Enjoying time for life.

Getting away from it all is not just a luxury; it's an essential re-fuelling stop on the highway of professional life.

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Those leaders with school age children know that the summer holidays across the UK and Ireland have truly began; and are now looking ahead to a well-earned break with their family. However, navigation of the intermittent and sometimes turbulent travel chaos (baggage handling short-staffing at airports) ongoing disputes on the rail network, or traffic bottlenecks on the road networks.

Heading out of the UK – especially those flying from Belfast (as the most ‘efficient’ airport in the UK)- ?with 77% of flights departing on time, and just 23% of them being delayed); are most likely to gain on those flying from any London airport (average 35% delays) or Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol (with a combined average 32% delays). On the return to the UK beware of Frankfurt, Amsterdam Schiphol, Stockholm Arlanda, Charles de Gaulle, Paris, or Lisbon (with a range of delays from 53% to 42%).

However, for anyone in business, time is the biggest constraint. Given sufficient hours in the week, we could all reach any target and deadline to keep all our customers, share-holders, colleagues, and suppliers happy. But what and how are our hours likely to be like on the approach to, and after, our holiday periods (whether it be a weekend break, one week, ten days, two weeks or more)??

Time is finite. No matter how hard we work, or how constructively we manage our diaries……there are only 168 hours in a week!

Deduct the time for rest and play, and even an extreme workaholic is not likely to find much than a hundred - not a challenge, by the way!

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The more-sane business leaders are likely to work 35-50 hours per week; though an increasing number of proactive leaders are making conscious choices to aim for 32 hours or less per week.

Less is more, they say!

Talking with one of our customers recently, who has strongly urged employees to record voicemail greetings explaining that they were on holiday. According to her, they should be checking their messages even while on holiday. I’m not entirely sure whether that also extended to email; if so, there probably wouldn’t be many hours of holiday left to enjoy.?

If this story sounds offensive and intrusive, spare a thought for many business leaders (of say SME’s) - many of whom carry the very same CEO around in their heads all year round. This “inner tyrant” often means that there is no ‘day off’ - and the idea of two weeks without checking messages seems like a barren desert.

Seriously?

Indeed, according to the ILM (Institute of Leadership & Management) - 61% of British workers feel obliged to work whilst on holiday. It is cited that it is a possible side effect of modern technology, meaning workers are contactable anytime and anywhere. During their time off: 64% read and send emails, and 28% took business phone calls (with a crazy 8% - who actually go into the office). Meaning holidays are not nearly as relaxing as they should be.

Why is this? Is it something to do with that “inner tyrant”?

After all - a burn-out leader is no good to any organisation!

The ILM poll revealed that far from being relaxing, the prospect of an upcoming holiday caused 73% of workers to feel more stressed out – with 68% staying late in the office the day before. The latter is observed behaviours across many traditional businesses; begging the question whether it’s a symptom of inefficiency, a capacity problem, or simply a poor habit.

Even worse, almost 1 in 5 (18%) come back from their holiday more stressed than when they left. Part of the reason for this, it seems, might be that 81% of colleagues are faced with overwhelming email inboxes upon their return.

Whatever your situation, don’t try to be a martyr!

One day you might hear a shout: “Hey, get off the cross - we need the wood”!

Human beings need time for rest. Checking emails before bed means that the subconscious mind continues to work on them, hence genuine rest becomes difficult. Not surprisingly, many unsuspecting workaholics resort to coffee and stimulants in the morning, just to get going. True tiredness is masked by visiting the gym and drinking coffee and loud music to stay energised. The consequences of tiredness include mistakes, irritability, poor judgement and traffic accidents.

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1.?????? Plan for your absence – create handover notes and give clear guidelines to reports on tasks that require completing

2.?????? Be sure to inform key contacts about your absence – this could help reduce the number of messages received in your absence

3.?????? Be a wise owl – avoid absence during critical stages of a project or transformation

4.?????? Do not plan to check work emails, and switch off your work device

5.?????? Don’t open your email account straight away upon your return - catch up with your colleagues on a face-to-face basis??????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????