Rule 21 of 21 · Chapter IV — Losing Well
Build the team so it can win a week without you, then take the week.
Why this rule exists
If your presence is the load-bearing wall, you have built dependence and called it leadership. Absence is the only honest test of whether the standards you set live in other people or only in your supervision. Taking the week also proves you meant what you said about rest, which nobody believes from a leader who never rests.
In practice
Name who decides what while you are gone and tell the whole team, not just the deputies. Go dark properly — no check-ins, no shadow approvals from your phone. On return, ask what they handled and resist correcting anything that worked, even if they did it differently than you would.
When it doesn't apply
A team in the middle of an acute crisis or a first month of formation is not ready to be left; build first, then leave. And if the week away reveals real gaps, the answer is developing people, not staying permanently.