Seven ways to take a real holiday from the office

As we approach the end of July it seems that the whole of Europe is about to shut up shop for the summer holiday. Are you one of those people about to take your annual holiday? If so, good for you. According to a recent Expedia survey in the USA, most of us will fail to use two precious days this year. Overall, that adds up to 226 million lost days, or $34.3 billion, left on the table by the U.S. workforce.

Now it strikes me that you've almost certainly earned those days to recharge your batteries and to spend time with your family before facing up to the second half of the year. But to avoid getting constant emails, phone calls or even the dreaded call to come in, you'll want to prepare your office properly. Because holiday time should be spent on a beach with a margarita or sheltering under canvas as the heavens open. One place you should definitely not be? Sitting in your office.

Follow these tips, and you'll be dreaming of sand, sea and a suntan -- not work -- by the end of the month:

Think before you send. The day before you leave your office, be stingy with emails. Electronic messages are like boomerangs -- they come right back at you. "Typically for every email you send, you can expect double the responses in return (thank you, FW, RE, CC and BCC)," says Yahoo! Web Life Editor Heather Cabot.

Organise your office. Spend a day tidying your desk so that your colleagues who are left behind can easily find important files or data. You should also make any active files accessible on your computer desktop, if there is a chance you'll want to ask someone else to retrieve them.

Take a tip from McDonald's. One of the reasons McDonald's is so successful is because they have systems in place so that anyone can step in and it will continue to run smoothly. Clearly outline the way to do things to simplify anything from invoicing to interviewing potential employees while you're away (and while there are more temps than usual filling in).

Leave an automatic to-do list. You'll probably already be leaving a "to-do" list for any of a team that you might manage whilst you're away. But make sure it gets done without you checking in with an automatic follow-up email to employees, through Outlook or another comparable program. That way you don't walk into a post-holiday mess upon your return.

Give everyone advance notice. Your colleagues and boss should know you're leaving, but give clients a heads up, too. Change the answering machine, voicemail, hold music, and/or email line to say/read when you will be away on holiday. This will give anyone working with you a few weeks’ notice on your absence so they can get anything they need you for done beforehand.

Try a dry run. If you have real concerns then ask your team to operate as if you are on holiday for a couple of days. Then, hold an informal meeting after the dry run to see how it went. Discuss the obstacles and install procedures to address them. Dry runs let you show your team (not just tell them) how to operate without you, and it gives them the confidence to follow through on the plans in place.

Don't check in. If you don't call or email to see if there is anything you need to know about, you won't get roped into something that can probably wait. If you've set up the proper systems, you shouldn't have to worry about missing something important. If there is an emergency, you'll get a call. Your team will follow suit: If you lead by example you will soon create a culture where everyone takes a real holiday, comes back rested and is ultimately more productive.

As ever we’re keen to hear from you, you can let us know your thoughts either before or after your holiday at blog@chestertongray.com or tweet us at @chestertongray

Management advice that works; or does it?

If you have ever stood at a newsagents at the airport or railway station, one of the things that you really can’t have failed to notice is the plethora of books offering copious amounts of management advice. Now I always question management advice books because I wonder "Does this really work, or did the author just dream up a theory just so they could write a book?" The only useful advice is, of course, advice that helps people become better managers.

With a few spare moments between assignments I did some delving through the search engines to see what the most common advice is, and this is these reflect the most common/repeated thoughts:

• For those times when you tell someone to do something just because you're the manager: Every time you hit someone with the 'management' stick, it breaks in half.

• Getting bad news early is good news. I've found it applies to nearly all walks of life.

• Never tell or ask someone to do something you're not willing to do yourself. Always remember how it felt to be the one managed, and take that into consideration when managing others.

• My boss tells us all the time that the reason we are successful as a clinic is that she has made a point over the years to hire people smarter than she is.

• Remember the people reporting to you have their goals, dreams and vision for their future. To the best of your ability -- and their willingness to share -- learn what these are. When it comes to coaching, mentoring and managing your direct-report staff, you can incorporate this understanding into your message. Even if the mission doesn't directly correlate with or even contradicts their own vision, they will hear that you considered their point of view.

• Never value bureaucracy and process over people. This is what gives HR a bad name (and often unnecessarily). When you have a problem with an individual person, deal with that person or problem and don't push out some wimpy policy to try to 'stem the tide' of people who wear orange Crocs to work (or whatever other lame HR policy you can imagine). If you put people first and deal with them clearly and honestly, you'll find that most of your policies are unnecessary.

• Start every work conversation by asking a variation on the following: 'What can I help you with/how can I help you?' That may sound corny, but it is amazing when you see the stress on someone's face melt away because they 'get' that you 'get' that you're in it together. It's also a positive way to identify roadblocks; find areas where additional training or professional development would be helpful; and get a quick handle on staff workloads and priorities, helping readjust if needed. I've found that starting with, 'What do you need from me?' or 'How can I help you?' also gives you valuable insight into how a person is doing mentally, physically, professionally and personally.

• The best management advice I ever got was from a school counsellor who was talking about breaking up with a boyfriend/girlfriend, and only later did I come to apply it to managing work relationships: Understand that your primary goal when making management decisions is not to earn the concurrence of the employees you manage. You will never get employees to agree that they need to be reassigned, demoted, reprimanded, laid off or fired. Because those are some of the hardest actions to take as a manager, it is smart to keep in mind that you can lay out your case to the employee for why it is the best course of action for everyone (the employer). Employee buy-in is always a secondary goal.

• Don't treat your employees like idiots. It demeans them and you. It is especially true when you have unsettling news to share, [like] a company shakeup and changes in management -- really changes to anything. If you try to put a nice, 'everything is still wonderful,' Pollyanna gloss on the news you are trying to break, your employees will quickly lose confidence in you and your ability to determine when a situation needs more care and gravity.

• I was once told that all people really want is respect and to know that what they are doing is important. His statement has stayed with me ever since, and I use this philosophy all the time.

I don’t believe that any of these offer any ground breaking thoughts or advice but merely re-enforce what most of us have heard over the length of our careers. Maybe you can offer us something a little bit different? If so, what's your best piece of management advice?
As ever we’re keen to hear from you, let us know your thoughts at blog@chestertongray.com or tweet us at @chestertongray