When Do Leaders Take a Vacation?
This week, I am on vacation (at home with my family visiting from Arizona) and Andrew is on vacation (in Cancun with his wife and his family). Yet we both have managed to write two posts. Are we really on vacation or are we working? Its been a topic of discussion all over the blogosphere this week. Does taking an hour or two to blog, read, or make calls negate your vacation? Is vacation an outdated concept?
We talk a lot about passion and values at Center for Courageous Enterprise. I am passionate about the need to integrate both corporate and personal values into the work setting for long-term organizational success. With that kind of belief, how do I turn it off for 7-10 days? Just as importantly, how to I keep myself in check so that I don’t miss out on one of my values (treasuring time with my family and friends)? How much do I want my team members working on their vacations because they see me turning out work during mine? Am I sending a message that I expect that? Am I asking them to burn the candle at both ends?
My sister is the assistant to the Director of a large national foundation that works with children’s charities and Children’s Hospitals all over the U.S. One of her responsibilities to find hotel space for parents of sick children for free or at a greatly reduced rate. She checked the voice mail at her office. Did she feel obligated to do so? It wasn’t a task to her, she was motivated by her commitment to those families in crisis. She is a leader although not the one in charge.
There is a highly successful training company who’s top leadership takes off at least two months every summer. That time is spent reading, writing their numerous articles and books, and spending time with their children and grandchildren. To some that is a luxury that only money and success can buy. For them, its a core personal value. They started taking that break long before the success and money arrived - so was it the working break that contributed to their success?
This is what I know about taking vacations - its all about your values. Have you identified and integrated your personal values into your work life so fluidly that your company knows when it is okay and when it is not okay to call or email you on vacation? Are you living your values - if you treasure time with family and friends, then why do you hole up in your home office for six hours each day of your vacation?
What’s your belief about vacations? Where does it fit into your values? Will your family remember you as a great worker or a great person? Tell us what you struggle with when it comes to dividing your time between passion and drive.
Hope you had a great 4th of July - we watched two full evenings of fireworks in seven locations from lawn chairs at the end of my street. Speaking of values - it was so amazing to see literally 1,000’s of people sitting quietly in the grass and on the cool sand watching, oooing, awwing and then applauding the fireworks as if the creators could hear. I am not a huge fan of fireworks, but I love the way they create community when they are launched.