Upon returning to work after his second paid sabbatical, Plante & Moran partner Doug Wiescinski only had to reply to about 20 emails and no voice mails. He had been completely disconnected from work for four weeks.
Re-entry took “no more than a day or two” before being up to speed. His work coverage plan allowed for training and development. And he was far more rejuvenated than after his first sabbatical, seven years prior.
Doug and his wife in Hawaii.
Doug credits the success of his second sabbatical with lessons learned from his first. He shared with me his best practices:
- Make it about succession planning. Start identifying what you do and who you can delegate to as early on as possible. “I started six months in advance,” he says. “The work coverage plan for my second sabbatical was more about succession planning. On my first sabbatical, I didn’t have that consciousness, but you can’t start too early thinking about those things. I’m now 55 and seven years away from retirement. You have to start implementing things well in advance of retirement to make sure it’s a smooth transition.”
- Colleague partnering is critical. Introduce your colleagues to clients well in advance before leaving on sabbatical. It maintains continuity of service. “When you’re in your year of sabbatical, you really need to take the colleague partnering up to a different level,” Doug says.
- Tell your clients and prospects that you’ll be taking a break. Promote the fact that you’ll be gone and that your firm supports it. “It’s an incredibly positive message – more so than I would have imagined.”
- Use your work coverage plan to delegate to bring benefit to your company. “Once you have the list of things you do in your role, go through the list and determine what you can permanently delegate. Then ask yourself, ‘How can I best re-deploy my time for the benefit of the practice?’” Permanent delegation of tasks allowed Doug to do more client interfacing, business development activities and practice planning activities, bringing a higher value to the firm.
- Earmark some unstructured time. Doug’s first sabbatical was 30 days of travel with only one day to unpack and get the house in order before going back to work. For his second sabbatical, he combined two weeks in Hawaii with two weeks of “staycation”, letting the days unfold and allowing for some quiet time. “I felt mentally and substantially better rested with having some time where I wasn’t dealing with airplanes, travel schedules and being on a schedule.”
- Disconnect – really. To get the benefits out of a sabbatical – for yourself and for the development of staff – ensure that you fully disconnect. No calling in. No checking emails. “It’s good for you,” Doug says. “It’s at the core of the sabbatical.”
Because Doug did a lot of advance planning and knew what to expect, he experienced far less anxiety about leaving for sabbatical than he did before he took his first work break.
If a sabbatical is in your future, consider Doug’s tips for successful planning and preparation.
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