Issue #10, October 2024

Could A Rest Or A Holiday Be A Leadership Advantage?

Leaders are often told they need to take time out for themselves and have a rest. Many force themselves to choose between a series of holidays during the year or a rest period - "to refresh and renew" is often the stated goal. Driven leaders often think of this as an interruption to their leadership and not an asset.

But have you considered whether rest and a holiday may actually be a strategic leadership advantage?

"Down South"

I had the pleasure last month of spending several days "Down South" as we say here in Western Australia. My wife and I were able to take off five days entirely from responsibilities, while our youngest daughter (who is disabled) was cared for during the period. Such an extended break from responsibility is not a luxury we have been able to have for 23 years now. Instead of having a rest or a holiday, we combined both.

During the course of the week, we were able to travel through pristine and virtually untouched areas of Western Australia. These are spots of unparalleled magnificence right here in our State:

• Kilometres-long beaches of the most pure white, fine and soft sand abutting waves of the purest greens and blues washing into Bremer Bay;
• the scrub and bush filled with blooming wildflowers running along the south coast punctuated by forests framing rivers that run into pools and inlets of cool, pure water;
• kangaroos feeding and hopping around our overnight site before rainstorms pour over our vehicle;
• atop gneiss rock standing guard as a millennia-old bulwark against the ingress of the Southern Ocean waves;
• as we sit watching on that rock, a mother whale breaching the ocean waves just twenty metres in front of us, her calf following, leaping from and cavorting in the waves that pummel the rocks;
• standing on the break of land along a curve of beach and mountains stretching out to our horizon, far glimpses lit up in the night sky of mountains and land extending hundreds of kilometres behind us and sea spanning out before us to the literal end of the world, as lightning strikes burst in storms at the end of the ocean and behind us over the mountaintops, while above us the Milky Way Galaxy in all its storied southern splendour stretches out as far as West is from the East.

And at the centre of all this magnificence, do you know what helped make it so valuable and endearing?

It was the people we encountered:

• Locals who knew every nook and cranny of the coastline and much about the local environment;
• explorers who could tell you how to find the exotic mammals of the outback and the sea;
• librarians who jumped out of the isolated centres of learning in the vast remote areas, excited to see someone they could help;
• residents who were happy to discuss all about their 5,000-acre farms with "only" 1,500 birthing ewes plus lambs, or thousands of cattle, plus thousands of acres of crops and the impact of government decisions and world events on their livelihoods, families and their exports to the world;
• customer service standards in a wide variety of novel circumstances;
• individuals, couples, families travelling and interacting in different ways;
• travellers from around Australia and the world delighted to share their opinions and observations and to inquire with you.

Now, each and every one of these experiences and the many more besides, can provide immense insight into the what, the how, the who and the why of our leadership and our strategy. I'll write more about those in the future.

Consider this against the curated and scripted "tour" experience or mansion/hotel stay or, worse yet, the endemic "leadership retreat", culminated in the awful week-or-weeks-long so-called Harvard experience which plies leaders with endless paperwork and case studies, runs them down physically over an extended period in the name of "tough executive learning" (resulting in an extended holiday being fed intravenously in a hospital bed as one discovers how large those intestinal tumours really are) and the usual nonsense "I was challenged and stretched and met all these wonderful CEOs and Professors, but am not going to make any useful changes around here because they don't really apply to our situation" kinds of statements before adding the experience to enhance the CV as the individual concerned then finds a position at a better company.

Back to the holiday in the real world. It refreshed us, energised us and informed us, while providing a wealth of experience that will provide seeds to grow during the coming months and year(s). But if I hadn't got out of the normal routine and made the effort to pursue something different, I would still be looking through the lens of the same old horizons and experiences.

Your Situation Now

Here's the point of the matter:

If we don't look up from our regular footsteps and path, we're destined to slam into a street post. We will get confused about our direction and unclear about how we get anywhere. If we want clarity in our leadership and strategy, we need to look up and out to the extraordinary.

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