Taking a vacation from your team and business can be difficult if you’re a leader with seemingly never-ending tasks. During your time off, you may find yourself more worried than relaxed if you are unable to oversee your staff or personally approve crucial information.
There are a few things leaders may do to relax and make sure everything will continue as usual when they are away from the office. These 14 top suggestions will help them get their teams ready to take care of business while they’re away.
1. Take a short vacation
Practice makes perfect. As a result, it’s highly advised managers take a brief vacation that involves only two or three work days away from the company before taking a prolonged one. But there’s one particular method that does the trick. You can collaborate with your team to compile a to-do list of the tasks that must be done while you’re away. This will make sure that they focus on the most important tasks during your absence.
2. Encourage your group to adopt a solution-oriented mentality
Establish a culture where people feel free to make mistakes and decisions without fear. Since mistakes can sometimes teach us the most valuable lessons, it is important to treat your team with kindness and let them grow into self-sufficient, confident individuals. Remove the fear of failure, which keeps people from completing tasks.
3. Assist your group in reaching independent decisions
The greatest strategy is to start your team off with self-sufficiency and a focus on finding solutions. Encourage them to make independent decisions, make errors, and grow from them. In this manner, the framework you’ve created continues to function whether or not you are there to oversee it.
4. Have trust in your team
It is challenging to assemble a strong team, but it is even more challenging to come to trust and believe in your employees’ ability to carry out their responsibilities. You will only fully trust your employees if you train them to be independent—one of the key factors that make a successful entrepreneur is learning how to delegate.
5. Establish specific procedures and expectations
When the success of your firm depends on one individual, you are limiting its potential to grow. Leaders can, however, confidently leave the business by establishing clear expectations and creating standardised work and procedural standards. Any successful firm must have well-established, dependable systems. Avoid making your procedures more complex and provide straightforward, simple-to-follow systems.
6. Set objectives and follow up with employees
A well-executed vacation program is an excellent way to show your personnel that you trust them and value their well-being. When the expectations inside that trust are clear, confidence grows. Managers should get in touch with each worker prior to their vacation in order to establish expectations for each worker’s return and make sure they have all they need.
7. Create a chart of accountability
Make an accountability chart and indicate all the channels of communication required for the day-to-day operations of the company. Next, try it out for the same amount of time before your trip. For example, if you’re going on a two-day vacation, see how they function for two days before you leave. This will also assist you in generally taking a step back from the day-to-day operations and focusing on the business’s strategic path.
8. Find your number two
Assign a contact person to handle coverage for you. Give them specific instructions on handling issues, be clear about the authority you are giving them, and offer guidance when they are unclear about what to do.
Ensure everyone has work and understands their roles by having a team meeting. Plan to have a debriefing early in the morning when you get back so you can get right back into things.
9. Put top-level talent in charge
When you know you have the right leaders and intrapreneurs in place, you can step away with greater confidence. This entails providing them with incentives such as bonuses, stock options, and other items that will draw in top personnel. When you have top-tier talent on board and they are committed to your business and goal, leaving seems like a non-event.
10. Take part in scenario planning
Whether it’s an employee taking over for you while you’re gone or a young child learning how to ride a bicycle, scenario planning is essential to fostering others’ independence and confidence. Before you “let go of the bike seat” and they keep riding, assist staff members in seeing the path ahead, boost their self-assurance, support the hardest part—getting started—and celebrate small victories.
11. Be prepared for emergencies
Strike a balance by requesting your managers to cover for you on specific duties and let them know you are available in an emergency. In this manner, you give the team confidence and let them know they can rely on you in times of need. Create a lean culture and systemic processes that continue the business even in your absence.
12. Give specific team members tasks
The team usually experiences delays in deliverables when leaders take holidays. But this is an opportunity to give the team autonomy over decision-making. Creating a checklist of deliverables and deadlines is one action that leaders can do.
Each team member will be held accountable if they are given duties. Give them advance notice of your trip schedule so they can make the necessary arrangements and prepare.
13. Trusting processes and planning ahead
Establish solid processes and engage in advance planning to foster a culture of trust within your team. Delegate responsibilities to reliable individuals and empower them to make independent decisions, allowing leaders to take vacations without disrupting business operations.
14. Nurture leadership skills
Managers have a responsibility to foster each team member’s leadership qualities. They must do this from the very beginning. One way to achieve this is through regular communication, trust, and encouragement of the team to perform at their highest level. Remember—successful leaders need to create leaders, not just followers.
(Tashia Bernardus)