How Will Going Fishing Make Me Better at Work? You'd Be Surprised.

Employers and even individuals can sometimes view a sabbatical as having benefits that are pretty one sided…and slim. The sabbatical taker returns refreshed and rejuvenated. Whoopee! Why not just buy Starwood’s SweetSleeper Bed, pull that downy comforter over your head and get some sleep?

When individuals choose to do something on their sabbatical time with a direct link to work- invest in leadership retreats and boot camps, shadow an executive in another company to learn about their culture or race off to some innovation institute – their efforts to bring something back to the company appear more tangible. “I get that,” laments one CEO. “But how is doing something personal going to benefit the company?”

While responses laden with “feeding one’s spirit,” “bringing the whole person to work” or “opportunities to live out a dream” seem squishy, the latest research cuts to the chase for those wanting hard data. Turns out if you invest in your selfish desires – whether trekking the Himalayas, renovating your house or holding babies in an orphanage in China – your company will get you back with an average increase of 20% satisfaction in your work and 9% gain in performance improvement. Not bad huh?

Paradoxically, as people spend time on other aspects of their lives, they’re working smarter – and they’re more focused, passionate and committed to what they’re doing. I doubt that even a 3-week course at Harvard Business School will guarantee that.

April’s edition of Harvard Business Review, will give you all the details of a study of business professionals by Stewart D. Friedman in his article, Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life. Friedman teaches a program called Total Leadership at Wharton School for companies and workshops around the world. “Total” because it’s about the whole person (whoops there it is again) and “Leadership” because it’s about creating sustainable change to benefit not just you, but the most important people around you. That can be a large number if you count direct reports, peers, clients, board members, upper management, family and friends.

Friedman maintains that traditional thinking pits work and the rest of our lives against each other. But, he has results that indicate that by taking steps to integrate work, home, community and self will actually make us more productive and more fulfilled……AT WORK.

When 300 people make specific plans to doing something new for a short period of time to see how it affects all for domains, they consistently report gains in effectiveness and a greater sense of harmony in other domains. Satisfaction in their work lives increased by an average of 20%, 28% in their home lives and 31% in their community lifes. Perhaps most significant, their satisfaction in the domain of self – their physical and emotional health and their intellectual and spiritual growth – increased by 39%.

And performance improved 9% as we said above at work, 15% at home, 12% in the community and 25% personally. Friedman asks people to just engage in small experiments in living differently.

In interviews with senior officials in companies with longstanding sabbatical programs, we often have to embrace patience while they effuse over the benefits. They LOVE the sabbatical experience for what it brings back to their company – happier, more satisfied and loyal employees who just happen to work even harder and better upon return. Most of those companies don’t put the squeeze on what you can or should do.

It may not sound like the stuff of business school education. But Mr. Friedman and other like-minded leadership educators have tapped into a desire by leaders and established entrepreneurs for more integration of their careers and personal lives. Your sabbatical experience doesn’t have to have a solid line back to something on your developmental plan unless you want it to.

“So, will fishin’ make you better at work?” Apparently so! But do you agree?