It’s summer vacation season and there are still managers and key employees who find it a challenge to take time off – and in many cases can’t take more than one week at a time.

Some managers and employees love their work so much that vacation time is more of a chore than a benefit. It’s great to love what you do and some single minded entrepreneurs have built some big corporations by working all the time. Having a passion for things outside of business can help these workaholics get some balance and make them better leaders.Most of us need some down time and in fact it is a sign of a good manager and organized employee when the work doesn’t pile up while you are away.

If a manager has to be in constant touch while away it can be a sign that they are not a good delegator. Be getting others to be more confident and capable you need to work at making yourself less needed. Put your ego aside and recognize that a good leader is someone who grows leadership in others.

As an employee you may not have someone to delegate to. You can try and train coworkers to do some of what you do or create systems to take care of things in your absence. Instead of feeling threatened realize that you are more valuable if you can make things run more efficiently.

The next time we talk, I will be beginning my vacation and will keep you posted on our midwest theme park tour.

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Managers say that they want employees to be more accountable – what does accountability mean? Accountability is where you are given responsibility for a particular area and you are expected to generate results. It also means that you are prepared to suffer the consequences – good or bad – based on your area or department.

Two models of accountability – the leash and the fenceline. Many managers use the leash model – that is they are superior to the employee and the give the employee small tasks and always have a hand on the leash so they can yank the employee back in if they go astray. The problem with the leash is that the manager always has to be watching and can’t leave the employee on their own.

The better accountability model is the fence – instead of a leash I describe the fence line or area of resonsibility for the employee and let them run things within their fenceline. If they generate good results, I can enlarge the fence and increase accountability – if they are not successful I can reduce the fence and give them less responsibility.

Other factors that are essential for accountability:

- Managers have to describe the expected outcomes, values and guidelines
- Sufficient authority is given so the person can make decisions in their fence line
- Provide adequate resources to get the job done or describe the limitation
- Provide skills, coaching and training
- Apply consequences – good or bad depending on the results

For more information, please visit www.LeadershipWizard.com

We revisit communication from a slightly different perspective.

In almost every organization people will complain about communication. The challenge is that communication is such a broad term that it rarely results in a good solution to a problem.

1. More communication doesn’t always mean better communication – when managers and executives hear that they have a communication problem in their organization – the response is usually to increase the AMOUNT of communication. This means more meetings and more emails. Not too many people out there want more meetings and more email than they get already. What they do want is MORE EFFECTIVE communication – What they need to know when they need to know it.

2. Signalling is important – last week we talked about the Pit Crew Challenge where we put managers into Pit Crew Teams to teach them about leadership, coaching and communication. It is important in that scenario that everyone keep people informed about what is going on. In companies this is a big issue – different departments don’t keep each other informed about changes, or customer requirements. So think about how the different departments in your organization SIGNAL one another so everyone knows what’s going on.

3. Remember that people don’t really listen all that well – People in marketing know that a customer needs to hear a message at least 7 times in order to remember and consider buying something. Managers think that if they say something once, everyone will remember. In reality instructions will often need to be repeated three times – other messages will need to be repeated 7 times or even more.

4. Keep your email short and focused to generate results – Most people admit that they scan their email to decide what to read based on these criteria – who sent it (boss and customer gets answered first), subject line (make your subject line like the headline – tell the story in a few words) and then based on the size of the message. Short messages with a single question or action item get dealt with first – long emails with multiple action items either never get read or the person answers only one question.

Check out www.LeadershipWizard.com for more information.