In Your Entrepreneurial Stress Getting in the Way of Running a Great Company?

If you are an entrepreneur running a bootstrapped or lean business, there are periods of time you will be stressed. Very stressed. Like, the word “stressed” doesn’t do the actual feeling justice.

You might be unimaginably, incomprehensibly, unsustainably stressed 110% of the time, actually.

You are stressed about cash flow (hello…payroll….). Or about negotiations with that big key prospect who is demanding impossible contract terms. Or about that customer who has a situation that is about to blow up in your face.  Or about security compliance (yes, GDRP is looming). Or about your upcoming financial audit. Or about finding a new office space and the scary investments and commitment the landlord will require. You are stressed about a lot of things. And let’s face it, mostly you are stressed about cash flow, but there’s the other stuff too which chews on you.

That stress is getting in the way of making your company better and meeting your goals.  I know it’s true.

You are consumed with stressful thoughts when you are sitting in meetings with your staff. You are engaged in your your business, but the stress is there consuming a big part of your thoughts and emotions causing you to disconnect. It distracts you. It takes up lots of space. It’s always relentlessly sitting on your shoulder.

Love your people anyway. Look them in the eye, give them your full attention, engage with them and love them.

Stress is just part of running a company. You are stressed. Get over it. For the good of your employees you have to take that stress and compartmentalize it into a tiny nook of your being.

Your people need you to look them in the eye. They want you to care about what they did last weekend. They feed on your positive reinforcement. When you are consumed with stress you don’t do these things.

Love them despite your all-consuming entrepreneurial stress. Connect. Care. Look them in their eyes and listen when they speak. Tell them what you love. Compliment the new report they put together, their organized calendar, the cold call they just made, the contract they just landed. Laugh at their jokes (even when you feel way too stressed to laugh). Compliment anything and everything. Make the rounds and say hello when you come in the morning and to everyone you pass in the halls all day. Look them in the eye and say and goodbye when you leave. Break out of your stress and preoccupation with running the business and love your people.

Your people are your most important company asset.

And, hey while we are on this topic, the same applies to your family too. When you sit down to dinner with the kids, when you read to them at night, when you kiss your partner goodbye in the morning…you have to put that stress aside and be fully present.

There were times I wasn’t able to put my stress aside to be present, and times I was able to. It was always better when I did. Sales were higher, people were happier, the work was more fulfilling, the environment more conducive to making GREAT, BIG things happen. Being an entrepreneur is a choice, and so is compartmentalizing the inevitable companionship of stress.

Podcast: Embed

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