10 Signs of Owner Burnout

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As busy leaders and owners of a business time is a precious commodity that is not renewable.  I sometimes hear owners and leaders say phrases like “I have to stay on top of everyone to make sure it gets done”, “it’s crazy busy around here and I can’t seem to come up for air.”

These are phrases that tend to point toward a business owner and leader headed for burn out.  Are you headed that way?  Here are some signs.

  • Feeling exhausted and overwhelmed.  Each time you look at a “to do” list a mountain of dread flows over you.
  • You don’t think clearly.  You find yourself not able to focus on one thing for long before the next “fire” erupts from someone else.
  • You are frustrated and don’t feel things will get better any time soon.
  • Your performance is waning so you make it up by working longer hours after everyone has gone home and it often spills over to the weekend too.
  • You are always “at work” even when you are away from it.  You can’t seem to disconnect from it and your mind is always racing through issues that you want to solve at work.
  • Are people avoiding you?
  • Nothings seems to be going right.  You head towards the negative instead of the positive, and can’t seem to find the good in most situations.
  • You don’t socialize outside of work in part because you don’t disconnect from it.
  • You are experiencing health issues and fail to exercise or eat right, and you know it.
  • You are finding sleep harder to come by.  Studies have shown a lack of sleep over a period reduces your cognitive ability.

If you see any or a number of these symptoms, you could be headed for burnout.  Make sure to avoid it by:

  • Eating healthy
  • Get adequate sleep…7 to 8 hours each night
  • Delegate
  • Implement operating systems that are simple and proven that help with accountability and drive results

Here is to make sure we understand what burnout looks like and making the changes necessary to avoid it.

Mike

Leadership and Sleep

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In this age of instant access via phone, text message, LinkedIn, twitter, and other social media platforms, we find ourselves in a 24/7 inundation of information and time constraints.  It leaves less time for ourselves.  How we sometimes get around it is by sleeping less.  A Harvard Business Review study showed that 43% of business leaders indicated that they don’t get enough sleep.  A lack of sleep has shown decreases on executive function capabilities.  This is the area where we process problem solving, reasoning and organizing.

Sleep deprivation has been proven to impair our ability to focus attentively on issues or problems that we want to solve.  A study showed that a person who only slept 4 to 5 hours a night had the same performance as someone with a blood alcohol level of 0.1% which is the definition of drunk in the U.S.

Some of our brightest and best minds of the past century (Churchill, Da Vinci, Franklin…) maintained how it important it was for them to get adequate sleep.  In fact, some had a routine of taking a nap in the afternoon from anywhere between 20 minutes to 45 minutes.

Getting adequate sleep each night, some say between 7 to 8 hours, can be the difference between effective leadership and your cognitive ability to make the right decisions for your organization.

To your health!

Mike

Leadership Through Journaling

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It was suggested to me that I begin a practice of journaling daily.  At first I thought what for?  What would I write about?  How would it help me?  My colleague kept up the pressure for me to start so I thought, okay I will humor them and do it just to say I tried it.

Well over a year later, I am still doing it.  Why?  Because I have found it to be very helpful to write down ideas, situations, or feelings that later I can work on or at least have on paper and not forget.  It also allowed me to start a practice of gratitude that has helped keep me on the positive side of the coin and driving my business and relationships forward.

I was skeptical at first, but as I progressed I became more of a believer in the power of the written word even when it comes directly from me.  I could look back at some of the writing which included goals or plans that I wanted to happen.  And guess what, a lot of if did happen.

It has helped me stay focused on my vision and goals for both business and family.  My moods are boosted by the simple act of writing why I am grateful.  Give it a try.  You have nothing to lose.  At the end of each day take your journal write down anything that comes to mind and finish it up with three things that you are grateful for.  Then you can count your blessings.

Mike

Planning

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Have you heard the quote “work on the business vs working in the business?”  As leaders in our businesses and communities, some self-reflection is important if we are to gain wisdom from our experiences.  A research study done by Giada Di Stefano, Francesca Gino, Gary Pisano, and Bradley Staats, indicated that employees who spent 15 minutes at the end of each day reflecting about their lessons learned experiences did 23% better than those who didn’t do this self-reflection exercise.

Many leaders at driven individuals who are focused on accomplishment and making results happen.  Taking time out of their day to do self-reflection seems too much given their busy schedule.  Other excuses include they don’t see the return on their time invested or they don’t want to slow down.

I recommend self-reflection because it causes you to pause and think about what was good and what could be improved during your day.  I use a journal to help me document not just my daily gratitude but also what went well and what did not go well.  Here are some questions to ask that could help you in your journey on self-reflection.

  • What are you avoiding?
  • Are you helping someone achieve their objectives?
  • Are you a hindrance or a help with someone you are working with or for?
  • How could you be more effective in meetings?

Asking these or other questions will help you move forward in a more positive path on your leadership journey.

Mike

Employee Engagement

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Do you remember your first day at a new job?  It’s often filled with excitement and new opportunities on helping the company you just joined succeed in its mission.  However, have you also felt this excitement wear off after a while?  Did you feel yourself get more disconnected?

