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De-Stressing a Stressful Time of Year
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Last Friday I was sitting at my laptop, one eye on my screen and the other on the Today show. The resident physician was talking about stress in the workplace and during the holidays. One thing she said struck me. She recounted her conversations with corporate executives who said, “As a company, we need stress to be successful. That’s what keeps us (as a team) moving towards our goals and objectives.”
I think I understand that.
We certainly don’t need a company full of loafers. A culture of complacency; a feeling that things are good enough. That only leads one place – second place.
Stress (and its effects) on the body can be very dangerous. It affects your lungs, heart and brain and leads to high blood pressure, riskier behaviors and unhealthy eating habits. Stress can shorten your life and make you much less effective - if you let it grab a hold of you.
But I also know that stress doesn’t ascend on us like the fog. It’s our interpretation. It’s the stories that we tell ourselves. For example, a bad sales call can mean many things. One, you were just plain awful. Two, the customer had something on his mind. Three, it just wasn’t the right day. Finally, it may suggest that you didn’t properly convey the value proposition on this particular day. Whatever the case, if you go with reason one, “I suck”; then you can sit back and watch your stress level shoot straight to the moon. I suspect the rest of the day won’t go very well.
With all this in mind and the holiday season just around the corner, here are 10 suggestions for de-stressing a stressful time of year. Please note, however, that I am no model of peace and tranquility. I struggle just like the next guy. (Wait while I grab another Diet Coke). Further, I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV.
It’s just that I have survived a great many holidays. Times when I felt that the sky was falling. Maybe you feel the same way but guess what – the sky hasn’t fallen yet!
1. Be prepared:
Stress often comes from not being prepared or not having a mechanism for handling the extra influx of work. Plan your days out in advance. Examine your systems for handling the flow of information, for responding to customer requests in a timely fashion. Back in my retail days, one of our biggest sources of stress during the holidays was in the area of delivery. Our system, for keeping track of where our trucks were, was atrocious. When a customer called to check on her order, as the holiday guests were arriving, we literally didn’t know what to say. It was quite stressful to say the least. Over the years we improved the systems, and the stress level decreased. If you’re having trouble keeping up in one area of your sales function, in October and November, there’s a pretty good chance December will bring much more of the same.
If you haven’t done so yet, now is the time to examine last year’s sales to see which accounts did the heavy lifting. Unfortunately, after a tough year, some accounts may be no longer. Examine where you got your cases from last year and where the cases will come from this year. What are the company’s priorities this year? How are your customer relationships? Any customer relationships that need a little fence mending? Are all your POS materials organized and accessible?
Complete these tasks now and you’ll have less to worry about later.
2. Get your rest:
Being tired is no way to go through the holiday and it’s really difficult to get up an hour earlier, especially if you’re going to bed at 2 a.m. (Do people really stay up that late?) Watch your diet. Start the day earlier and as you lay your head down to sleep, think of the positive events that occurred that day, not the negative ones. Your mind can only process one thought at a time. Might as well the last one (of the day) be a good thought!
3. Prioritize:
Rank your tasks. Make sure to concentrate on those tasks that affect the revenue line. That is – those responsibilities (usually involving a customer) that have the greatest effect on profit and loss. Handle difficult customer situations early in the day while you’re still fresh. Take lots of notes to stay organized, but also to give your customers the feeling that you are taking their comments seriously. The more you write, the more they will say.
4. Have something to look forward to:
If possible, plan your Q1 vacation before the holidays so you have something to look forward to. If not a vacation, then dinner with a loved one or an event that means a lot to you. Allow yourself some indulgence. For me it used to be Indiana University basketball (before they got really bad). Come heck or high water, I always caught a game on TV during the holidays.
5. Laugh:
No! Not at your customers or their employees. Look, the quickest way to failure is to be 100% business all the time. You know the expression – “All business and no play makes Johnny a dull boy!” I think that’s the expression anyway. Use the time in-between stops not only to reflect on the last sales call but also to listen to Steve Martin or Dave Chapelle or whomever generation X, Y or Z listens to. Maybe smooth Jazz is your thing; but, whatever the case, have a diversion to get you through the day. As a teenager, I bused tables at a country club. I remember singing The Who’s Behind Blue Eyes over and over as I cleared tables and trucked heavy trays to the dishwasher. Hey, it got me through some hard days.
6. Count the eyeballs:
There is no greater time of year than the holidays for consumers seeing your products. As you maintain displays, correct signage and create new opportunities, keep in mind that if consumers see your products in a positive light this time of year, they may be inclined to support you all year round. Always keep your eyes on the prize: continued success for your customers. Higher average tickets, bar rings and customer counts.
7. Live in the moment:
I used to hate the holidays because I was working so hard. Always tired, always dirty, always missing what I thought I was missing. When I learned to live in the moment and enjoy a festive time of year, my outlook changed. I became more excepting of the toll extracted on my mind and body.
8. Change the story:
Be careful with the stories you tell yourself. Most of what we worry about comes from the stories we invent in our heads. Works like this. We see or hear something and before we react (start worrying), we tell ourselves a story. Keep the story positive and there will be less worrying. Here’s an example: if one child coughs in my son Ben’s classroom, my wonderful wife automatically starts worrying that Ben will get sick. It’s the middle step that leads to the worry. An assumption on her part that because one gets sick, the other will as well. Change the story and you’ll have less to worry about.
A great motivator for me is substituting thought of worry with thoughts of my family. Do the same. According to many studies, 90% of what we worry about never happens anyway. Recently, a salesperson suggested a different way to think about this. He shared that when he gets down (or stressed or busy) he thinks about the millions and millions of people living in 3rd world countries that would kill to do what he does. Most would consider it a privilege. Hey, somebody has to point out the cold, hard reality. We’re lucky!
9. Remain calm as situations arise
Take a deep breath. Don’t over-think things. We’re not re-inventing the wheel. If you have to vent, find a manager and vent. Never vent to your customer. I remember salespeople (typically during the holidays) singing the following tune. “My company sucks! My boss sucks! My brands suck! My pay sucks! My bonus sucked!” Once in a while, that’s exactly how a salesperson would start a conversation with me!
That type of company bad mouthing is very detrimental and accomplishes a few unintended goals. First, the customer loses respect for the company. That is just what happens whether it is right or wrong. Second, the customer loses respect for the sales person. Third, the customer is made to feel uncomfortable. Finally, the customer can only feel, even though the sales person may just be venting, that his or her position is uncertain at the company. The truth is your business will suffer with this type of behavior because nobody likes uncertainty.
The Moral: vent to your wife, husband, mother, father, children, friends, softball buddies or the family dog but never complain and reveal private facts about your company to your customers. Some thoughts are better left unsaid. When you feel bad emotionally (depressed, angry, bored – just plain negative) and you hit your customer with this, they’re not going to want to do business with you. If you happen to be the recipient of the venting – listen and nod your head. Often, one just wants to be heard and doesn’t always need an answer.
10. See the finish line:
The holidays are what I call the middle miles – the part of the race where the excitement of the start has faded but you can’t yet imagine the taste of the finish line. The holidays usually begin with great fanfare, but in the middle, it gets harder to continue each day. To see the finish line means we give our efforts purpose by continually creating an environment where our customers do business with us, not because they have to but because they want to. That we realize that we’re doing what we’re doing because our company leaders believe in us. We take it day by day and one day at a time. Cliché, I know, but so true. By the way, clichés are so often repeated because they’re right!
Good luck this holiday!
