July and August are “holiday” (vacation) months in Europe. Working with European companies interested in expanding to the USA for over six years, we learned Europeans take “holiday” seriously. Shale Crescent USA is helping the CEO of a large European company with U.S. expansion plans. He told me he would be on holiday for the next month to “swim with the sharks.” I asked what he meant and received a photo of one of the tiger sharks he swam with. His hobby is literally swimming in the ocean with tiger sharks, hammer head and other sharks. The sharks ignore him and his partner. The pictures he sent were fabulous. Ocean beauty seen by few. When swimming with over 300 tiger sharks, work and business are far from his mind. His holiday will be interrupted for a brief visit to one of his facilities down for maintenance and a call with me. Other Europeans we know have different holiday plans. The goal is the same, rest, relaxation, recharge and reconnection.

I have U.S. friends who don’t use all their paid time off because they are too busy. Vacations aren’t just for rest and relaxation. In a busy work world, they are opportunities to leave worries and stress behind and spend quality time with family and friends. Vacations are critical for our physical and mental well-being. They can enhance our productivity and creativity. Vacations can prevent burnout and improve relationships with our loved ones. Returning from vacation, I find myself with increased energy and creativity. As a manager, my vacations gave my managers the opportunity to improve their management skills and increase their self-confidence. A leader must develop people. How my managers performed in my absence gave me an assessment of my leadership ability to develop people.

It’s over halfway through summer. Have you taken or planned your vacation? School starts in our county on Aug. 15. Kids grow up fast. My daughter, Dannielle gave me a reminder plaque, “Take vacations. Go as many places as you can. You can always make more money. You can’t always make memories.” We have many family vacation memories. Our children and grandchildren talked about them at our recent 50th anniversary celebration.

When I worked corporate I got paid vacations. We always took vacations. When we were young and didn’t have a lot of money we visited my mother and brothers in Pittsburgh and went to the zoo. As a business owner, paid vacations are a thing of the past. Lynnda and I understand how important vacations are. We take more vacations now than when I worked corporate. We still want to make family memories. Next year’s vacations are being planned to Florida in January and to Scotland with Dannielle and her husband. Our Disney annual passes have been renewed.

A few weeks ago, my friend Rich, an executive for a logistics company, called. Rich and I have known each other for over four decades. We worked both with and for each other due to corporate mergers and changes. We respect each other. Looking back, when we worked together no matter what our positions were, success followed. We have similar values. At one company we were both account managers working for the regional sales vice president. The poor guy lacked people skills and created stress where it wasn’t needed. He didn’t like that I used all five of my vacation weeks and bought a sixth week, “because I needed more time off.” Rich and I were #1 and #2 in the region for revenue generation. Rich had enough, found a better job and left. The VP then gave me Rich’s accounts. I chose to “retire” after the first of the year. A friend called and offered me a job as eastern U.S. sales manager for a drilling company for more money, better benefits like time off and a lot less stress.

Rich’s organization was having communication issues and trouble getting some of their people to work together. He asked for our help. Lynnda and I hadn’t done our Learned Leadership, Effective Communication and Team Building workshop for several years. Our audience was going to be millennials (people in their 30s and 40s) with a few older folks. This group wasn’t going to accept two days of presentations. Our long weekend with the kids helped our creativity. Our program had to be changed so almost everything we presented would be interactive or discussion-based.

One exercise on presentation skills required them to tell the group what they did on July 4 weekend in three minutes. They did great. Even though some were nervous they didn’t show it. The millennials focus was on family and friends. They are comfortable with face to face or electronic communication. Time off is important to the millennials whether for vacation or to be involved with children’s activities. Most want more paid time off. This can have an impact on work communication. The older attendees (Gen X and Boomers) were more work-oriented and had strong people skills. They were very comfortable with one on one and group communication.

The workshop was well received. We had great participation. Working as a team, they generated solutions to solve some of the communication issues and are off to a great start. Rich’s people know he cares about them and wants to make them and the organization better.

Companies planning to expand to the Shale Crescent USA region come because of our large and growing market in the middle of half the U.S. population. They come because of our abundant economical energy, primarily natural gas. The next question we get is about work-force. Many organizations are working on work force development. Getting qualified workers is one thing. Keeping them another. Vacation and time off is important to millennials and other younger generations, an issue companies must consider. These young people have figured out, no one on their death bed wishes to have spent more time at work rather than taking vacation.

Greg Kozera, gkozera@shalecrescentusa.com, is the director of marketing for Shale Crescent USA. He is a professional engineer with a master’s in environmental engineering and more than 40 years of experience in the energy industry. Greg is a leadership expert, high school soccer coach, professional speaker and author of four books and many published articles.