Want to be a better leader? Try taking a vacation.

Cammie Dunaway
Jul 21, 2017 · 5 min read

You know that person in your office who always brags (or complains) about never taking a vacation? That’s who you aspire to be like right? Of course not!! The people we typically admire are those who manage to achieve great results and have interesting lives outside of work — lives that provide fuel for their creativity and inspiration for their business driving ideas. It is tough to be innovative if all you ever do is spend time in the office.

But knowing this and acting on it are two different things. According to recent research by a group of travel industry experts at Skift, nearly 42% of Americans do not plan to take a vacation this summer. A recent survey from Glassdoor has a similar finding. According to their research, the average U.S. employee who receives vacation/paid time off, has only taken about half (54 percent) of his or her eligible vacation in the past 12 months.

Despite recognizing that we need a break many of us hold fast to the belief that the path to career success requires sacrificing vacation and embracing work martyrdom.

This is especially true for millennial women. According to research by Project Time Out, only 44% of young women are using all the time they have earned, down from 46% last year and less than the 51% of men taking all of their days. In explaining why they weren’t using all their time, young women were also more likely to say they felt guilty, replaceable or wanted to “show complete dedication.”

Ironically, this kind of work martyrdom can actually hurt your career. In the Project Time Out research, self-proclaimed work martyrs were less likely (79% to 84%) to report receiving a raise or bonus in the last three years than those who do not subscribe to the work martyr myth. And when it came to getting ahead, they were no more likely to have received a promotion in the last year than the average worker (28% to 28%.)

All of us need time to press pause. Time to sleep in and catch up on reading or pursue a favorite hobby. Time to just let our brains wander, to have new experiences and to reconnect to people who love us for who we are, not just for what we achieve. Vacations can give us the energy and in many cases, the inspiration to bring our best selves to work.

I believe taking vacation is especially important if you manage other people. Being a boss can be emotionally draining and leaves most people even less time for personal reflection. And as leaders we need to role model how to refresh and renew by taking time off. In the Time Out research, 6 out of 10 employees said they feel a lack of support from their boss for taking time off. Do as I say and not as I do just does not work in this area.

Once you have made the commitment to take that vacation here are a few ways I have found to make it as beneficial as possible.

Plan Ahead

According to a 2010 study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, just planning or anticipating a vacation trip can make you happier. My experience totally supports this — doing the research, making the Pinterest board, asking friends and colleagues for recommendations- this is the source of a lot of the joy. So, suck as much out of it as you can. A favorite New Year’s Day ritual for me is getting out the calendar and making vacation plans for the year ahead. Getting out ahead in this way also makes it easier to coordinate with your team and make sure that people can support you during your time off.

The other benefit of planning is that it increases the chance that your vacation will go more smoothly, which in turn increases the likelihood that you will actually return to work refreshed. In research conducted by Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, 90% of respondents who had a positive vacation experience had planned the details more than one month in advance while 28% of those having a negative trip were still figuring out details at the last minute or even on the trip itself.

2 Weeks is Best

For much of my career I convinced myself that as long as I got in the occasional long weekend and the even less frequent week away, I was doing good. Then I took a 2-week vacation to Hawaii. The first week was the usual bouncing back and forth between wondering what was going on at the office and frantically trying to get in fun time, kind of like coming off a sugar high. But by the 2nd week I realized that I actually felt relaxed, less anxious and much better able to give into the lazy rhythms of the day. The added benefit I discovered is that when you are gone for 2 weeks your team or colleagues actually have to pick up and handle some of the work. I swear I walk into smaller piles when I am gone 2 weeks that when I am gone 2 days!

Disconnect

I know this one is really, really hard. Glassdoor says that few employees who take vacation/paid time off report being able to completely “check out” while they are on vacation (54 percent in 2017, down from 63 percent in 2014.) But come on do you really want to be that guy at Disney on the bench on a conference call or that woman stopped on the side of a Grand Canyon trail checking email? It can wait! And hey if you are really that important, you should have built a team that can handle things while you are away.

Disconnecting is critical not just for your own rest and relaxation but also for the people back at the office. I had a boss once who was fabulous in most every way, but when he went on vacation he saw it as his time to catch up on all the work stuff he didn’t get to the rest of the year. We got even more emails about ideas we needed to investigate, opportunities we needed to explore and mistakes we were making. Not only did it overload those of us back at the office, it sent a clear signal that if you were a top performer you did not ever disconnect.

If your fingers get twitchy when they are not sending constant check in texts, try to go to a place with no phone or internet service. It may be painful for the first few days (heck maybe for the entire time) but your traveling partners and your team back home will thank you!

Trust me you are not doing yourself, your team or your company any favors when you don’t take a break. Help us turn this trend around!

Check out more ideas for thriving at work in my new book Fit Matters: How to Love Your Job.

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