Holidays Don't Need to be Anxious

From this week's Inbox:

This is embarrassing.  I own and run a successful corporate wellness consulting business. You’d think I’d know how to relax, but I’m told I have “issues” with this.  

Holidays are approaching. We’re shutting down for 2 weeks, and I’m starting to get a teensy bit anxious.

Last Christmas, I checked my phone impulsively for my entire 2 week “holiday”, wondering whether a client needed me to rescue something. My partner threw my phone in the bin, then smiled at me! 

Help?  

- Anxious in Oz

Ahhh, owners who cannot relax. Where have I heard that one before? I have a theory – but it’s about sunscreen and vaccinations, so not really relevant here.

You have two problems: one pathological, one personal.

First, the pathological. You have a need to be needed. This is not a bad thing, as being needed is one of the things that keeps us happy.  But your need to be needed seems to be a little, well, needy. 

This year, why don’t you try this: pick someone in your team to be the first line of support during the holidays. Give your clients their number. Reward them in some way, and don’t make the same person do it two years in a row. 

But, I hear your worry. You’ll be checking your phone, waiting for their call, right? After all, they don’t know what you know, and they can’t rescue clients like you can rescue clients, right? 

If you can’t make yourself uncontactable, here’s the secret sauce: tell them they can only call you a) if there’s an incredible emergency that can’t wait, b) only at a specific time/day of week you set, and c) only if the client threatens to sue. 

Next, the personal: don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re being silly. Just relax and cooperate with the universe.

You’re trying NOT to think about your business on a holiday, which is like trying to forget you once had an arm, the one the shark just took while you were body surfing on your summer... Wait, bad metaphor.

This year, try this: if you HAVE to think about your business, replace your client anxiety with ‘NYRTNWBWTT’ thinking. If you haven’t come across that one, it’s “New Year’s Resolutions That Never Work, But Will This Time.”

Occupy your time thinking about what you want to change in the business in the coming year: it’s OK to keep a list, but it must be on a cocktail napkin or on the back of a drink coaster. 

Don’t sweat the operational stuff - stick with the big-ticket items:

• How will you explore new markets, 

• How will you translate what makes your business special into new products and new services, 

• Who do you need to attract into the business to take it to the next level, and

• How will you become more of that swaggering networker, who can mix with any crowd, always ready with the witty bon mot, who is always poised to “do deals.”

Replacing client anxiety with this kind of thinking is quite calming – it’s motivational and energising. When you get back on the ground, be sure to get the coaster notes converted into the New Year’s strategic plan.

Breathe, breathe deep, Anxious in Oz.  And maybe stay out of the water.

Best wishes,

The Intrepid Exec