This dissatisfaction with some or maybe all aspects of your job is also something you have seen among other employees.  Keeping engaged and excited employees is a difficult process for any company, and especially for ones with fast growth and lots of employees.  Recent research has found that when we can make a connection of one’s work to the beneficiary of that work, like our customer, employees get more job satisfaction.  For instance, Adam Grant of the Wharton School found that fundraisers who were attempting to secure scholarship donations felt more motivated when they had contact with the scholarship recipients.

Giving feedback to employees on how their work is impacting the company’s customers is a strong motivation tool that lifts productivity.  Its making these types of connections for all employees in all areas of the company can give them a picture of how they contribute to customer satisfaction.  What opportunities do you have in your organization to provide these types of connections?

Make the connections to level up your employee engagement!

Mike

Time: The Ultimate Finite Resource

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I remember reading a book titled “Death by Meeting” by Patrick Lencioni.  The focus was on silos, politics, and turf wars in a business.  I recently ran across an article suggesting that meetings should not last any longer than 30 minutes.  I am sure some who are reading this can relate to being in a meeting that went on and on and on with no clear action and nothing done after the meeting.

Maybe implement compressed time for business meetings will remove this poor habit.  As Parkinson’s law indicates work expands to fill the time available, so if you don’t set a limit to the meeting, it can drone on way too long.

Why 30 minutes?  There is no scientific study, however, for me personally I see a higher level of intensity by participants because they know 30 minutes is the limit.  Its seems people listen more intently when things move faster keeping us engaged.  People tend to come prepared and ready to go.  And if not, they will the next time.

Give it a try.  Implement these three tactics to make the 30-minute meeting more powerful.

  1. Tell everyone to read any materials before the meeting.  Ask an important question: “what outcome do we want?”
  2. Decide on the one thing to focus on in the meeting that will make a difference and stay on it for the 30 minutes.
  3. It’s what happens after the meeting that will tell you if the meeting was good or not.  Act with a summary and clarity on the action steps and accountability.

How are your meetings?

Here’s to having better meetings!

Mike

Lessons Learned From a Restaurant

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Pals is a fast food restaurant located in Kingsport, Tennessee and was the first restaurant company to win the prestigious Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award.  Putting it in the company of companies like Ritz Carlton, and FedEx.  This small 26 location company has a crazy low turnover rate given the fast food industry.  For front line employees, it’s just 1/3 of the industry average and for its assistant managers it’s a meager 1.4%.  How do they do it?

 3 key ingredients

  • Hire for attitude and train for skill.

What Pals found out was if you got the attitude right with an employee, you could train them for the skills you need.  Attitude over skill any day.

  • Lots of opportunity for training and improvement.

Employees spend a lot of time on training and retraining.  They get certifications and opportunities to continue to learn.

  • Get serious about teaching.

The company has assembled a reading list of key books that an employee is expected to read.  And not all the books are on business but rather include some timeless classics such as The Prince by Machiavelli.

What is your secret sauce to hire and retain a great work force?

Mike

Leadership: Time Management for Decisions

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Studies have been conducted on when its best to make important decisions.  In general, it’s best not to make critical decisions late in the day.  Typically, morning is best.  Our mental resources are put to the test during the day, and as the day wears on, we are getting fatigued.  Sustained engagement commonly leads to cognitive fatigue over the course of the day.  It seems reasonable and yet we still can find ourselves making critical decisions late in the day.

Scientists Shai Daziger and Liora Avnaim-Pesso studied 1,112 bench rulings in parole court and plotted the results throughout the course of the day.  They found judges more likely to deny a request and accept status quo vs a new ruling.  Favorable rulings started high in the early part of a day by fell off precipitously later in the day.

Cognitive fatigue has also been documented with clinical decisions.  Prescriptions increased as the day wore on for physicians.  A study done on Danish student standardized test scores the students performed worse later in the day.  More breaks in the afternoon helped improve performance.

As we tackle our “to do list” we should attend to those items that need focused decision making to be earlier in the day.  And make sure to take breaks through out your day to keep your performance up.

Here’s to making great decisions!

Mike

Leadership

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I recently read a short article that addressed 5 interesting metrics to measure as you build your leadership skills.  The author, Verne Harnish, who wrote the book “Scaling Up” has these key measures that will help you grow the impact of your leadership.

  1. Initially when a business owner is starting out, it pays to say “yes” to a lot of opportunities to network and gain experiences.  However, as you get clear on your strategy, Verne recommends turning this upside down and aim for a ratio of 20-to-1 “no”.  Why?  So you can get laser focus on getting to the results that you want.
  2.  A “meet and greet” strategy with other influencers in your industry.  Set a goal of how many coffees, breakfasts or lunches to have so that you will gain knowledge from other leaders in your field
  3. Spend uninterrupted time “in the flow” for at least 90 minutes a day.  Put this on the calendar for every day.  If you don’t focus on your high priority items, they will not get done.
  4. Get input from lots of other brains that can help propel your company forward.  Get a brain trust or advisory team who have experience and wisdom that you want to obtain.
  5. Spend time thinking to let your best ideas incubate.  Even Ben Franklin took time devoted to learning each day.  Reading and thinking are a must for a leader.  As its been said “leaders are readers”.

