June Report

WHEN ATTITUDE ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH

TODAY, I WANT TO SHARE WITH YOU a few lessons I have learnt on success.  It is a subject that has been bantered around a lot, so I don’t want to bore you with the familiar – I want to delve in a little deeper and perhaps throw a different spin on the subject.

Success is something that I study a great deal, not just for myself and our own organisation, but also because we consult with business owners on a regular basis, so I get to observe the sabotaging factors that are the most common and I would have to say that the number one factor that without doubt all business-owners have to grapple with is the stress of overwhelm. 

Part of the reason for this is that in our industry, which is predominantly small businesses, owners often have to wear a lot of hats – practitioner, staff manager and trainer, consultant and trouble-shooter, project manager, educator, not to mention student, as they also commit to their own on-going learning. While delegation is a wonderful thing, when the budget is low, it may not be an easy option.

“The biggest mistake a small business can make is to think like a small business – THINK BIG” – Postfilm Design

We would all agree that changing the way we view a situation will often give us the leverage to rise above a situation and overcome the challenge, however, I have come to realise that there is an all-important step we need to tack before we work on our attitude.

While I am a strong believer in the power of positive thinking in stress management, in my experience, the number one thing we need to consider first is to evaluate what has just happened and what has caused it. Stop blaming and take a closer look at what is causing the problem.

Taking a step back to review a stressful situation will help us to identify what has contributed to the problem.  This is so important because it will possibly help uncover key considerations that when understood and the necessary changes made, we can actually PREVENT this happening again.  Until we do that no amount of positive thinking can have a long-lasting effect.

To give you an example.  Today, someone called complaining about a staff member’s disrespect of what was expected of them.  In reviewing the situation, the business owner contacted us to get a copy of the HR Template.  This will now allow her to improve the communication with the staff member and establish a more formal structure defining expectation. Putting this agreement in place they now will be able to objectively conduct a performance reviewed on the staff’s conduct benchmarked on standards they both have agreed upon. 

Another area that we all often experience stress has to do with time management – miscalculating how much time a task needs in order to be done well. Re-evaluating this and making the necessary time allowances can alleviate this problem.

Understanding the root cause of a repetitive problem can help you make the necessary decisions and changes to prevent a repeat of the same scenario. Once we identify the root cause to a problem and establish a contingency plan, we then can move onto resilience and maintaining a positive outlook to challenges we face and achieve a much higher possibility of effective stress management.