When Alisa McCabe finally unplugged for her oldest son’s wedding, she didn’t check a single email in two weeks. (Yes, you read that correctly!)
She left her phone in another room so she could be fully present with her family. She missed “urgent” situations that would have bubbled up to her in the past. And she came back to find that her firm had not only kept running without her, it had also gotten better.
Her team had stepped in to fill gaps she didn’t even know existed, and they continued filling them long after she returned.
“It allowed me to delegate and elevate people on my team,” Alisa said during the third session in our Summer Workflow Camp series.
That, in a nutshell, is what happens when you implement the right “out of office” system in your firm. And Alisa, CEO of First Steps Financial and Summer Workflow Camp counselor for this session, walked campers through exactly how to build one.
The goal, as Alisa framed it, is simple:
The hardest part: choosing a second-in-command
You can’t build an out-of-office system if you don’t have someone to oversee it while you’re away. So, the first step is finding your firm’s “second-in-command”: the person who will “own” the firm in your absence.
Alisa uses the GWC framework from the EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) to vet any key position, second-in-command included. This tool includes three questions to ask before placing any individual in any given role:
Do they get it? This means they understand the actual job, not just the job description that you’ve written down on paper. (Because in some cases, they might not interpret your description the way you meant it.)
Do they want it? As Alisa explained, you can’t “voluntold” this role. “It is not something that you want to push someone into,” she said. It has to be a genuine yes.
Do they have the capacity? Make sure this person truly has the time, temperament, mental bandwidth, and raw intelligence to handle the pressure of running the shop without you.
A no to even one of these three questions means they’re not a fit. Period.
Alisa’s own second-in-command is Gina, her chief of staff. Beyond the GWC, when Alisa had Gina take a personality assessment, it revealed that one of her core traits is that she “enjoys being dedicated to one person and helping them succeed.”
For a second-in-command role, Alisa said, “How much more perfect could you get?”
The decision matrix: teaching your team to think like you
Okay, your second-in-command is in place. Now the real work begins. Your first step is building a decision matrix: a framework that empowers this person to make decisions the way you would (without needing to ask you).
The decision matrix includes four core questions:
1. Is it right for the client?
2. Is it right for our company?
3. Does it support our strategic priorities or growth rocks?
4. Does it align with our core values?
Everyone from entry-level staff to the second-in-command can use the same framework anytime they need to make a work-related decision.
The biggest catch is that your second-in-command has to be intimately familiar with your firm’s strategic priorities, growth rocks, and core values before they can confidently answer questions three and four in any given scenario. (Rocks, by the way, are another EOS concept—essentially major goals set on a quarterly basis. You can learn more about them here.)
That’s why it’s so crucial to continually reinforce your firm’s goals and core values with your team. “If you think you’ve said it once, you haven’t said it enough,” Alisa advised, laughing as she recounted attending a Penn State orientation for one of her kids where a woman warned “no less than twenty times” that the dorm doors would lock at 11:15 that evening.
“I turned to my husband and said, ‘Do you think someone’s gonna get locked out tonight?’ And he’s like, ‘Without a doubt.’ So, someone did get locked out,” she continued, chuckling again.
Her lesson: Repetition is key—whether you’re talking to incoming college freshmen or seasoned accounting professionals.
3 decision tiers
There are three main types of decisions your team may come up against when you’re out of the office:
| Tier 1: Full autonomy | They decide and execute; no need to ask permission. This covers decisions that pass all four matrix questions AND are within normal operations (e.g., under a set dollar amount). They make a call, note it on your first-day-back agenda, and move on. |
| Tier 2: Autonomy with notification | They decide and execute, but they also notify you in real time—not necessarily for approval, just so you’re kept in the loop while you’re out. It passes all four questions but represents a slight departure from routine or a higher financial impact. |
| Tier 3: Vacation escalation | They call you or hold the decision. This is for genuine emergencies only—situations that fail the core filters, irreversible strategy changes (like firing someone), or expenses way over threshold. These should be incredibly rare. In fact, Alisa has never had someone call her during vacation. “There’s been stuff that’s happened, but nothing that my team considered so critical that I needed to deal with it while I was on vacation,” she said. |
Building your checklist and creating your messages
The out-of-office checklist is divided into three phases: before you go, while you’re away, and when you come back.
