Being a Cool and Calm Business Leader (When Your Business is Anything but)

Whether you’re running a small business or even a business of any size, there could be so many different pressures that it gets to our sense of self. One of the biggest reasons is very simple: because it’s an almighty task that can threaten to overwhelm our sense of self.

Because there are so many facets that we need to look at, there can be an overarching sense of responsibility, particularly if we are new to the act of running a business. There are so many people now who are having to go from 0 to 100 when it comes to having the necessary capabilities to run a business. It requires being a leader, a mediator, a mentor, a coach, and of course, there’s a small matter of looking after the admin and all of the little tasks, so let’s show you what it takes to lead a business in a cool, calm, and collected manner when there are so many different facets to keep control of.

It’s not easy but let’s protect your mind, body, and well-being in the process:

Time Is Everything (so Make It Count)

If there’s one thing that we need to remember, it’s that because there are so many different facets of running a business that overwhelm us, it’s because we don’t feel a sense of control over it.

Learning the art of managing work schedule capabilities and keeping track of everything is undoubtedly one of the biggest sources of stress, particularly with entrepreneurs who are just getting to grips with running a business. So what can we do to ensure that we feel a greater sense of control? The best place to begin is to recognize what you can actually do within your allocated time period. So many people continue to make the mistake of prioritizing their workload in terms of importance and running down the list accordingly.

While there are so many important jobs to do, one of the most effective tools that can help us here is the Eisenhower decision matrix. Learning what is based on the four particular quadrants below will invariably make a huge difference:

• Important and urgent.
• Important and not urgent.
• Not urgent but important.
• Not important and not urgent.

Understanding Your Boundaries

There are so many different types of boundaries that we need to recognize in order to do our jobs effectively that sometimes we have very little understanding of what is professional and personal, particularly people who are in charge of a business.

Professional boundaries are important because they help you to define what the job is and what it isn’t. Personal boundaries ensure that you don’t overstep the line with regards to what occurs during work and what is your leisure time, but there’s also mental boundaries, which are particular to the person. If we have a solid understanding of what we are able to do, then we can do better work.

Being in charge of a business is tough because if someone comes to you with a particular problem that needs addressing, then you may feel you need to overstep a certain boundary. Generally, as a rule, you have to develop that emotional intelligence so that you don’t give too much of yourself away but also determine if the situation warrants you stepping beyond your personal circumference. The only time where it is truly acceptable is if there’s a safeguarding issue, for example, if someone is at risk.

There are so many things that we do that can set the template, rightly or wrongly. It’s very easy in a business setting to set the benchmark and expect others to follow suit, particularly if you do things that overstep your boundaries. We’re talking about things like sending emails in the middle of the night. Every employee should have a policy where they feel they can switch off at 5 pm if they’ve done their allocated hours, and this is doubly so for you. So many people feel they need to set an example and show themselves as diligent and hardworking, but if this is to the detriment of their well-being, then you need to take a look at what your personal and professional limits are.

There are things that you can put into place here, for example, stating your working hours on an email signature. This is an incredibly simple thing but it shows everybody, not just employees, where your boundaries lie.

Developing Your Emotional Intelligence

The biggest problem so many business owners have is a lack of understanding of what they can and cannot do. There are so many things beyond our control, which is why the Eisenhower decision matrix is incredibly useful for prioritizing things, but if you don’t have emotional intelligence or recognize what you can do as a business leader, then you will invariably feel overwhelmed.

We feel that at the very outset of our journey as an entrepreneur we need to be all things to all people, like being a coach, mentor, confidant, and so forth, but we don’t need to hold people’s hands through every single aspect of their role. Therefore, understanding what is truly within your control makes a big difference. When we start to address how we can regain some form of control in our business, we’ve got to remember that employees should have more autonomy than we necessarily think, particularly at the very beginning.

For example, if you are hiring a new employee and this takes your total amount of employees, including yourself, to two, you’ve been so used to doing things your own way up to this point that you may struggle to share the duties. Therefore, we’ve got to remember that a business is completely separate from us, and developing our emotional intelligence can give us a greater sense of perspective, which ensures that we then can be far more at peace with our own abilities.

The toughest thing in relation to being in charge of a company is that we want to keep profiting and improving, but if we set lofty ambitions at the very outset, we’re not going to be able to feel like we’re in control and everything will overwhelm us. Time management is one important thing here, but you also need to learn the keys to developing your emotional abilities. This will involve things like:

• Understanding your professional and personal boundaries.
• Looking after your physical health.
• Taking charge of your well-being.
• Learning that autonomy is an important stepping stone for employees.

That last point is of particular importance because if we don’t give employees autonomy, then we will breed a culture that is tailored towards us as the leader rather than anything else. Employees demand an environment where they are allowed to be creative and to develop themselves.

When an employee does not have the feeling that they can pursue aspects of a certain role, then the problem will come from you. Autonomy is an amazing tool to help them as well as you. When you feel like there’s too much on your plate, you start to delegate. Therefore, as employees develop their skills within the role and become more cognizant of what the bigger picture entails, you’re not shooting yourself in the professional foot. It also means that if an emergency arises, there will be no problems in keeping the business ticking over. Illness, accidents, emergencies, grief, they are all things that can derail a business. Lots of people feel they can’t stop running their business just because something has happened to them, and this is not necessarily the right approach. It’s easy to see why people feel like this because they don’t have a greater sense of what is important within the business and actually don’t ask for help. We need to learn to delegate to people, especially those smaller tasks that don’t help us in the long run.

Going back to the Eisenhower decision matrix, if something is important and not urgent, you delegate it to someone. You should feel like you’re in control of your business and therefore when it comes to achieving those ambitions, goals are of course important, and those frameworks such as the SMART goal approach make a huge difference.

Use Your Tools

The final point is all about recognizing what aids you in your journey. We spend so long trying to keep a business afloat that we don’t see the wood for the trees. We become overwhelmed with tasks because we’ve not got a system in place. Lots of people feel they need to firefight, which means answering emails, answering customer queries, and doing what has been put in place up to this point. However, if we took a bit more time at the very outset to look at how we can develop our processes better with the right tools, this means we would be a far more well-oiled machine going forward.

Ask employees what they need to help them work smarter rather than harder. It’s high time that we got rid of this age-old attitude that working hard will reap rewards because, in such a competitive world, we’ve got to get those really useful shortcuts. The right tools can mean a world of difference.

For example, if you are constantly going from client to client, meaning you are in the car or on the train, but you’ve got a lot of emails to catch up with, you need to start using dictation. Voice dictation is incredibly useful, as are the AI smart tools that are becoming more and more refined every single day. Sometimes, when we take a step back and look at our processes and think of a quicker route through the forest, this will make all the difference.

It’s hard to be a leader when everything else feels anything but. However, with the right approaches, it can do a whole lot for you, your business, your employees, as well as your sense of self.