{"id":84781,"date":"2025-04-10T07:47:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T12:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/?p=84781"},"modified":"2025-04-14T10:02:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T15:02:55","slug":"art-of-disappearing-strategic-absences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/art-of-disappearing-strategic-absences\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Disappearing: How Strategic Absences Can Make You More Successful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For years, Justin Wheeler, the CEO of Funraise<\/a> (a platform for nonprofit fundraising), believed that running a company meant being always on. <\/em>If he wasn\u2019t responding to emails, attending meetings, or checking social media was he really leading? Visibility meant control. Presence meant influence. The idea of stepping back felt not just impractical, but dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then, something changed. He realized that if he kept inserting himself into every detail, he\u2019d be slowing things down rather than empowering the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Taking a step back isn\u2019t a luxury, it\u2019s a necessity,” Wheeler says. Some of his best ideas\u2014the game-changing ones\u2014didn\u2019t come from endless meetings or a packed schedule. They emerged in the quiet moments: a long walk, a weekend offline<\/a>, an hour blocked off just to think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a lesson high achievers often resist. In a culture that glorifies busyness, disappearing\u2014even briefly\u2014feels like losing ground. But what if not<\/em> being constantly available is the very thing that makes a leader indispensable?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wheeler discovered that the more space he created, the sharper his thinking became. His team didn\u2019t flounder in his absence; they stepped up. And when Wheeler returned after a week, he led with fresh energy and a clearer vision. “Success isn\u2019t about working non-stop,” he says. “It\u2019s about making the right moves at the right time. Sometimes, the best move is to pause<\/a>, reflect and reset.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paradox of stepping back is that it doesn\u2019t make you less<\/em> relevant\u2014it makes you more<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The art of stepping away<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The brain wasn\u2019t designed for constant engagement. Research in behavioral psychology<\/a> shows that when we step away, our minds don\u2019t shut down; they process, reorganize and make connections we couldn\u2019t see before. Some of the biggest breakthroughs don\u2019t come from grinding harder but from pulling away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\"Leadership<\/a>\n\n\n\n

Bill Gates understood this long before science caught up. In the 1980s, he started taking \u201cThink Weeks,\u201d<\/a> or solo retreats away from meetings and daily demands. In the woods, he\u2019d disappear to a cabin to read stacks of papers written by Microsoft employees with pitches for new products. The idea for Internet Explorer reportedly emerged from one of these deep-focus weeks. These weeks weren\u2019t about doing nothing. They were about making space for the kind of thinking that gets drowned out in the noise of everyday work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barnaby Lashbrooke, CEO and founder of the virtual assistant platform Time Etc<\/a>, saw the same need in his own business. \u201cI was getting too mired in day-to-day operations, and I knew I needed to carve out time to step back and set a clear direction,\u201d he says. Inspired by Gates, he took his first Think <\/em>Week and came back energized. \u201cAlmost every business success we\u2019ve had has come from this process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stepping away with purpose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But stepping away isn\u2019t just about disappearing. It\u2019s about what you do with that time. Lashbrooke follows a structured approach: reviewing the last 90 days, identifying what worked and setting a plan for what\u2019s next. \u201cOvercoming challenges requires thought and creativity, it\u2019s not about working longer hours,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barbara Palmer, a workplace leadership expert and founder of Broad Perspective Consulting<\/a>, takes it one step further: It\u2019s not just about finding time to think\u2014it\u2019s about deciding what deserves<\/em> your time in the first place. \u201cWe all get 24 hours in a day, so the variable is how you are spending your time,\u201d she says. Strategic absence isn\u2019t just about stepping away to gain clarity; it\u2019s about cutting out the obligations, tasks and distractions that drain time without delivering real value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absence as a leadership strategy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Often, a leader\u2019s instinct<\/a> is to stay involved. They assume that being present\u2014answering questions, approving decisions, attending every meeting\u2014is what makes them valuable. But some of the most effective leaders understand a counterintuitive truth: The less they do, the more impact they have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brianne Rush, the VP of Operations for Kuno Creative, a digital marketing agency, didn\u2019t realize how much she was holding on to until she took a month off.  