Take Care of Your Team (Which Includes Yourself)
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Taking care of your team includes self care
As entrepreneurs, more often than not we run on adrenaline; sometimes we run on ego; and always we pursue the vision of what we’re trying to create. That is a powerful fuel but unfortunately doesn’t provide the kind of nourishment and care that we need to support our bodies, relationships, and mental health. So why do we need this self care?
Human capital
Sometimes in pursuit of building our castle in the sky, we can neglect our human capital – our team, our families, and ourselves – the way we really should. This can look like working late into the night for too many nights in a row, paying ourselves less than fair market value longer than the business can afford, cutting corners with personal hygiene, blowing off social or family commitments, letting staff issues pile up in favor of focusing on sales, finance or product manufacturing, etc.
I’m not saying startup life is a worry-free, financially secure environment with zero pressure. That would be laughable, and of course we know that’s not the reality. There’s no reward without risk, and in startup and small business contexts, that risk is constant, the pressure is unrelenting, and stress levels can be high and constant.
People are the most valuable entity
But that’s no excuse for not investing in and taking great care of your team – including yourself. Why? Because out of all the assets you could possibly have in your company the people are the single most valuable entity. People, especially you, can make or break any decision, deal, idea, product, customer base, brand, and any other revenue-generating aspect of your business. You would never be comfortable getting into a bus, plane, train, car or boat with an exhausted driver who is low on sleep, high on stress, and making preventable errors. Yet at times, we operate our companies under these conditions without thinking through the effects, and even justify that we “have” to operate this way, and get defensive when more experienced peers, advisers, or entrepreneurs warn us about the dangers of unmanaged stress, burnout and fatigue.
Take care of yourself
So why do we put ourselves and our families last and at times put other, lesser-impact priorities above the humans who are working in our companies on our behalf? Whatever the case, this is a recipe for burnout. Unmanaged stress over time turns into burnout and, like gangrene setting in, makes recovery much more difficult. Some solutions include cutting toxicity from the team.; remove team members who are no longer functional or productive in the team culture; cut your own role down in size; take measures to deal with preventable but emergent problems like family conflict, relationship problems, health issues, and other neglected areas of your business and life.
How can you put yourself first? The answer is less philosophy, and more action. If you noodle on, “how can I justify putting ourselves first”, you can go deep into a rabbit hole that becomes unproductive and yet another misallocation of time. Instead, focus on a higher impact question – what can I do today to take care of myself, my family, and my team? The answers to that are simpler and generally speaking, can be implemented as quickly as you think about them.
Self care ideas balanced with taking care of your team.
Get a nap. Go to the gym. Take the weekends off and focus on non-work areas of your life: health, spirituality, recreation, family connection, relationships, household organization, personal finance, etc. Check in with your family and see how everyone is doing. Listen, make memories, pitch in, and ask about what everyone else is working on and what you can do to contribute.
During the week, do things to make your role more secure, and your team more clear about their roles, and how the team works together to accomplish shared goals. Get the “monkey off your back” so to speak, by including more of your advisory team and staff in resolving the ups and downs of business operations. Take note of your team, especially your superstars & overachievers – how are they doing? Do they appear to have fatigue, stress, or irritation/frustration in their day to day work activities? Worth a conversation to see how things are going and what you can do as a manager to support them effectively. Talk about burnout and self care openly with your team, and make it part of the organizational culture. Let them know that it’s OK to take a break, rest, reflect, invest in work/life balance, and to work hard and play hard.
Seek out support
Get yourself advisory support/board support/peer support, so you can navigate challenges with less isolation and more wisdom. Most business problems have been experienced by someone else previously, even if you haven’t “been there, done that” yet yourself. Lean on other people’s experiences to inform the paths you know you don’t want to go down, and by doing so, reduce the unknowns & the blind spots, a major cause of strain/stress for many entrepreneurs.
What’s the ROI for self care?
Taking the time to care for yourself, your family, and your team can pay off with significant ROI in the long run. Many businesses fall short and fail, but our health, our self, our family relationships, and our professional reputation will all last longer. By investing in these areas along the way we increase the likelihood that we can weather the storms. Then at the end of the journey we will be in good enough health to bear the outcomes.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Ready to learn more ways to be a better business owner or boss?”][vc_column_text]Gain more valuable insights from other business leaders like Carolynn, and bring your employees along. Join us June 12-13 in Salt Lake City at the Aspire Her conference, an annual gathering of thousands of driven business women just like you.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_btn title=”SNAG YOUR SEAT!” color=”pink” size=”lg” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aspireher.com%2Fconference-info%2F|title:Conference%20Info”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
