Industry Insights
Overcoming Stress and Chaos
Following is a blog post by Jeffrey Scott a consultant who helps landscape business owners to fix, scale, or exit their businesses.
How do you stay calm, cool and collected during the busy season?
Do you have a system that works well for you?
I asked my best and highest performing clients this question, and the answers were eye opening in their consistency.
There is a common thread in what the best entrepreneurs do in both their personal lives and their approach to the business.
Here is a checklist to see how many of these best practices you follow to stay calm and collected, with some anecdotes below that elaborate the most important elements.
PERSONAL: Best Practices to Stay Calm and Collected
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Maintain your personal fitness regimen during the busy season.
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Eat well (don’t succumb to fast food).
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Spend time in nature on a regular basis – gardening, pruning, walking in the forest, fishing, boating, etc.
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Turn phone off when with your family.
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Practice some form of daily meditation, breathing, enumerating your gratitude.
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Get out of the office to change focus.
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Sleep well, getting a full nights rest. More important than ever during the busy season.
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Staying spiritual, e.g. reading the bible, or what ever this means for you.
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Maintaining self awareness, focus on the big picture e.g. family, knowing “this too shall pass.”
How many of these do you adhere to?
BUSINESS: Best Practices to Keep Organized, Proactive and Productive
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Communicate (and over communicate) to remove the doubt from people’s minds (employees and clients), and keep everyone in the loop. Communicate even when the update is “there is no update.”
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Have a business plan and anticipate bottle necks before they happen, be proactive.
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Spend quiet/alone time in the morning and evening for daily and weekly planning.
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Interact with your crews, either at your yard or on your job sites, to keep you engaged and keep them pumped.
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Delegate. Proactively before the season and reactively as things fall on your plate.
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Receive clear metrics of success: sales, operations and morale.
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Be a positive force with yourself and with your people.
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Remind people of their past successes, current importance, and timeline when the storm will pass.
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Have a Plan B, incase things don’t work out per plan, again, be proactive.
How many of these do you adhere to?
Read the rest of Jeffrey's post which includes best-practice anecdotes from his top clients on how to proactively overcome the stress and chaos of the busy season here
April 13, 2021