Before that, she  was managing content, overseeing sales and handling accounts, all \u201cprocesses that did not require me, specifically,\u201d she says. But while Rush was gone, something surprising happened: Her team stepped up. When she returned, she didn\u2019t take those tasks back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone worked really smoothly owning their new responsibilities while I took time off,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was more an ego adjustment for myself: \u2018Hey, you don\u2019t need me to do that?!\u2019 But I tried to keep in mind how this change allowed me to move onto bigger picture responsibilities within the company, which is what I wanted all along.\u201d An added bonus? Delegating responsibilities meant she got invited to far fewer meetings, thus freeing up her work time for other things.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the power of strategic absence. Leaders who step away force their teams to grow, make decisions and take ownership. Research backs this up<\/a>: When employees are given more autonomy, they become more engaged, innovative and effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why is stepping back so hard? The fear of becoming irrelevant keeps many leaders tethered to tasks they should have let go of long ago. But the irony is, refusing to delegate doesn\u2019t make someone indispensable; it makes them a bottleneck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stepping away, on the other hand, does the opposite. It signals confidence. It builds trust. And it allows a leader to focus on big-picture strategy rather than daily maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How absence helps you reclaim control<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The reality is, most people don\u2019t make time to step back until they have no other choice. They wait until exhaustion forces their hand, or until they realize\u2014often too late\u2014that they\u2019ve spent years in motion without ever asking if they were moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why intentional withdrawal matters. Lashbrooke takes a tactical approach, advocating for what he calls intentional inflexibility. \u201cThis involves identifying and pushing back on distractions, pointless meetings and communications overload that consume valuable thinking time,\u201d he says. \u201cThe idea is to conserve more hours for creative, focused work, as well as to make time for colleagues who really need your support.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond day-to-day boundaries, he stresses the importance of planning time away in advance. \u201cYour business can survive one day without you, so go from there and build up. Always schedule workcations in your calendar, as three months comes around quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fear of stepping away is real. But the greater risk? Staying so busy that you never figure out what actually deserves your time in the first place. The most successful people aren\u2019t the ones who work the hardest. They\u2019re the ones who disappear just enough to make their presence count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo by ArtFamily\/shutterstock.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Knowing when to disappear isn\u2019t a weakness\u2014it\u2019s a strategy. Done right, it can strengthen your leadership and make you more indispensable than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73412,"featured_media":84784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ub_ctt_via":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/the-art-of-disappearing-header.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Natasha Khullar Relph","author_link":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/author\/natasha-khullar-relph\/"},"yoast_head":"\nThe Art of Disappearing: How to Use Strategic Absences | SUCCESS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Knowing when to disappear isn\u2019t a weakness\u2014it\u2019s a strategy. 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Done right, it can strengthen your leadership and make you more indispensable than ever."],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["90"],"_yoast_wpseo_focuskeywords":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_keywordsynonyms":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":["6"],"_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image":["https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/the-art-of-disappearing-social-1024x538.jpg"],"_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-image-id":["84785"],"jet_engine_store_count_recently-viewed":["346"],"_yoast_indexnow_last_ping":["1744642975"],"_elementor_page_assets":["a:0:{}"]},"guest_author_field_data":{"main_author_is":"user","guest_authors":[],"user_authors":[{"user_email":"authornatashakhullarrelph@success.com","user_login":"authornatashakhullarrelph@success.com","first_name":"Natasha","last_name":"Khullar Relph","display_name":"Natasha Khullar Relph","nickname":"authornatashakhullarrelph@success.com","user_meta":{"nickname":["authornatashakhullarrelph@success.com"],"first_name":["Natasha"],"last_name":["Khullar Relph"],"description":["<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0Natasha Khullar Relph is an award-winning journalist with bylines in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The New York Times, Time, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CNN, BBC<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and more.