did was not necessarily wrong but it did not earn her our trust or respect. We all knew it was on purpose and it only served to enforce that there was a pecking order and we knew where we stood. It hurt productivity and didn’t foster allegiance to a great company because we did not believe in our leader. We all eventually would leave and find other work.

What do most of us practice as we climb the ladder and achieve the status and the accolades that come with leadership? We take the time off that we want. Sure we work hard, even work around the clock. That is not unique, in fact, it is our job. Time is not something we ever have enough of and we feel like we have earned it. So we leave early on Fridays in the summer. We take two weeks off in a row, when most of our employees don’t even get that kind of time off in a whole year.

Please do not be offended by my point of view – I’m merely stating that leadership is about doing “right things” and in my estimation that means leading by example. Working and putting in your time during holidays and vacation season. Your people may not say anything – but they will see it and they will know you are acting in a way that aligns with your culture…


So do you have 50% of your staff in during heavy vacations? How is your customer service level?
Will your managers be at the office at 50%?
Are your rookies getting their time off?
Are your senior people always getting their first choice for time off?
Are you going to lead by example this summer?