3 compelling reasons Managers should Go on Holiday

So i’m just back from three and a half weeks away from Acumen.

It was a great investment of my time. And I thoroughly recommend all managers in the middle going on holiday for an extended period at least once a year.

All to often we are stuck in the “I’m too important to the business to take time off” rut. And I was exactly like this myself ten years ago when I was running a business in Singapore. The business was running well and I desired for it to run better, and believed I was the only one capable to delivering both the current performance and the potential improvement. I kept at it. I kept at it persistently over a long period. I suffered burnout and company performance suffered to. And this provides the first compelling reason to take an extended holiday.

1. Take long holidays to prevent  burn-out.

Burnout is often under-diagnosed by managers- I never felt burnt out. I was less effective, my eQ plummetted, I got into arguments more, my viewpoint narrowed and I pushed to hard to get my own way. But I never saw this as burn out until my HR Director suggested I take a break.

2. Take Holidays to test your team

Once I was on holiday I found it really hard to let go. E-mails came through and I answered them directing operations remotely. I wanted to ensure performance continued. But you must enable your team to perform. Extended holidays enable you to test their capabilities. I learnt to appoint one of the managing team as the acting GM. And devolved authority onto them. Sure, I spent time handing over the projects and asking how they would handle them and coaching them on how best to get the right things done. And after I returned I had a detailed debrief to ensure what was done was done right. It was only by delegating could I assess how good team members were, and after that I had a much clearer picture of who was a good performer and who was merely carrying out what I wanted.  Subsequently, I made changes to the team make up as some didn’t cope with autonomy.

The essence of a holiday is the be prepared NOT to think about work for the duration holiday. Create a decompression process that enables you not to think about work. Have a clear delegation process of the projects and issues you believe are most important, and ask those delegated with the project how they will handle things in your absence. Agree what things they WILL inform you of meaning that the e-mail’s or calls you receive. Tell the team you will look at your phone for one hour each day- and let them know when. Then forget about work. Once the holiday if over, typically for me on the plane journey back, you can start re-pressuring into the work environment. Agree with your family or travelling companions that to enable you to enjoy the holiday you’ll have to work one hour per day and also on the journey back, but NOT during the holiday. Then relax and enjoy.

Don’t think you can delegate to your team? Then time to change them so you can.

3. Take holidays to get new Perspectives and Ideas.

Where do your new ideas come from.  I really found wandering around on holiday gave me space from my current concerns to think about the future. Time to look at new ideas and  approaches. These were often prompted by what I encountered in different cultures or places. Also with your mind not focused obsessively on work your subconscious has time to filter through and reorganize your thoughts. I always found I came back with either innovations of new approaches to existing ideas.

Finally, make your team members take holidays. Enable them to benefit from time away from the office and see if they manage the process as well as you do. You’ll have two benefits; you’ll be able to  assess the performance of their team without their managers and see who has potential to succeed in a larger role, and you’ll see how well your team members delegate.  For your Finance Managers make sure this holiday includes being absent during a monthly closing, for prevention of fraud or other potential problems.

So take a holiday, take a holiday once a year of at least two weeks.  What are your views of this- please share.