Measure these leadership metrics on a regular basis and give yourself a chance to take your leadership skills to the next level.

Mike

Company Growth: Know Your Speed Limit

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Have you heard the saying “you’re either growing or dying?” 

For me, growth is in the eye of the beholder.  What I mean by that is growth means different things to different people and larger is not necessarily better.  The seduction of “bigger is better” exists because you can scale, get better pricing from vendors, and have a wider impact on your market.

However, as Basecamp founder Jason Fried explains in his article “The Zen Approach to Growth,” size may be important but it should be a by-product of meeting the mission of your company.  Getting bigger means more personnel to manage, larger customer base to manage, and so on.  Employees become a number vs. a name and family.

A business owner should think about why they want to grow and how it will impact the culture.  Being intentional about your growth is important.  Careful, methodical growth where the rate of growth is at least within the company’s affordable growth rate, which I often referred to as your “speed limit.”  Every company has a speed limit, and going excessively fast has its consequences.  Know your limit and why growth is important to you.

Here’s to knowing your speed limit and staying within it.

Mike

Productivity Hacks

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It’s been said that if we can make a 1% improvement per month in areas that we want to make a difference, then by the end of the year we have improved our productivity by 12%.  Over three years, that’s an impressive 36% gain!  Much like compound interest, it’s the cumulative impact that can make a big difference.

Here are some tips to achieve a 1% gain:

1.      Use a schedule

 Take 15 minutes each day to plan your day ahead


2.      Take breaks

 Using the Pomodoro technique, take a break every 60 to 90 minutes for 15 minutes.  Take a walk,              meditate, or stretch


3.      Stop using technology 1 hour before bed

Set a timer that goes off to tell you to shut it off, and get a good night’s sleep


4.      Organize your files

Use the OHIO approach (Only Handle It Once): Throw it out, file it, email it, call about it, but don’t               leave it hanging!


5.      Eliminate 1 daily annoyance from your list

Turn off you email notification and answer email only once or twice a day


6.      Time blocking

Experiment with different blocks of time to do focused work.  Like the Pomodoro technique                         mentioned above and further definition on the web:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique


7.      Exercise regularly

Even 20 minutes of walking a day can make a big difference not just physically but also mentally

8.      Make a MIT list…Most Important Task list

Dedicate a specific time that you work best and focus only on the MIT activity you want to accomplish

These are just a few ideas on gaining productivity.  There are many others, but the main take-away is to begin with action and do a 1% change each month that will lead to tremendous gain in the long term.  

Just remember:  Business, like life, is a marathon, not a sprint.  Stay in it to win it.

Here’s to your newly found productivity!

Mike

Want More Cash Flow? Check your Accounts Receivable Cycle

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I sometimes hear from business owners that they are making a profit, but they don’t seem to have positive cash flow at the end of the year. What happened?

Your business may generate a positive net income, but if you aren’t monitoring other key cash flow drivers, then you can find yourself strapped for cash to meet the obligations of the business.

One of those drivers that can cause a lack of cash is your Accounts Receivable (A/R) collection cycle. It’s one of the four pillars that drive cash flow (along with Accounts Payable, EBITDA, and Inventory Days-on-Hand)

Your Accounts Receivable Cycle

Many businesses offer customers the ability to “Buy Now, Pay Later” for their purchases. In other words, they are providing customers a short-term interest free loan to pay for the product or service! If your customer doesn’t pay on time or takes longer than you expect, it can create a cash flow problem in your business.

Monitoring how long it takes for you to collect your accounts receivable is important. The quicker you can collect it, the quicker you get the cash you need to pay your bills and reinvest for your company’s growth.

But how do you measure it? Below is a formula to determine your collection cycle. Keep in mind your cycle will shift weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc… The calculation is merely a “snapshot in time,” but it’s important to know.

Formula:
Annual sales / 365 days= daily sales
Accounts receivable balance / daily sales= days to collect accounts receivable

Example:
$1,000,000 / 365 days= $2,740 daily sales
Accounts receivable $80,000 / $2,740= 29 days

In the above example, it takes on average about 30 days to collect the amounts owed by the company’s customers. If this metric increases from 29 days to 39 days, then the extra 10 days has left the company with $27,400 less cash in their bank account than if they had collected it in 30 days. This is where the business owner could see a positive net profit in the profit and loss statement, but also see that their cash balance has decreased by $27,400.

Know your accounts receivable collection cycle. Calculate it on a regular basis, such as monthly. Identify customers who are consistently not paying on time and determine a strategy to encourage them to pay within the terms you have offered. It can be the difference between positive or negative cash flow!

For more resources to help you measure this important metric, check out our Numbers Coach tools and templates.