PostNet - Shorewood’s Post

How to prepare for your time off for a stress-free vacation? 🎯 Especially relevant for those who work in small teams and have responsibilities that are tailored! I follow simple guidelines: 📍 Common knowledge is not so common; when leaving a task for a colleague, make sure to explain the most relevant points and action steps they need to take to ensure the task is done. 📍 Consider colleagues' time - make sure that you are not overcrowding their set schedules and respect their working hours. 📍 Inform your clients that you are on vacation, and leave an emergency contact so you can close your inbox with peace of mind. 📍 And, of course, do as much as you can before leaving! Whatever your work consists of, make sure you leave the least amount of effort left to do for your teammates. That's it! Any additional tips? 🤔👇

December is here and it's that time of the year when many of us start planning vacations. In order to ensure seamless workflow while reducing stress for everyone, here's an insightful article on how you can prepare your team and yourself before vacation. Keep things organized and prevent any crucial tasks from being overlooked. Enjoy your holidays without any work worries! 🌴🗓️🔄 #WorkLifeBalance #HolidayPlanning

Summer vacations are good for your business. Successful founders take and promote vacations. Time off from the grind is needed for 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞. - From 30,000 feet (literally, in an airplane) - Hundreds of miles aways - Both give you distance and perspective Some of your 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 happen during vacation. - Why do I continue to work for banks? - Why don't we pursue other verticals? - We really do need to improve our systems. Not only does it help the founder, but employees too. Employees are 𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 after time off. - Time with their kids and families. - Doing fun stuff other than appraisal. - Rested and recharged makes a huge difference! 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 -- for yourself and your people. - Create a summer vacation scheduling calendar. - Create a vacation "system" for effective vacations. - Have a summer "Show-n-Tell" to share vacation photos. Leaders and their companies should 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲. Those that do reap the rewards. Those that don't lose their people. = = = = = = = = = = If you need help dealing with summer vacations proactively rather than reactively, I can help you and your business two ways: 𝐆𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐰𝐰. 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐂𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 .𝐜𝐨𝐦: 1. 𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐰 to my weekly newsletter -- Get strategies and tactics to help you grow as a leader and your business to improve and grow. 2. 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭 -- 90+ minutes 1-on-1 with me to analyze your biggest struggles and issues and try and share what I know to help you deal with them.

When was the last time you took a vacation? A real one that didn't involve any checking on your email. Back in the olden days, before smartphones, being out of office really meant something, ya know. With a constant connection to email and global data plans, being on vacation made you nearly unreachable. There had to be a real emergency for your boss to track you down at your hotel, call (long distance), and bring you into a crisis. Either the problem would get solved without you, or it would wait until you were back. But nowadays, we're never really disconnected. We're only a ping away. In fact, one survey found 68% of people report they continue to work during their paid time off 😱 The norm for ambitious professionals is to stay plugged in; checking emails at least once day, and being willing to jump onto a call in an emergency (now, define *emergency*) I just came back from month long trip, half of which I was on vacation. I've travelled regularly throughout my career, and I've gotten very good at going dark to get all the positive, restorative, benefits of taking time off. Here's a few things that help me: 💻 Leave the laptop at home. 🔔 Disabling notifications, uninstalling apps, and leaving my phone in my purse as much as possible (I brought a digital camera on this last trip) 📋 Make a plan. Being able to unplug is made possible with prior planning. 🙋♀️ Get help. Conspire a coverage swap with a coworker and have a knowledge transfer before you go. 📧 Set expectations in your out of office. Repeat after me, "During this time, I have no access to email or voicemail." Now, go plan your vacation like it's 1999 - and drop in the comments where you'd like to travel to next!

I just got back from a week of vacation, and y'all, we NEED to take more vacations - and companies need to give the opportunity for vacations. Here's why: ● Vacations make us better at our jobs. There is a lot of research around the productive effect returning from a vacation can have, but I can report anecdotally that it is absolutely true; a lot of problems that seemed intractable before my vacation have become much less intimidating after having some time to think about them passively. ● Vacations bring teams together. Aside from offering a sufficient amount of vacation days, one of the biggest things companies can do to both improve the experience of going on vacation and bring teams together is encouraging a culture of support for vacations and absences. I've had past workplaces where the norm was "you can go on vacation when you've done all of your work for the week that you're out in advance," which defeats the entire point! Thankfully, Forrester has an incredible culture of working with your team to set up coverage while team members are out. I was able to truly disconnect and relax knowing that my projects were in good hands, and coming back I'm eager to return the favor when someone else needs a break. ● Vacations let you enjoy life! There's more to life than work, and we should spend as much time as we can with our loved ones and seeing this amazing world we live in. To close out, please enjoy the incredible view of Shark Reef on Lopez Island, Washington (not captured by me; I was too busy doing nothing).

