Alliance for Leadership Acceleration

There is something about summer that changes the rhythm of work.

Schedules loosen. Vacations create gaps in the calendar. Some people are working remotely from somewhere with a better view, while others are covering for colleagues who are enjoying well-earned time away. Meetings may be fewer, decisions may take a little longer, and the usual urgency can give way to a welcome—and sometimes uncomfortable—pause.

And that is exactly why I think summer is such an interesting season for leaders.

When the pace slows down, leadership habits become easier to see.

During the rest of the year, strong systems, deadlines and organizational routines can mask leadership weaknesses. But when the structure loosens, we see what leaders naturally do. Do they trust their people—or do they feel compelled to stay involved in everything? Do they communicate clearly—or assume everyone knows what they need to know? Do they create connection—or disappear until September?

Summer is, in many ways, a leadership laboratory.

What happens when the leader isn't in the room?

Some of the most important leadership isn't happening in formal meetings or one-on-one conversations. It happens informally—in the hallway, on Teams, over coffee, in the quick question from a colleague, or in the five-minute conversation that helps someone see a problem differently.

That informal influence matters.

Recent Gallup research reinforces just how consequential a manager's everyday leadership can be. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 reports that global employee engagement fell to 20% in 2025, its lowest level since 2020. Even more striking: manager engagement declined from 31% in 2022 to 22% in 2025, and Gallup attributes most of the recent decline in employee engagement to lower manager engagement. (Gallup.com)

In other words, how leaders show up matters—even when they aren't “doing leadership.”
Summer can expose that quickly.

A leader who routinely checks in, asks thoughtful questions, recognizes contributions and makes time for people doesn't suddenly stop leading because half the office is on vacation.

Likewise, a leader who relies heavily on control, constant meetings or being the person with all the answers may struggle when the normal structures disappear.

The summer test: Can your team lead without you?

One of the best questions a leader can ask this summer is:

“What happens when I'm not here?”

Not as a test of whether everything falls apart—but as a measure of whether you have created enough clarity, trust and confidence for others to step up.

Great leaders don't create dependence. They create capability.

That means giving people enough context to make decisions, enough authority to act, and enough confidence to use their judgment. It also means resisting the temptation to swoop in and “fix” everything simply because you can.

This is particularly important as work becomes more distributed and increasingly complex. Microsoft's 2026 Work Trend Index describes a workplace in which AI is taking on more execution and humans increasingly have more agency to direct work, make decisions and own outcomes. (Microsoft)

That makes informal leadership and influence even more important—not less.

Use the lull to notice your leadership habits

Rather than trying to squeeze more productivity out of a slower season, consider using summer as a leadership reset.

Notice:

• What do I do when things aren't urgent?
• Do I trust people to make decisions without me?
• Who steps up when I step back?
• Where am I unintentionally creating dependency?
• What conversations am I having informally that may be more important than my formal meetings?
• What leadership behaviors do I want my team to experience consistently from me?

And perhaps the most important question:

If my team adopted my leadership habits, would I be pleased with the culture they created?
That's the real summer test.

Because leadership isn't only what happens when we're in charge, in the room, or on the agenda.

Leadership is the influence we leave behind when we aren't.

So enjoy the slower pace. Take the vacation. Let someone else run the meeting. Leave the office without checking email every 20 minutes.

And while you're at it, pay attention to what your team does when you step away.

You might learn something important about your leadership.

It was 9:07 on a Monday morning when Sarah looked at her calendar and realized something important.

Seven people on her team.  Three on vacation.  One out sick. One working remotely from a time zone six hours away.

And two—including Sarah—who were still standing between the team and a very full week.

She stared at her screen and thought what many leaders have thought in August:

How are we supposed to get anything done?
Then she noticed something else.

The team wasn't actually overwhelmed by the amount of work.  They were overwhelmed by the uncertainty about who was responsible for what while people were away.

That distinction changed everything.

Summer doesn't have to mean stopping
When half the team is on PTO, leaders sometimes make one of two mistakes.

They either pretend nothing has changed and expect everyone to maintain business-as-usual productivity—or they mentally write off the summer and assume nothing meaningful will happen until everyone returns.

Neither is necessary.

The goal isn't to maintain the exact same pace with fewer people.

The goal is to maintain momentum on the things that matter most.

That requires leaders to shift from managing activity to managing priorities.

Step 1: Decide what really matters
When resources are temporarily reduced, everything cannot remain a priority.

Ask the team:

• What absolutely must move forward while people are out?
  
• What can wait until everyone is back?
• What deadlines are truly fixed?
• What work can be simplified, paused or eliminated?
• What would create the biggest problem if it stopped for two weeks?

Then communicate the answer.

A team can handle a reduced workload.

What creates frustration is trying to maintain every priority with fewer people and no change in expectations.

Step 2: Give people clear ownership
This is where summer can become a surprisingly good leadership-development opportunity.
Instead of becoming the person who catches every ball, ask:

“Who can own this while Jane is away?”  Give that person the authority to make appropriate decisions—not simply the responsibility to keep things moving.

There is a big difference.

Delegation without decision-making authority isn't really delegation. It's babysitting with a nicer job title.

The best summer coverage plans identify:

Owner → Backup → Decision rights → Escalation point

Keep it simple enough that someone can understand it in a minute.

Step 3: Don't let the people who stayed become the people who suffer
Here's another trap.  The people who are in the office can quietly become the “reliable ones” who absorb everything. Before long, their vacationing colleagues are rested—and your remaining employees are wondering why they didn't take vacation too.

Good leadership means paying attention to workload equity.

Ask your people: “What are you carrying right now that wasn't yours before summer?”

And then listen.  Sometimes the answer will be, “I'm fine.”  Sometimes it will be, “Actually, I'm drowning.” Both are useful information.

Step 4: Resist the urge to fill every minute
One of the best things a leader can do during a slower season is create some breathing room.

Not every hour needs to be packed with meetings.  Not every email requires an immediate response.  Not every project needs to move at full speed.

Use the quieter weeks to tackle the work that is important but rarely urgent: documentation, process improvement, cross-training, relationship building, or finally having the conversation you've been putting off.

Summer can be a wonderful time to create progress without pressure.

Step 5: Make coming back easier
When people return from PTO, don't immediately throw everything they missed at them.

Give them a short re-entry conversation:  Here's what happened. Here's what changed. Here's what matters now. Here's what you don't need to worry about.

Then let them get back to work.

A good summer isn't one where everyone returns to a mountain of accumulated work.

It's one where the team discovers that the organization can keep moving—even when some of its people are away.

The real leadership lesson
Sarah eventually realized something that Monday morning. Her job wasn't to make sure everyone stayed busy.  Her job was to make sure the right things kept moving.

That meant clarifying priorities, trusting people, sharing ownership and letting some things wait.

And perhaps most importantly, she realized that when people can take time away without everything falling apart, that's not a sign that they're less important. It's a sign that the leader has built a team that is stronger than any one person.

So when half your team is on PTO this summer, don't panic.

Clarify what matters.

Give people room to lead.

Protect the people who are still working.

And let some things wait.

Because maintaining momentum isn't about keeping everyone moving at the same speed. It's about making sure the team keeps moving in the right direction.