\u00a0<\/span>"],"rich_editing":["true"],"syntax_highlighting":["true"],"comment_shortcuts":["false"],"admin_color":["fresh"],"use_ssl":["0"],"show_admin_bar_front":["true"],"locale":[""],"wp_capabilities":["a:1:{s:6:\"author\";b:1;}"],"wp_user_level":["0"],"_yoast_wpseo_profile_updated":["1741709989"],"dismissed_wp_pointers":[""],"hubspot_contact_id":["85257583907"],"wp_elementor_enable_ai":["1"],"wpseo_metadesc":[""],"wpseo_title":[""],"wpseo_content_analysis_disable":[""],"wpseo_keyword_analysis_disable":[""],"wpseo_user_schema":["a:0:{}"],"molongui_author_phone":[""],"molongui_author_job":[""],"molongui_author_company":[""],"molongui_author_company_link":[""],"molongui_author_custom_link":[""],"molongui_author_box_display":["default"],"molongui_author_short_bio":["<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0Natasha Khullar Relph is an award-winning journalist with bylines in <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The New York Times,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Time<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CNN, BBC<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and more.\u00a0<\/span>"],"molongui_author_image_id":[""],"molongui_author_image_url":[""],"molongui_author_image_edit":[""],"advanced-ads-role":[""]}}]},"custom_post_content":"<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>For years, Justin Wheeler, the CEO of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.funraise.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Funraise<\/a> (a platform for nonprofit fundraising), believed that running a company meant being always on<em>. <\/em>If he wasn\u2019t responding to emails, attending meetings, or checking social media was he really leading? Visibility meant control. Presence meant influence. The idea of stepping back felt not just impractical, but dangerous.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>But then, something changed. He realized that if he kept inserting himself into every detail, he\u2019d be slowing things down rather than empowering the team.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\"Taking a step back isn\u2019t a luxury, it\u2019s a necessity,\" Wheeler says. Some of his best ideas\u2014the game-changing ones\u2014didn\u2019t come from endless meetings or a packed schedule. They emerged in the quiet moments: a long walk, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.success.com\/benefits-unplugging-from-technology\/\">a weekend offline<\/a>, an hour blocked off just to think.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>It\u2019s a lesson high achievers often resist. In a culture that glorifies busyness, disappearing\u2014even briefly\u2014feels like losing ground. But what if <em>not<\/em> being constantly available is the very thing that makes a leader indispensable?<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Wheeler discovered that the more space he created, the sharper his thinking became. His team didn\u2019t flounder in his absence; they stepped up. And when Wheeler returned after a week, he led with fresh energy and a clearer vision. \"Success isn\u2019t about working non-stop,\" he says. \"It\u2019s about making the right moves at the right time. Sometimes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.success.com\/how-to-take-time-off-work\/\">the best move is to pause<\/a>, reflect and reset.\"<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The paradox of stepping back is that it doesn\u2019t make you <em>less<\/em> relevant\u2014it makes you <em>more<\/em>.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-art-of-stepping-away\">The art of stepping away<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The brain wasn\u2019t designed for constant engagement. <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC9432722\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Research in behavioral psychology<\/a> shows that when we step away, our minds don\u2019t shut down; they process, reorganize and make connections we couldn\u2019t see before. Some of the biggest breakthroughs don\u2019t come from grinding harder but from pulling away.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Bill Gates understood this long before science caught up. In the 1980s, he started taking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2019\/07\/26\/bill-gates-took-solo-think-weeks-in-a-cabin-in-the-woods.html\">\u201cThink Weeks,\u201d<\/a> or solo retreats away from meetings and daily demands. In the woods, he\u2019d disappear to a cabin to read stacks of papers written by Microsoft employees with pitches for new products. The idea for Internet Explorer reportedly emerged from one of these deep-focus weeks. These weeks weren\u2019t about doing nothing. They were about making space for the kind of thinking that gets drowned out in the noise of everyday work.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Barnaby Lashbrooke, CEO and founder of the virtual assistant platform <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeetc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Time Etc<\/a>, saw the same need in his own business. \u201cI was getting too mired in day-to-day operations, and I knew I needed to carve out time to step back and set a clear direction,\u201d he says. Inspired by Gates, he took his first Think<em> <\/em>Week and came back energized. \u201cAlmost every business success we\u2019ve had has come from this process.