Plan your Best Summer Vacation Ever!

Good things happened when we asked our two older sons, who had already married, and our youngest son, who was near finishing college, to help plan a holiday vacation! Specifically, we asked them to get involved in the decision-making process to find a common place where everyone could meet for a family vacation during Thanksgiving.

During this process, I was amazed how…

Everyone became so excited and interested in the vacation as the process went forward.

These internet savvy boys and the two older boys’ wives jumped in with both feet and researched travel options online with ease.

Well they interacted between themselves to make recommendations for my wife and me to consider as we made the final decision.

This decision-making process worked so well, I wish I had started this process sooner when our boys were younger.

Summer is the time for family trips and outings, but figuring out a plan that suits everyone can be tricky. Giving children a voice and having them take part in a family decision-making process can teach them very valuable leadership skills that they someday will also take into the workplace as adults.

“Prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child.”

–Betsy Brown Braun

As we engaged in this decision-making process, we all learned to…

Advocate for what they wanted

Listen to others’ wishes

Make compromises

Accept being exposed to something new

Recently, I’ve been writing about one of the best ways for you, as the leader, to take the first step toward engaging your employees with a participative leadership style that I call Engage2Lead by employing the 1-2-3 leadership tool.

What is 1-2-3?

1-2-3  is a unique approach to the decision-making process defined as:

At the very beginning of the decision-making process— AND before making a decision – the empowering leader seeks input from his or her employees. Such a leader asks:

1. Who can help me make a better decision?

2. Who will have to carry it out?

3. Who will be impacted by it?

The answers to the three questions above will guide leaders to assemble the right people and involve them, as appropriate to help make important decisions.

Every leader can develop a more effective and efficient TEAM by asking these three simple questions that bring consistently better results (extraordinary results beyond your imagination) while maintaining and enhancing relationships.

Remember:   This is not decision-making by committee.  You, as the leader, must still decide to make the final decision.

Gallup’s Research

When you, as a leader, begin to change how you engage your employees, you will experience results similar to those detailed in Gallup’s 2016 “State of the American Workplace” report.

Gallup conducted studies of employee engagement and analyzed surveys from over one million employees. They found that teams scoring in the top quartile of engagement outperform teams scoring in the bottom quartile by:

20% higher sales

24% lower turnover in high-turnover organizations

59% lower turnover in low-turnover organizations

41% less absenteeism

70% fewer employee safety incidents

As a leader, you can also begin the process to engage your employees by consistently using the Engage2Lead participative leadership style and the 1-2-3 leadership tool, and in time, the process will produce extraordinary results.

Family Engagement

Today, at the very beginning of your decision-making process for your family’s summer vacation – AND before making a decision – seek to engage your children for the best summer vacation your family will ever have. I’ve created a Family Vacation Discussion Guide with tips and suggested questions to help guide your family discussion.

You can download your free Family Vacation Discussion Guide <here>. I’m confident that if you engage your family in the decision-making process, you’ll plan your best summer vacation ever!

Have you every engaged your children in the family vacation decision-making process? What were the results? Do you engage your employees in your business decision-making process? Please share your thoughts <here> and share this blog post with your family, friends, and co-workers!