The holidays are done, long live the holidays!
Did YOU take one? Did you REALLY take one?
We all know the benefits of having a break both physically and mentally, of taking time to recharge – but did you do it? So often business owners opt out of a holiday. Either by not actually taking the time out of the business, or by going, but taking their job with them! Along with all the associated worries, stresses and distractions-not to mention family angst…
Many of you may know that this summer we took a trip of a lifetime to the East coast of Australia – a full 3 weeks! And if I’m honest, I was a bit worried about it. Not about leaving the business (that was left in the capable hands of my team) but rather about the holiday itself. You see, I was pretty exhausted and had a feeling we’d lined up the wrong sort of holiday… I thought I needed a flop-on-the-beach type of rest, rather than charge-round-cities-and-sights stimulation – especially at the end of 24 hours of travel… How wrong I was!!
There was so much to see and experience that there was simply no space to be thinking about the business back home and I switched off straight away.
What was the secret to being able to have this ‘switch-off’?
The answer is simple -PLANNING! Planning to be free to go, communicating with new and existing clients, and focusing on the prize… Here’s some of the planning that worked for me:
- Clear deadlines for starting my three-month programmes, so they would be finished in time (nothing like a bit of urgency to energise your sales process…).
- Rescheduling coaching sessions around all of our holiday schedules.
- Prioritising recruitment of new team members so they could be onboarded sufficiently before I left.
- Team planning so there was clarity on the 3 objectives to be achieved during that month and quarter.
One of my clients also had a long holiday full of ‘firsts’… A first:
Proper holiday in five years
Holiday where he left the phone at home
Holiday when I’ve seen him come back looking visibly refreshed.
Again, achieved by some planning and clear decisions. What would need to be in place for him to be comfortable leaving the phone behind? And there were some interesting benefits all round:
- New perspectives– his co-director who was caretaking the team in his absence gained and gave some great insights working with the team
- Space to do– His team used the time to complete some well needed Important-but-not-Urgent activities, by not having such regular hands-on support. Yes – in this instance, less was more!
- Opportunity to re-set– this holiday triggered the re-set button, created a break clause, provided an opportunity to start back again with some new perspectives and with fresh energy.
So, here’s the question…When’s your next holiday? What would it take for you to switch off completely?
We book our cars in for their regular service, so how about booking yourself in for your next break. At least lock the time in your calendar right now!
You can take your first steps to have some well needed and deserved time off by coming to one of my free seminar and networking events. The next one is ‘6 Steps to a better business’ in Marlow on 10th October, and you can reserve your place by clicking here.
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