Before you go, delegate your tasks to your second-in-command. Create out-of-office messages for clients (so they know who to contact while you’re away) and for your team (so they remember you’re actually gone). If you work directly with any key clients, reach out to them personally before you leave.
Alisa’s team sends out both types of messages: internal and client-facing. “Repetition is important,” she noted, recalling one instance when, even after announcing her upcoming vacation time in a daily standup, people forgot.
And when you actually leave the office, follow three rules:
- Don’t read emails.
- Don’t call.
- Have faith in your team.
Alisa learned this the hard way. The first time she went out of office, she kept checking email and calling in for updates. She thought she was protecting them from being overburdened, but she was actually implying that she didn’t believe in them.
Afterwards, her team told her that by keeping one foot in the firm, she was preventing them from figuring out whether the out-of-office system they’d built was actually working
So on her next trip (a two-week vacation), she didn’t check in at all. “And we found some flaws in the system,” she admitted. “It was great because they could handle it right then and there.”
Recently, when she went away again, her team jokingly threatened to change all her passwords to keep her from working. “And I said, ‘Don’t worry. I’m not checking because I learned my lesson,’” she said.
Testing the system
When you first test out your out-of-office system, Alisa recommends starting small (i.e., don’t try it out for the first time by going to Europe for two weeks).
Do a four-hour disconnect. Go completely offline on a Tuesday afternoon (so you can do an after-action review the very next day). Then move to a two-day test: block Monday or Tuesday off and be completely offline. Then try Thursday and Friday, which blends into the weekend so you’ll do your review on Monday.
Then take a full week with weekends on either end.
Easing back in
When you come back, resist the urge to fill your calendar with wall-to-wall meetings.
Alisa recommends going 48 hours (or at the very least, 24 hours) without heavy client meetings or operations work. Instead, schedule one 90-minute meeting with your second-in-command on day one.
Before that meeting, have your second-in-command prepare a first-day download agenda to answer:
- What were three wins while you were out? (Start with good news.)
- What needs your immediate attention?
- What decisions were made (tier one and two decisions)?
- What decisions are being held, and what input do they need from you?
- What worked really well? What didn’t?
This last part is crucial. If your second-in-command says something like, “I didn’t know if that was a tier one or a tier two,” then you have some recalibration to do. But that’s a good thing, because you have more clarity on how they think and what they need in order to make better, more confident decisions on your behalf.
Applying Alisa’s tried-and-true templates
As part of her session, Alisa offered templates for every piece of her out-of-office system:
- Out-of-Office Checklist: Everything you need to do before, during, and after your absence.
- Decision Matrix: The four guiding questions and three tiers spelled out in detail.
- OOO Client Notification Templates: Copy-paste-ready messages for clients.
- Fire Drill Test: How to run your first few short periods of disconnecting.
- First Day Download Agenda: The format for your return-to-office meeting with your second-in-command.
And remember, your out-of-office system isn’t just for the firm owner. You can apply the same protocol for any decision-maker or critical process-owner. Everyone on the team deserves time to unplug, after all.
Download Your Out of Office Templates. Get Alisa’s Decision Matrix, OOO Client Notifications, Fire Drill Test, Out-of-Office Checklist, and First Day Download Agenda to build your firm’s out-of-office system.
This was the third of four sessions in the Summer Workflow Camp series. You’ve audited your gaps and reset your workflows, and now you know how to keep your firm running without you—which is exactly what the final session builds toward: the Summer Stress Test, where you’ll prove the whole system works live. Register here, even if you just come to cheer other campers on!
