Steve Huffman, VP & CIO, Memorial Health System of South Bend
Vacation time is critical to relax and regroup. However, the re-entry from vacation, if done poorly, can eliminate the benefits of your vacation time — not only for you, but for your staff. There is an art to coming back from time off. Here are some helpful tips that I’ve collected along my journey:
1. Trust your team. Because you have a great team, you have to trust them when you are gone. I explicitly trust my team when I am out of the office and they have full authority to get what they need done. They all know to call my cell if there is an emergency. They also know to email me with updates so I can quickly get up to speed when I return from vacation. I have a no-surprises policy with my team during vacation — if they think I will be surprised, then they should email me and let me know so I can mentally prepare upon my return.
2. When you are on vacation, be on vacation. You need time away from work and your team needs time away from you. Most of us have heard this before. Constantly staying in touch doesn’t let your brain have time to disengage from your day-to-day work responsibilities. Sending emails and listening to voicemail just propagates more communication back and forth.
3. Not reviewing communication can kill the last part of your vacation. No one wants to come back to hundreds of unopened emails and voicemails. Just the idea of coming back with hundreds of emails can create anxiety that will throw off the last day of my vacation. A few days before you come back, spend a minimum amount of time going through emails to get an essence of what is going on. I can usually clear my email box with hundreds of emails in 30 minutes. The majority of emails and voicemails you receive generally don’t require your immediate attention. Clear out all the junk — updates, vendor emails, organization-wide emails, etc. Don’t answer any of the correspondence unless absolutely necessary (they would have called you if it was that important).
4. Don’t come back on a Monday, and don’t fill your schedule. Monday, I have found, is a challenging time to come back because it is a new start for everyone. This last vacation I came back on Thursday, which was a quiet day in the office. Make sure you don’t overfill your schedule by cramming in quick meetings. Lay low for a day on your schedule to ensure you get the proper team updates and know when and where to jump in after vacation.
5. Don’t jump into issues on day one. Your team was working fine without you. Find out how things progressed while you were gone and ask more questions on your return than you answer. There is no need to lead with a can of gas and start throwing it around when you hit the door. Ease back in to allow a smooth transition back to work.
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