A business owner or executive can experience many factors that can cause stress over the holidays – family commitments, holiday shopping, the demands of your business, and especially finances. Any of these can make the holiday season stressful. All of them together can be downright unbearable! So how do you navigate the holiday season and stay sane? In addition to my business consulting services, I frequently check with each of my clients to ensure they maintain some survival basics. I’ll share some key points here for managing stress:
1. Are you getting enough sleep?
Business owners are notorious for burning “the midnight oil.” I know there are deadlines to meet, financial concerns, and decisions to make. But tired people make mistakes that can be costly. You can deal with these stresses much better after a good night’s sleep. It takes some discipline at the end of the day to straighten up the papers on your desk, “log off,” and go and get a good night’s rest. Things will look brighter and more confrontable in the morning!
2. Are you exercising?
Why do I ask my clients if they are exercising? For one thing, exercising daily or at least having and following a schedule of exercise for the week helps to keep you disciplined. If you just randomly let your day unfold, your business is controlling you – you are not controlling your business.
Secondly, as a business owner, you and your team count on you to stay healthy and fit. No exercise, downing several cups of coffee a day, and eating fast food is a recipe for disaster for you and your business.
3. Are you delegating?
I often find business owners and executives carrying the weight of the business on their shoulders, leaving some employees standing around fiddling their thumbs. Such executives are sometimes afraid to delegate because they are worried an employee might make a mistake. The solution is to train the employee for his job and delegate. If he makes a mistake, find out what he didn’t get and teach him that. This way, you will build a team of competent employees and not have to carry the world on your shoulders. And if you turn over a hat to someone else, give them all the data they will need to operate so that hat doesn’t fly back to you.
4. Are you holding on to employees who are dragging the company down?
In our blog, Managing Employees to Expand Your Business, I talk about the five different types of employees:
The Performer
The Effective Doer
The Less Effective Doer
The Unpredictable Producer
The Person Who Suppresses the Organization
If you missed this blog, I recommend reading it because to manage a company; one must understand these different types of employees and how to deal with them.
5. Did you take a walk?
When I talk about taking a walk, I am not referring to exercise as in tip #1. When an executive or employee becomes tired and introverted from several hours of work, it is tempting to plop down in front of the television or a computer game. However, this does not create extroversion; it creates introversion. In the book, The Problems of Work, Mr. Hubbard lays out why you should take a walk when you feel exhausted and how to take a walk, so you end the day feeling refreshed, not exhausted.
Final Words
The above tips apply to any time of year, but especially during the holidays. Our team at International Executive Technology is dedicated to helping you manage and expand your business any time of year. If you are struggling to keep from going under, barely making ends meet, or are successful but want to grow, please complete our business analysis questionnaire. Your business analysis results are free, and there are no obligations.
Happy Holidays!
Rohn Walker &
I.E.T. Team