I’m coming to the close of our family trip this summer. We did something unusual this year: we went somewhere the Internet was super bad for most of the time. (The desert in Morocco near the Atlantic coast.)
I did something else unusual this year in advance, I sought the advice of an expert on personal performance, Sunil Arora, and thought with him and a few friends about what a CEO’s August holiday might be all about. As in: what’s the aim? Is there something you can get out of it?
You can chill out obviously. If you need to chill out… Or maybe you need something else. Renewal is different than chilling. Or changing gears to a different mindset than the current or past mindset.
Here is what Sunil wrote to me as a briefing in advance of the trip:
> From: Sunil Arora
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> Reflection Points
> – Even though you personally don’t feel burned out by work and like you “need” a vacation, embracing it and encouraging others on your team to do the same will have positive reverberations
> – Your employees will feel empowered and uplifted just by your being truly offline for significant parts of your time away
> – This time away is a great opportunity for you to switch from your default “doing” mode to a creative and relaxing “being” mode for a week or two where you just see where your flow takes you
> – You juggle more people/projects/commitments/companies than anyone I know and you do it very effectively but this time away is a great opportunity to prioritize yourself in whatever way you want
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> Action Items
> – Keep a running document to capture the various business thoughts/questions/concerns that come to you while you are away
> – Wait at least 24 hours before sharing any of these points with others and designate just a few times each week for sending emails on these subjects if needed (otherwise share in person when you get back)
> – Empower as many people as you can to run with projects/responsibilities/tasks while you are gone; it will be very exciting and rewarding for them and very instructive for you
> – Make a full list of everything you are significantly committed to, prioritize that list, and detail how you want to split your time across things
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Hope it is interesting to you as you have your holidays.