The Ladder: Ravi Saligram/ vacation strategy

Aug. 14, 2017 The Ladder: Ravi Saligram: Today I found this article in the Globe and Mail:

Ravi Saligram, 60, is chief executive of Ritchie Bros., based in Burnaby, B.C. Previously, he was CEO of OfficeMax, served in executive positions with global food services company Aramark and held various roles at InterContinental Hotels Group. He has an MBA from the University of Michigan and an electrical engineering degree from Bangalore University.

I was born in New Delhi but grew up mostly in Bangalore. I had two goals growing up; I aspired to be a writer and to come to America. I loved reading mystery and spy novels, inspired by author James Hadley Chase.

I wrote my first novel when I was 15 years old. A friend’s sister typed it up for me. I sent it to the same publisher that published Hadley Chase and they rejected it, along with many other publishers. I sent it to Hadley Chase and he wrote me a letter telling me not to give up. Just getting that letter made up for the rejections.

I was accepted to get a bachelor of arts in English, but my family said I was nuts. They said, “You’ll just be another rickshaw driver with a degree in English.” I ended up going into engineering.

I learned about leadership in part from my father and grandfather. Both taught me the importance of character at a very young age. As a result, honesty and integrity are at the core of my being. My father was also a great leader of people.

My father died of cancer at a very young age, 52. It was 1980 and I was 24 at the time and had just started working in the United States. As the eldest son, there was a lot of pressure to go back to India and take care of my mother, my brother who was eight years old, and my sister, who was 16.

My mother made a bold decision and told me to go back to America and follow my passions. Without her decision, I don’t know that I would be where I am today.

I started my career in advertising at Leo Burnett. That’s where I developed a passion for the consumer and customer. It was the best training ground. They emphasized the need to have a point of view. It can’t be a gut feeling or ill-defined either; you had to have done your homework.

Our job was not only to give the client what they want, but what they need. Early on, that created confidence. You could be arguing your point of view with someone 10 levels above you, but the hierarchy didn’t matter.

Sometimes people think I have a strong personality because my natural instinct is, “Hey, I have a point of view on this.” It doesn’t mean that I’m stubborn. I love to hear what the other person has to say and expect them to push back.

One of the greatest pieces of advice I ever received was that, when you run a company, you have a lot of average people. Your job is to get them to perform above average. Just imagine the gains you’ll see in the company rather than just focusing on two or three superstars. That advice became my guiding light.

With leadership, you need to make people want to follow you. People will follow you when they realize that you care about them – more than you care about yourself – and there isn’t an expectation of a payback. For me, gratitude and loyalty are very important.

My style is to surround myself with people smarter than I am. I don’t like to surround myself with yes men. I like to have people that compliment me in different ways: Someone’s weaknesses are offset by someone else’s strengths.

My end objective, as a CEO, is to drive stakeholder value. That includes employees, customers and shareholders, as well as the community in which you do business. The first three are key and have to be in harmony.

You can’t drive shareholder value if you aren’t doing a fantastic job for your customers. You can’t do a fantastic job for customers if you’re not taking care of your employees.

I liken my job to an orchestra conductor. I pick the music, which is like creating a vision for the company. My people are the musicians. You have to get them aligned. I don’t make the music; I only guide it. If I pick the wrong music, I take the blame. I want our people to feel empowered and take the credit.

As told to Brenda Bouw. This interview has been edited and condensed.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/management/ravi-saligram-you-need-to-make-people-want-to-follow-you/article35963098/

Aug. 19, 2017 "Make a vacation strategy to elevate time off": Today I found this article by Patrick  Brethour in the Globe and Mail:

Here’s a thought to propel you out of your gently swaying hammock: Who is sitting in my office chair?

Vacations are supposed to be a time for the careers version of the three Rs: rest, relaxation and recovery. But all too often, that break from work can turn into just one more source of stress.

There is the worry about the overhang of work waiting for the return to the office. The worry about how much to untether from the electronic leashes tying you to the workplace.

And then there is the biggest worry of all: Is your vacation sending the message that you prefer a slow lap around the lake to the fast track?

Career paranoia, panic and perceptions of indispensability mean that Canadians leave millions of vacation days on the table every year, according to the inevitably gloomy surveys that emerge each fall. In essence, employees are returning part of their paycheques to the boss.

But vacations, properly enjoyed, should be used as a springboard to greater productivity – and joy – in the workplace. If that seems out of reach, you may be in need of a vacation strategy. (Yes, the phrase does seems fun-obliterating, but bear with me.)

Julie McCarthy, a professor at the department of management of the University of Toronto, Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management, has coached executives on the merits of a vacation strategy – making the most out of the limited number of days off, while ensuring maximum uptick from the downtime.

Without such a plan, vacations can be self-defeating, says Prof. McCarthy. “I’ve actually had executives say, ‘It’s more stressful for me to take a vacation.’”

The first step in any vacation strategy is determining the length of the break. More is not necessarily better, in this case. Employees get two kinds of stress relief from vacations: the rest from the actual time off, and less obviously, the anticipatory tingle in the days leading up to the trip to the cottage, beach or that 50-kilometre hike. Another variable to add into the vacation calculus: the positive aftereffects of time off fade after a few weeks.

Add it all up, says Prof. McCarthy, and the optimal length of a vacation is: one week. That might seem like a too-brief window for fun. But a series of one-week breaks will deliver several cycles of anticipation, fun and relaxed aftermath.

By contrast, a two- or three-week vacation might seem to give greater scope for relaxation, but that choice is likely to backfire when it comes to being able to fully detach from work. It’s reasonable, in many instances, to delay decisions and meetings for a week – “I’ll get back to you next Monday” sounds just fine. “See you in September” does not.

Deciding on how to engage with the workplace is another key component of a vacation strategy. Prof. McCarthy says data suggests that many would-be vacationers log in between one to four hours of work a day.

For some, the high end of that range may be unavoidable, she says. But for the most part, working a half-day while nominally on vacation indicates a failure to consciously decouple from the workplace.

During a recent vacation to Europe, Prof. McCarthy set aside one hour early each morning to deal with e-mail. After that, she was in full vacation mode. That allowed her to stay in touch with work matters just enough to avoid undue stress upon her return.

Next, a proper vacation strategy will map out your “recovery experiences,” otherwise known as the fun you’ll be up to. Academics Charlotte Fritz and Allison M. Ellis lay out a framework in A Marathon, Not a Sprint: The Benefits of Taking Time to Recover from Work Demands.

In that research paper, they describe three types of recovery experiences: psychological detachment (simply not thinking about work-related matters); relaxation (low-effort activities such as browsing a favourite magazine) and mastery (such as finally learning to make a perfect soufflé or learning to light a fire in a downpour).

The final part of a properly structured vacation strategy? Don’t focus just on formal vacation time, advises Prof. McCarthy. Take the same thoughtful approach to evenings and weekends to decompress from work throughout the year. That way, when summer vacation time comes around, there will be less pressure to find the perfect way to relax.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/management/make-a-vacation-strategy-to-elevate-time-off/article36029122/