First day back

Just back to work after a week's leave so here are a few of my thoughts for the day ...

- I quite like my job so was reasonably glad to be back this morning - although I would rather have had a lie in after my busy weekend! Ten hours after getting here I'm still here catching up. What is it about my job that gets me out of bed in the morning and makes me be able to justify giving up so much of my precious time to it?

- I'm sure it's good to have a break from work, even if it doesn't involve going away on a holiday - last week gave me time to catch up with myself, to stop spinning quite so many plates at the same time, to recharge my work batteries and make sure my priorities are right .. what's the optimuim gap between these times away from work in terms of performing best at work? what affects how long we can carry on at full steam without a break?

- I feel like was missed a bit by my colleagues and probably a bit (less) by my team. It is nice to feel that I'm at least a little bit missed ... we are all replaceable but it's important to feel a part of things. Do my team and colleagues feel enough a part of things that they are missed? should I be investing more time in individuals to make sure of this?

- Members of my team often tell me that when I'm away that things are quite the same - action points aren't always done for meetings and people sometimes don't do things as they know they maybe can "get away with it". I left a "to do" list to my top team before I went, why is it that people will choose to behave differently? what is it about my leadership style that means I haven't motivated and empowered them to just get on with things?

Anyway .. better get back to catching up with my emails!