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-stepping-away-with-purpose\">Stepping away with purpose<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>But stepping away isn\u2019t just about disappearing. It\u2019s about what you do with that time. Lashbrooke follows a structured approach: reviewing the last 90 days, identifying what worked and setting a plan for what\u2019s next. \u201cOvercoming challenges requires thought and creativity, it\u2019s not about working longer hours,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Barbara Palmer, a workplace leadership expert and founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.broadperspectiveconsulting.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Broad Perspective Consulting<\/a>, takes it one step further: It\u2019s not just about finding time to think\u2014it\u2019s about deciding what <em>deserves<\/em> your time in the first place. \u201cWe all get 24 hours in a day, so the variable is how you are spending your time,\u201d she says. Strategic absence isn\u2019t just about stepping away to gain clarity; it\u2019s about cutting out the obligations, tasks and distractions that drain time without delivering real value.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-absence-as-a-leadership-strategy\">Absence as a leadership strategy<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Often, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.success.com\/everything-you-need-to-know-to-become-a-great-leader\/\">leader\u2019s instinct<\/a> is to stay involved. They assume that being present\u2014answering questions, approving decisions, attending every meeting\u2014is what makes them valuable. But some of the most effective leaders understand a counterintuitive truth: The less they do, the more impact they have.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Brianne Rush, the VP of Operations for Kuno Creative, a digital marketing agency, didn\u2019t realize how much she was holding on to until she took a month off.  Before that, she  was managing content, overseeing sales and handling accounts, all \u201cprocesses that did not require me, specifically,\u201d she says. But while Rush was gone, something surprising happened: Her team stepped up. When she returned, she didn\u2019t take those tasks back. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>\u201cEveryone worked really smoothly owning their new responsibilities while I took time off,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was more an ego adjustment for myself: \u2018Hey, you don\u2019t need me to do that?!\u2019 But I tried to keep in mind how this change allowed me to move onto bigger picture responsibilities within the company, which is what I wanted all along.\u201d An added bonus? Delegating responsibilities meant she got invited to far fewer meetings, thus freeing up her work time for other things.  <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>That\u2019s the power of strategic absence. Leaders who step away force their teams to grow, make decisions and take ownership. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/journals\/psychology\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2020.00963\/full\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Research backs this up<\/a>: When employees are given more autonomy, they become more engaged, innovative and effective.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>So why is stepping back so hard? The fear of becoming irrelevant keeps many leaders tethered to tasks they should have let go of long ago. But the irony is, refusing to delegate doesn\u2019t make someone indispensable; it makes them a bottleneck.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Stepping away, on the other hand, does the opposite. It signals confidence. It builds trust. And it allows a leader to focus on big-picture strategy rather than daily maintenance.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-absence-helps-you-reclaim-control\">How absence helps you reclaim control<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The reality is, most people don\u2019t make time to step back until they have no other choice. They wait until exhaustion forces their hand, or until they realize\u2014often too late\u2014that they\u2019ve spent years in motion without ever asking if they were moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>That\u2019s why intentional withdrawal matters. Lashbrooke takes a tactical approach, advocating for what he calls intentional inflexibility. \u201cThis involves identifying and pushing back on distractions, pointless meetings and communications overload that consume valuable thinking time,\u201d he says. \u201cThe idea is to conserve more hours for creative, focused work, as well as to make time for colleagues who really need your support.\u201d <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Beyond day-to-day boundaries, he stresses the importance of planning time away in advance. \u201cYour business can survive one day without you, so go from there and build up. Always schedule workcations in your calendar, as three months comes around quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The fear of stepping away is real. But the greater risk? Staying so busy that you never figure out what actually deserves your time in the first place. The most successful people aren\u2019t the ones who work the hardest. They\u2019re the ones who disappear just enough to make their presence count.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"fontSize\":\"small\"} -->\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><em>Photo by ArtFamily\/shutterstock.com<\/em><\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","tag_names":[],"post_attachment_urls":[],"author_email":"authornatashakhullarrelph@success.com","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.success.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}