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Burnt out? Get out!
There are so many exceptional businesses.
Unfortunately they’re coming and going too frequently. One of the major
reasons for their demise is lack of help.
I was recently visiting a local business
that I frequent. The owner whom I’ve always had a good rapport with said
to me… “I read Business Nuggets every week”. That’s it! He didn’t say anything
else. Then he came over and said… “It really pertains to big businesses”,
not small businesses like mine. I could see the pain on his face, I heard
a sense of urgency in his voice, he was extremely frustrated and perhaps
burnt out. He mentioned several areas in his business that are problems.
His two most important concerns seemed to be finding good help and keeping
them. He seemed to be saying that he just didn’t see any way out of the
situation. But, there is. I’m not saying that if you decide today to do
things differently, everything will turn around tomorrow. If you’re over
extended its time to look at the sacrifices you’re making in your life,
whether personal or business. Are they worth it? Try hiring differently,
change your hours, take on a partner, and rethink the whole situation.
Only you know how making changes will effect you and only you can decide
if the initial change and pain are worth the ultimate goal. If you
find yourself constantly saying… “BUT” all the time or every time suggestions
are made, before you even consider them saying “NO”, that’s different,
it won’t work. Then perhaps it’s you. Perhaps YOU need an attitude adjustment,
a change or perhaps it’s time to get out. There are so many ways to improve
on ANY situation, but it requires thinking, planning, asking for help and
taking risks, but most importantly the DESIRE. Start as if today was the
first day of your business. You have to start somewhere. Start with
today.
You do have a CHOICE! In fact, you have
a few of them.
1. Stay in your current situation. Negative,
stressed, bringing it home to your family.
2. Decide to change. Work on being positive.
Try to look for opportunities behind every problem. Ask for help! You can’t
do it alone.
3. QUIT! Stop right now! Get out!
As Charles Swindoll says… in his quote
on Attitude…
“I am convinced that life is 10% what happens
to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge
of our attitude”.
Results of the “fix-it committee”
As I spoke about in my last column the
“fit-it” committee is a great way to get ideas and suggestions from your
staff. When I launched a “fix-it” committee, my team came back to me excited
and enthusiastic. Sure, I was concerned that they’d say things like… IT’S
YOU! Or they’d make unreasonable requests like they needed $5K more per
year or they’re out! Here’s a list of what they asked for…
1. Dress down on Fridays
2. Pizza day every Friday
3. Lower Sales Goals
4. Better headsets or higher walls.
We can’t hear the customers when we’re talking because the noise around
us is too loud.
5. Stop yelling…. “Red light”. As
a call center we had a “traffic light” hooked up in the department. When
it was red it meant there was an unacceptable amount of customers on hold.
Being a revenue-producing department if I saw that red light, boy, did
I see RED. “I’d yell… red light” I guess I got on the teams’ nerves.
We weren’t able to implement all their
changes like lower the sales goals, but what we did do is get them more
involved in the process of goal setting so they could understand how goals
are created.
What did I learn by taking the “risk” and
asking my team for help?
It made both my team and myself stronger.
They had more respect for me and what I go through as a leader and visa
versa.
Remember… “No change… No change!”
Ray Pelletier author
of Permission To Win
