Overcoming Stress and Chaos
Advice for Staying Calm, Cool and Collected During Busy Season
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
Maintain your personal fitness regimen during the busy season.
Eat well (don’t succumb to fast food).
Spend time in nature on a regular basis – gardening, pruning, walking in the forest, fishing, boating, etc.
Turn phone off when with your family.
Practice some form of daily meditation, breathing, enumerating your gratitude.
Get out of the office to change focus.
Sleep well, getting a full nights rest. More important than ever during the busy season.
Staying spiritual, e.g. reading the bible, or what ever this means for you.
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
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.”
Have a business plan and anticipate bottle necks before they happen, be proactive.
Spend quiet/alone time in the morning and evening for daily and weekly planning.
Interact with your crews, either at your yard or on your job sites, to keep you engaged and keep them pumped.
Delegate. Proactively before the season and reactively as things fall on your plate.
Receive clear metrics of success: sales, operations and morale.
Be a positive force with yourself and with your people.
Remind people of their past successes, current importance, and timeline when the storm will pass.
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