To be honest, I’m shocked!🤯 I knew that there any many who keep checking their email during vacation. The fact that nearly 60% of respondents do it once or several times a day, is worse than I expected. There are definitely different reasons for people to do so. 1️⃣ It could be that one feels so passionate about their projects they want to stay up to date with any developments. 2️⃣ It could mean that a person has not managed to properly delegate their tasks to colleagues. Or if they have delegated projects, they do not trust the team members who are now responsible. 3️⃣ The most negative reason could be that there is no one to delegate the projects to. So despite being on vacation, a person is still responsible for their tasks. Here the question is also whether the person feels that their projects can not be put on halt while they are out of office, or - the worst-case scenario – the person is actually expected to manage ongoing projects while on vacation. Whatever the reasons, I feel this is a tendency that needs to be fought against. Both by team members themselves and by leaders – by enforcing standards and through setting a positive example and really switching off during vacation. Do you have any methods you use yourself or in your company to make sure people actually rest during vacation?

Summertime and the livin' is BUSY! If you miss the summers of your youth, when the biggest question was which friend you'd spend time with, you're not alone. Now, the work it takes to prepare for a much-needed vacation makes you wonder if you can actually afford to take a break. A 2023 survey by online learning platform Elvtr shows that 68% of Americans report working on vacation. That doesn't sound like a vacation to me! Here's how you can maximize your time off (without leaving anyone in a tough situation): ❶ Make a plan - Equip your team with logins, procedures, and any other information they may need while you're gone. ❷ Be sure your time off is marked in your team-wide calendar. ❸ Set an out-of-office message - Include relevant information like the dates you'll be gone and who to contact in your absence. Be sure to set this notification across all messaging platforms (email, Zoom, Teams, etc.) ❹ Enjoy your time on vacation - As a leader, you set the tone for vacations across your organization. Give your team permission to fully relax and recharge during their time off by showing them that you don't expect them to work while on vacation through your example. And the benefits of time off are HUGE! Researcher Mark Rosekind of Alertness Solutions found that vacations can increase performance by 80%. If you want to boost your performance and productivity, take some time off and encourage your team to do the same! Where are you vacationing next?

To work or not work during vacation? It depends on your 'why.' In many cases some of us work on vacations for very healthy reasons: 1. It's just part of your role and being a professional 2. It helps you relax. For example, spending 15-30 minutes/day on vacation may help you both enjoy your time off and make it easier for you when you return Some of us also work during our time off for unhealthy reasons: 1. Not being able to trust others 2. Compulsivity (e.g., not being able to separate from work) 3. Need to show colleagues how hard you work and committed you are 4. Poor boundary setting (e.g., saying 'yes' to meetings that can easily wait until you get back) 5. Lack of internal support for others to cover 6. Inflated sense of importance (e.g., the company can't afford for me to not work) As we enter the final stage of this vacation season, it's a great time to reflect on your relationship with work during your time off and adjust accordingly for your next break.

It’s summer – the season of vacations! Many people look forward to taking a break from work and other responsibilities during the summer months. The phrase “I need a vacation” may be playing over and over in your mind. But there’s just one problem – it’s not that simple. Maybe you don’t have many – or any – vacation days. Perhaps you have too much on your plate to shut down and unplug for a while. Or maybe you just can’t afford a vacation right now. Fortunately, not being able to travel and/or take extended time off from work doesn’t mean you can’t take a break! Here are five ways you can recharge this summer without taking a vacation. https://lnkd.in/e2az-M2R #StLukesPennFoundation

Locking your employees out of their email during their vacation isn't the flex you think it is... I recently saw someone advocating for this. While I think it's important to have real vacations, I am also a lot more relaxed after being able to check in for 15 minutes each day. A large portion of my revenue was generated this year while I was on vacation. Not on purpose! I'm not sure why, but my clients love to give their offers while I'm traveling. It probably means I should plan more vacations. I'm more than okay with spending one hour of my vacation negotiating a killer offer for my candidate. It makes my vacation even better. But I also know which emails can wait. My work-life balance improved when I stopped trying to separate the two and instead figured out the balance that worked for me. Sure, you can say this works because I'm a business owner, but don't you want to give your employees the autonomy to run their own roles? Your employees need to learn how to manage their own time. If an employee is spending all vacation online, that's a problem. You should figure out how to resolve that, but locking them out isn't the answer.