How to Create High Return on Your Sabbatical
A sabbatical is an extraordinary adventure with the potential to be a return on investment like no other. Time, energy and money all converge to create a possible life-changing event. We know individuals who improve their leadership game, careers, lifestyles, approach to conflict, work/life balance and relationships after they return. But in the planning stages […]
The Single Best Practice for a Company Sabbatical Policy that Rocks
Let’s say the company announces a new program to allow time out from work – a sabbatical program. Immediately after a shock and awe moment, employees have a few questions. Do you know what they are? They want to know: Do I get to go? For how long? Will I be paid? Can I do […]
Dear Company, Your Sabbatical Program Makes Employees Worry. Please Fix This.
Ron leaves his workplace at the end of next week for a six-week paid sabbatical provided by his company. The opportunity to live in Germany with his wife and young son in the small town of Bonn has been well planned. He’ll attend language classes, travel and also call on a couple of prospective clients. […]
You Want Me to Do Your Work AND Mine?: Guiding Questions for Pre-Sabbatical Work Transfer
Let’s face it. When you are away from the workplace on your sabbatical, people will talk about you. It’s nice to think they are wishing you well on your extraordinary experience and smiling as they tackle their job and part of yours. But in the preparation for leaving your work behind, a myriad of details […]
Want to go from Employee to Entrepreneur? Attend A Unique Sabbatical Experience in Bali.
Do you see your future as an entrepreneur, freelancer, mid-career breaker or creator of social change? You can gain skills, tools, insight and knowledge to make your idea happen … if you’re willing to move quickly. Why take a chance and zoom off to Bali in October for three weeks? Because seizing opportunities are how […]
Who Covers Your Work While You’re on Sabbatical? First Steps to Extraordinary Success.
Planning a sabbatical is fraught with challenges. How do I find the cheapest airfare to Bhutan? What is the most valuable professional experience for my time away? Can I fit my family into a small Airstream? When you decide to take a sabbatical offered by the company or negotiate your own six-weeks away, the most […]
CBS Segment, “More Professionals Taking Sabbatical,” Features yourSABBATICAL.com
A recent survey found 16-percent of companies now allow unpaid sabbatical leave. Human resource consultant Dan Ryan says sabbaticals are growing in popularity, partly because expectations on the job have intensified. The pace of work now, especially after the economic downturn, is very frantic and the sabbatical is a very innovative way for companies to hang […]
Suck in Air and Be Forever Thankful
“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite - only a sense of existence.” Henry David Thoreau, In a letter to Harrison Gray Otis Blake (December 6, 2020) My subscription to Real Simple Magazine expires next month and bored […]
TEDx Talk on Sabbaticals Sends Misguided, Dangerous Message
I love TED talks and TEDx too. Don’t you? Still, you should not believe everything you hear. Todd Babiak is co-founder of Story Engine, a start-up that uses story-based strategies to make organizations and leaders better: more focused, more cohesive, more influential, more human. I enjoyed his June 2011 TEDx talk, “Tell Me a Story” […]
A Sabbatical Program Launches and No One Wants to Go. What’s Up?
In an initial consulting conversation this week with Jennifer, an individual who is gathering information to design and implement a sabbatical program for a global company, Elizabeth and I re-emphasized the importance of the roll out of any sabbatical program. “What you don’t want to have happen is to launch a sabbatical program and then […]
Innovation Gets Better With Age: Why is This So Hard To Believe?
Does a 65-year-old have significantly more innovation potential than a 25-year-old? My Generation X daughter, who sometimes must teach me a new tech shortcut twice (okay, maybe four times) would answer boldly and quickly, “No way.” Older is slower. So how could her mother possibly be better at new thinking and fresh ideas than, say, […]
Why Your Career Path Should Have No End
Life expectancy is ballooning, but really, who’s paying attention? I wasn’t, and the results were a transition that could have been better navigated. Entering my third act of life, I ended up confused in a swamp land of outdated information, no great “how-to” bestseller as a guide and social benchmarks that just didn’t fit anymore. […]
Experts Identify Extreme Workers’ Ultimate Success Tool - “Get Away from the Job”
Fast Company Magazine’s 2012 two-part series on Generation Flux was their best – intoxicating and evil at the same time - in the last five years. Robert Safian, an author and the magazine’s editor, challenged every conventional thought left in your brain about how to be a successful and survival in the present state of […]
No Resolutions for New Year, Just the Gift of a Journey
Holiday gatherings reunited me with friends, family and colleagues. After hugs and “great to see you,” I used the common conversation starter, “So, what’s going on with you?” Answers included: “Working hard, going nowhere.” “Well, you know, my life is all about the kids.” “Not much of anything.” “Same ole’, same ole.” This is not […]
Secrets of Confident and Smart Long-Term Travel
Endings are powerful experiences. As the season of shopping, glittering lights and cookies gains momentum, we are letting go of the final days of 2012. How was it for you? Living the life you want? Too busy for much of anything? Cat got your tongue? Soon we’ll all receive the greatest gift of all – […]
Bring Back the 40-Hour Work Week? Can We Noodle on That?
In the third debate, the President’s history lesson -“we don’t use bayonets and horses”- prompted big buzz, smiles and controversy. But, although billed as a last resort, bayonets still do play a part in military arms, just not a significant one. Another idea - a killer idea - also steeped in history moves toward a […]
Oh the Things You’ll Learn! Three Notable Sabbatical Books
We can learn a lot from the story line, “sabbatical idea to departure.” But, the story of what happens next provides the best information to help us to look closer at our own ideas about taking time out from work Who doesn’t want answers to these questions: Just how did those teenage daughters like being […]
Money Does Buy Happiness: Here’s How Much Moolah You Need and Why
In the pursuit of happiness, how many times have we asked ourselves, “How much money is enough?” only to quickly realize we have no idea. Finally, we have the answer. According to the latest research, once you have about $75,000 a year, earning more doesn’t really help. Not surprisingly, people with a comfortable living standard […]
Where the Spirit Leads, Feet Follow: Walk, Baby, Walk
While extreme sports fuel many, the rest of us are not, nor do we aspire, to be in the club. For a lot of different reasons, we don’t want to go “peak bagging.” We’re not fit enough, strong enough or brave enough. Still we’d like to “live bold” and “dare to do more.” The urge […]
The Purpose-Driven Sabbatical: New Approach to Achieve the Happy Factor
Without purpose, a sabbatical won’t make you happy. I’ve interviewed many individuals who thought all they needed to do was negotiate the time away, arrange for their work to get done, and instruct the tech department to dissolve temporary access to their email. Then, totally disconnected from work life, the grand experience of their sabbatical […]