Deep Breath
The Breathe app on my Apple watch reminds me periodically to stop and take deep breaths for one minute. There is enough research to support that this simple exercise is beneficial on many levels and is especially effective for stress reduction and clear thinking.
What is the equivalent of the Breathe app for business owners who get up every morning, buckle their seatbelts and go on a rollercoaster ride for the remainder of the day? I'd like to call it the "business owner's out-of-body experience"; stepping away from the onslaught of "noise and to-dos" and shifting to a 'breathe' mindset:
"We lost a deal" - there'll be another one
"Our social media engagements are down"- we should look into our content
"My best sales rep just quit"- wake up call! We can't depend on one person
"We're down compared to last month" - Where? Why? Let's look at the data
I read that the next generation of connectivity, 5G, is being beta tested in major cities already - I wonder when will we reach the equivalent of data traveling faster than the speed of sound? For anyone who has witnessed a jet reaching that level, it is accompanied by a very loud 'sonic boom'!
Here's the thing; all of us, especially anyone who works in the business sector, are continuously sucked into reactionary thinking and decision making which results in frequent bad or unproductive decisions. An example of one of those decisions is the need to 'have a meeting' as a delay tactic. So much of the root cause of what we experience is often right in front of us but we fail to see it - we need to slow down, take a deep breath and inject fresh and deeper thinking into our daily routine.
One underlying reason for this behavior is that customers expect us to react in real-time especially if we 'failed' them - while a quick decision can calm an irate customer, a better process is to first acknowledge the complaint, determine the root cause and then respond with a full explanation and a corresponding remedy.
Oh, by the way, if you haven't yet ditched the idiotic concept of 'multitasking' now is a good time - it doesn't work, it never worked and if you investigate how the brain works you'll find out that humans are not capable of multitasking, period.
Deep breath.
