http://fistfuloftalent.com/2017/03/true-sign-great-leadership-protect-pto.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FistfulOfTalent+%28Fistful+of+Talent%29

To me there is one way to know if a leader is worth their salt.  It is something I don’t recall seeing in leadership books, white papers, or in training sessions.  To me the simplest way to see if a leader is doing their job is to ask team members one question:

“Did you use all your PTO last year?”

When a team member tells me they did not, my antennae go up.  My follow up, of course, is “well, why not?”.  Answers I get:

• I didn’t have time to take it
• I didn’t want to leave my team short-handed during that data conversion
• I forgot I even had PTO
• I have so much PTO I could never use it all
• I’d rather use our great benefit that allows me to “cash in” my PTO

Here is the deal.  If you are a leader and you are OK with any of these reasons, you are not doing your job. I’ll take it a step further and say you should not be a leader.  Quit.  Be an incredible individual contributor.  But you need to let go of your dreams of being a leader.  Let that go. It’s over.

I’m emphatic about this.