Raw 04 - December 2008 - (Page 16)

RAW BUSINESS ADRENALIN Why work-life balance Identify your stress po Don’t derail your busi Boost your profits – n “I’m on Maternity Leave in a couple of weeks and have a few staff issues I need to clear up before then. I’ll be off for four months - although I will keep in touch - and am hiring some new staff, including three people to replace me. I’ve spent most of the past year travelling across the UK, US and SA while managing all the staff in the UK and US. That’s on top of dealing with the day to day business ” 16 millionimpossible.com was tired out just listening to Julie as she told me about her role in a growing technology business in which she is an equity partner. As I faced her across the table, I was looking at a very tired, stressed and overworked expectant mother who had little time to enjoy her pregnancy. While not saying so outright, she was clearly concerned about how the business would manage without her. As I left, I met her husband, John, who was worried about the impact of his wife’s workload. The baby was due in three weeks and he felt she would be less stressed and overloaded if she could delegate and trust her staff more. You may not be an expectant mother, or even a woman, but does any of this sound familiar? As I listened to Julie and John talk about her long hours, I found myself thinking about my own working life. A balance between working and living comes naturally to some, but for others like Julie it needs to be learned and practiced. I recall the Dutch father in the family I was living with in the Netherlands saying, “I work to live, I don’t live to work”. I suspect that for many of us it is the other way around, whether we want to admit it or not. I recently heard the ‘Dragon’, Peter Jones, talk about working 17 hour days and I loving it. But what his wife said was just as interesting, as she spoke of the family keeping him ‘grounded’, while at home he is ‘just dad’. So how do we achieve a balance while building a business? So often there just isn’t anyone else to do the work – but is that really the reason why some of us seem to spend all of our time either working or thinking about work? With the Christmas season upon us, we should be looking forward to the relaxing break, recharging our batteries and spending time with our family and friends. But are you dreading it? Functions to attend, business to complete and gifts to choose – how to fit it all in? By the time we get to Christmas, most of us are exhausted and then find the holiday even more stressful. Negative Stress All of this creates negative stress, which leads to less effective decision making and less productive behaviour. It can damage our business and derail our personal lives. Research by David Dotlich and Peter Cairo in their book Why CEOs Fail gives the following reasons: http://www.millionimpossible.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Raw 04 - December 2008

Raw 04 - December 2008 Contents Imran Hakim Linda Klassen Brown Bradley Chapman Heidi Weir Colin Stroud Emma Thompson Raw Business Have a Care JPR Mortages TLB Events Alexander Davis

Raw 04 - December 2008

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