There’s an old saying:

A manager is truly tested not by their presence, but by their absence.

Last week, I put that theory to the test. I was down — tissues, tea, and a full system reboot. No gifs in Slack threads. No PR reviews. No long-winded analogies in meetings, EVEN NO PUNS (!!1).

And yet, something beautiful happened:
The team kept building.

Features were shipped.
Architecture discussions unfolded.
Feedback loops closed.
Bugs squashed before I could sneeze in their direction.

I felt… obsolete.
In the best possible way.

🧱 Building Beyond the Builder

At Port, we put a lot of thought into building resilient systems. But more importantly, we build resilient teams.

Teams that:

• Know the “why” behind the roadmap
• Understand how to navigate ambiguity
• Don’t wait for green lights — they know where to go

We talk a lot about single points of failure in infra.
But how often do we audit ourselves the same way as managers?

If your absence causes bottlenecks, confusion, or a hard stop…
You’re not leading. You’re locking.

🧪 The Sick-Day Test

Every team should be able to pass the “manager’s sick day test”:

• Can they make decisions without a Slack ping?
• Can they keep momentum without dailies?
• Can they ship without a guiding monologue?

In my case, the answer was yes.
I watched (okay, peeked) from bed as the Builder team ran like a well-oiled CI pipeline. It wasn’t just heartwarming — it was validating.

They didn’t need me.
Because we built that way — on purpose.

🧦 Back to Barefoot

I’m back now. Shorts on. Barefoot. Pun levels returning to baseline.

But the week on the sidelines reminded me of something powerful:
Leadership isn’t about being the center of gravity.
It’s about designing yourself out of the critical path.

So if you’re a manager, ask yourself:
What happens when you’re not there?

If the answer is: “They’re good — they’ve got this.”
Then congrats. You’re leading right.

If not… well, maybe it’s time to start refactoring yourself.