By Jan Bruce, Contributor Here’s my 3-step recommendation to improve your performance as an entrepreneur: Embargo your mail when you head for vacation, relax and restore, while relying on your team to keep business moving, return with a newfound vigor that comes from a bit of distance and rest. As the leader of several high paced, high growth startups, where everyone works at breakneck speed all day and often all night, I have often demanded that my employees take two-week vacations and unplug. No email, no conference calling from the canoe, no laptop in their beach bags. It’s not that I am being a nice boss; I am being a smart one. The idea in play is to help employees do what they are supposed to do while out of the office: relax, rejuvenate, and return to work refreshed. It makes so much sense, yet in today’s corporate culture which emulates the round-the-clock availability of the digital world, it seems unrealistic, almost undesirable. Research shows that the ensuing burnout doesn’t make for good business. The Atlantic reports that typical American vacation deprivation, even if self-imposed, leads to increased mistakes on the job. And in a recent survey conducted by meQuilibrium, the online stress management and resilience training company I founded, half of the respondents checked their work email outside the office, while at the same time 73 percent felt that using electronic devices contributed to stress in their lives. We’re all email addicts and we can’t seem to help it, even though research tells us almost daily that chronic stress, unabated, has a serious impact on our health and our long-term ability to stay productive. This is why smart corporate leaders still take a cue from Henry Ford, who found that productivity increased when work hours were decreased. Today, Heineken puts an embargo on work email on weeknights after 7:30 pm and throughout the weekend. Rebecca Botorff, Chief People Officer at telecom company Bandwidth, believes that wellbeing is a cornerstone of corporate success. “Being whole in mind and spirit helps you navigate in the entrepreneurial world. We set an expectation that when you go on vacation, you specify who covers for you, and you are not to be disturbed.” Of course, it’s easier to tell employees to take off and unplug than it is to follow your own edict, but it’s just as vital that CEOs and senior execs disconnect. Often, the only way to objectively view a problem or business strategy is from the outside, and one way of doing that is to remove yourself from the office, physically and digitally. You also have to trust your employees more. Allow them step up, and to create a protocol that if there’s a true emergency, someone will let you know. Hang up your virtual “Gone fishin'” sign with an auto response that says you won’t be responding to email, and then go away. Signing off may be challenging, but it could lead to your best work yet. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest