We know stress can be healthy, here’s why it’s important in business.

We know stress can be healthy, here’s why it’s important in business.

by | Feb 2, 2023 | Business Chaos, Business coaching for women, Busy Trap, Juggle Street, Peak Performance, Smart Growth, Time Freedom, Womens Business Mastermind

Stress is often seen as the enemy of success, but the truth is that a certain level of stress is essential to reach your full potential. 

Just like fire, stress can either be a destructive force or a powerful tool to help you achieve your goals. 

The key is to find the right balance between healthy and unhealthy stress.

Unhealthy stress can lead to a host of physical and mental health issues, including high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and burnout.

On the other hand, healthy stress can help you stay focused, motivated, and energised, allowing you to push yourself to new levels of achievement… without the burnout!

The problem is we’ve become so focused on the negative effects of stress that we’ve forgotten how to use it in a positive way. 

We’re taught to avoid stress at all costs, instead of learning how to manage it in a healthy way. 

But without stress, we would do nothing. It’s the driving force behind our ambitions and the fire that fuels our passions.

What’s the difference between healthy and unhealthy stress? 

Healthy stress is short-term, manageable, and tied to a specific goal. 

It’s the type of stress that motivates us to deliver above and beyond for a client, invest the time in your team development or finish a project on time. 

On the other hand, unhealthy stress is long-term, overwhelming, and not tied to a specific goal. 

This type of stress can quickly spiral out of control, leading to physical and mental exhaustion.

In order to break the hustle culture and do business (and life) in a different way, it’s important to embrace the power of stress, while also taking steps to manage it in a healthy way. 

This can include setting achievable goals, taking breaks when needed, and practicing stress-management techniques like meditation or exercise. 

By doing so, you can harness the power of stress to help you reach your full potential, rather than letting it hold you back.

One thing you can do straight away to make sure you err on the healthy side of stress is to get outside more.

Journalist Florence Williams shares in her book The Nature Fix (a great read btw!) that North Americans spend over 93% of their waking hours indoors or in cars and the other 7% is spent walking between buildings and cars.

Now if that stat doesn’t shock, and perhaps scare you a little, I don’t know what will. 

How much time do you spend outside and connecting to nature? 

One of my fave go-to’s is ‘earthing’. 

Earthing as a modern-day concept has been around since the 1980s and has become somewhat more mainstream in recent years. It’s all about connecting to nature by walking barefoot. 

Author Lyanda Lynn Haupt say’s that ‘shoes put little blind folds on our soles’. 

Research suggests that earthing balances our bodies’ positive ionic charge, helping to prevent inflammation, reduces pain, calms anxiety and promotes better sleep*… uuuuumm this sounds to me like a great way of reducing unhealthy stress! 

So whether you decide to put your bare feet on the grass, do a mindful walk with no AirPods or partake in some deep breathing exercises, what I really want you to remember is that stress can be a powerful tool, or a destructive force, depending on how you use it.

As you continue to break the hustle culture and strive for a different way of doing business, embrace the power of stress and manage it in a healthy way.

This is how you can unleash your full potential and achieve your goals, while truly living life to your fullest. 

*Source: Rooted (Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature and Spirit) by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (referencing Earthing – The Most Important Health Discovery Ever!)

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Business (and life) success should not be a trade-off for burnout!

Business (and life) success should not be a trade-off for burnout!

by | Jan 11, 2023 | Business coaching for women, Womens Business Mastermind

We’ve been taught as a society to hustle, work hard, don’t stop, keep going… do anything to achieve results and be successful. 

While it’s great to be tenacious and go after what you want in life (and business), at what cost? 

In 2007, Arianna Huffington (co-founder of Huffington post, a brilliant author and businesswoman who’s made it to the Forbes most powerful women list) found herself lying on the floor of her home office in a pool of blood. 

She collapsed from exhaustion hitting her head on the desk, cutting her eye and breaking her cheekbone.  

Arianna was working 18 hour days, 7 days a week and this event caused her to stop and ask herself, is this what success looks like? 

Who remembers the old cold & flu tv ads? 

It was all about the messaging… to soldier on and keep going no matter what! 

What about the messaging for when it was ‘that time of the month’? 

Again it was to keep going no matter what (aaagh those horse riding ads)! 

Hustle culture hasn’t only been thrown at us in the business environment, it’s been a full 360 across all areas of our life. 

And it’s time for change. 

Think about it, even professional athletes know that in order to attain optimal levels of performance, they need to schedule quality rest and recovery into their training schedule. 

This downtime gives the body the chance to repair and grow stronger. 

A healthy (and successful) approach to work and building your business is the same. 

Learning how to do less and be more is more than just a popular catch-phrase (it’s a great book by Susan Pearse and Martina Sheehan!). 

It’s a must for you to create long term, sustainable results. 

In the recent Big Small Business Survey ‘exhausted’ is the word business owners repeatedly use when describing their mood and well-being. 

58% of small businesses surveyed have experienced a mental health challenge in the last 2 years (again according to the Big Small Business Survey).

I know I know! 

You want it all, a thriving business, time with your loved ones, money to live stress free and enjoy life. 

And you can have it! But working tirelessly isn’t the way to get it. 

Mary Oliver famously said ‘Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild precious life?’

For Arianna, a chain of events set her on a mission to redefine what success could look like. 

She introduced a 3rd measure of success alongside the traditional measures of money and power. It’s a combination of well-being, wisdom, wonder and giving. 

For our clients it’s the True North Wheel – encompassing Business Growth, Managing Money AND prioritising life as equally important as each other. 

When I think about Thriving in business and in life, I think about redefining traditional measures of success and breaking cycles to allow you (and your business) to thrive without the burnout.

My question to you is, do you prioritise life as much as you do other ‘traditional’ forms of success?

Where you spend your time and the goals you’re going after hold the clues to what your definition of success is. 

For example, are you only focusing on linear, number based, masculine goals such as revenue targets or do you also have more flow, feeling, feminine goals such as how you want to feel, what you do with your time?

I invite you to take a look at these clues and bring critical thinking to what success means to you. Don’t be passive with this, ask yourself… 

Is my definition of success serving me well? 

Is it well rounded covering both masculine and feminine aspects of business and life? 

Does it need to change like Ariannas did?

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THESE 3 THINGS COULD BE KILLING YOUR TEAM CULTURE

THESE 3 THINGS COULD BE KILLING YOUR TEAM CULTURE

by | Dec 15, 2022 | Business coaching for women, Juggle Street, Peak Performance, Womens Business Mastermind

Time is limited.

You’re overworked and tired. 

You have compassion fatigue. 

And now, you’re starting to second-guess yourself and your decisions.  

It’s no wonder you’re left with a constant feeling of letting people down… whether it’s your team, your family or yourself.

Not to put more pressure on you but if you’re feeling like this, how is your team doing? 

And what’s the impact on your culture?

Chances are, you’re not as good at hiding how you’re feeling as you think you are. 

Especially if you’ve been feeling this way for a while. 

Culture changes as people change. 

This continual change means culture is not set and forget.

But it also doesn’t have to be solely reliant on you to create a culture that your team will thrive in. 

For a start, understand that there are ‘motivators’ and ‘blockers’ that can help or hinder the culture in your business.  

According to mccrindle’s shaping thriving culture research, the biggest blockers stopping team members from thriving are:

  • Being overworked
  • Toxic co-workers
  • Lack of resources
  • Unrealistic expectations
  • Poor leadership decisions 

And the key motivators that allow team members to thrive are:

  • Seeing the positive impact of their work
  • Relationships at work
  • Having responsibility
  • Financial compensation
  • Their performance within the business

Building on mccrindle’s research, the 3 things that will kill your culture are as follows…

  1. Lack of trust between the leader/s and team.

I’ve seen this first-hand in business and once that trust is broken, it’s terribly hard to get it back. 

As a leader, it’s critical to focus on building trust from the get-go and to remember that trust goes both ways. 

You can’t expect loyalty and trust from your people if you don’t give it to them in return. It doesn’t work that way. If you feel like you’re having trust issues, you need to explore why. 

A clue that there might be some trust issues in place is if you find yourself micro-managing. I talk about the negative impact of micro-managing and what to do about it in this article. 

  1. Not investing in your people. 

76% of people surveyed strongly agree businesses that fund professional development and leaders that have a focus on coaching and development will positively impact engagement and retention.  

What this tells us is, that it’s not only important to invest in training your people, but it’s also important to ensure ongoing coaching and support for your team. A one-off approach does not work!  

  1. Not having a flexible or hybrid workforce. 

We’ve all experienced the epitome of flexible working arrangements over the last few years and we now continue to find what the new normal is for our individual businesses. 

It’s essential to not get swept up in what a flexible workforce ‘should’ look like and rather consider how you and your team can best serve your clients while allowing individual ability and performance to flourish (a key motivator in teams). 

So the questions to ask yourself are…

  • What do you do to build trust in your business?
  • How do you upskill your people (and yourself)?
  • Are you and your team on the same page about what flexible work is, and is your working environment a win/win/win for you, your clients and your team?

If creating an environment that people love coming to work for isn’t reason enough to invest in your people and culture, then put your commercial business hat on. 

Investing in culture will save you money, reduce team turnover and increase productivity and output. 

So even though it might feel impossible right now to ‘find the time’ know that it’s critical to the sustainability of your future business success. 

Culture isn’t about putting just one thing in place, it’s about creating a living organism that continues to grow and change not just with you, but with your whole team. Check out the 13 things to have in place to create a thriving culture here. 

If you want to pick the brain of an experienced leader and business mentor, book a clarity call with Nicky or Ness here to talk all things thriving culture. 

*Source: Shaping thriving culture infographic, www.mccrindle.com

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Here’s 6 simple time hacks you can use today

Here’s 6 simple time hacks you can use today

by | Nov 15, 2022 | Business coaching for women, Busy Trap, Time Freedom, Womens Business Mastermind

Time is a manmade concept and these days, we monitor time down to the millisecond. 

Honestly, sometimes I amaze myself with what I can get done in 60 seconds. 

I used to be proud of how productive I could be. Until I realised that it’s not healthy to jam-pack (literally) every single minute of the day. 

No wonder I felt like I was run ragged. Who’s with me on this? 

Seriously though, how do we fit everything in without micro-managing our time?

Recently I googled – how I can manage my time more effectively and almost 1.6 Billion search results came back. Interestingly when I googled the same phrase 6 months ago only 514 million results came back. 

People are desperate to find the magic bullet, a better way, the thing that will help them have more time.  

Here’s the kick-in-the-guts – getting more time back and getting out of the busy trap isn’t about finding another time management tool!

No time management tool will make any difference IF you don’t consider your beliefs about time. 

Let me ask you a question… we all have 168 hours a week to play with, is that a little or a lot? 

The answer is that it depends on your mindset around time. 

So before you get excited about a new time management tool what you need to do first is look at how your thinking about time affects your day-to-day.

If you believe there’s not enough time in this world. Nothing will change that.

Here’s 6 time hacks you can start using today:

  1. Work on your beliefs about time. Do you have abundance or scarcity beliefs about time?
  1. Bring mindfulness into your every day. Do you spend more time mindfully living or getting pulled into the whirlwind of busy?
  1. Prioritise tasks aligned with your overall business strategy. Do you find yourself prioritising ‘stuff’ ’cause it feels good to get through a whole bunch of tasks or do you strategically focus on tasks that will help move the dial in your business?
  1. Focus first on desired outcomes, then start prioritising. Do you feel accomplished or in a constant state of chasing?
  1. Be aware of when you drop into guilt, and come back to a higher vibration by shifting your focus to gratitude. Do you find yourself feeling grateful more of the time, or stuck in guilt?
  1. Manage your energy wisely. Is your energy leaking and your feeling overstretched or optimal and energised?

As Laura Vanderkam says in her incredible Ted Talk (watch here) we prioritise the things that matter to us and when we must find the time, we do. 

Working on your beliefs, being more mindful, prioritising tasks based on outcomes, and managing your energy and your emotional state will put you in a better position to not have to cram life into 60-second blocks. Wow! How would that feel?! 

Actually, as someone who’s breaking that habit, it feels pretty damn amazing.

Grab our Time Hacking Audit here to see how you fair with these 6 areas and get some more ideas on what you can do to improve in each area.

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Here’s why knowing that culture is the lifeblood of your business matters!

Here’s why knowing that culture is the lifeblood of your business matters!

by | Oct 12, 2022 | Business coaching for women, Juggle Street, Peak Performance, Womens Business Mastermind

There are a lot of buzzwords and checking off lists when it comes to talking about culture. But it’s so much more than that. 

People bring culture to life. 

I love McRindle’s explanation in a recent report likening culture with the roots of a tree. 

Think of the top of the tree as being reflective of what a business does, the trunk is the reason why it exists and the roots of the tree are the way (how) we do things ie. the culture. 

The roots of the tree are “hidden beneath the ground and seemingly unseen, however, the health of the root system determines the health of the tree’. 

How true this is! 

Culture is at times unseen, yet very clearly (and deeply) felt in the health of the business. 

When the roots aka culture go bad, there’s mistrust, micromanagement (check out this blog for more on how micromanagement can be the death of your business), low performance and the business owner becomes tethered to the day-to-day detail. 

Of course, you want your business to be performing, your people to be happy and engaged, taking ownership and pride in what they do and ultimately love coming to work. 

But believing that a one-off workshop and sticking values on the wall is enough is a big mistake. Big. Huge! as Julia Roberts would say. 

It’s simply not enough! 

Culture is ever-growing (and ever-changing) and needs to be tended to and watered daily. 

Understanding this makes all the difference in realising that culture is the lifeblood of your business. 

The standards and behaviours displayed by your team (and yourself as the business leader) are a great place to start when getting feedback on your current culture. 

According to McCrindle, 7 key areas matter when cultivating culture. 

  1. Leadership
  2. Meaningful work
  3. Team Connection & communication
  4. Vision
  5. Wellbeing
  6. Values & shared behaviour
  7. Training & development  

Culture is the first thing we look at in our clients’ business when we do a business health check. Along with the above 7 areas we also look at:

  1. Capacity to contribute fully
  2. Clarity of expectations
  3. Celebrating success
  4. Goals
  5. Rewards & Recognition
  6. And importantly, getting clear on the definition of what high performance looks like for each unique business

It’s time to take stock. 

  • How healthy are the roots of your culture?
  • Which of the 13 areas listed above do you focus on in your business?
  • Which areas could use a little love?

We love going deep into businesses to see what parts of your business engine (including culture) are healthy and those that need some TLC. If you’d like two experienced mentors to look under the hood of your business book a 20-minute clarity call here.

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Sick of using the B word? Here’s what you can do to start living instead

Sick of using the B word? Here’s what you can do to start living instead

by | Sep 27, 2022 | Behind the Scenes, Business coaching for women, Time Freedom, Womens Business Mastermind

Understanding the difference between being busy and living is paramount to your business su2ccess!

10 years ago I was climbing the corporate ladder, studying at uni and the seeds of my business were being sewn. To say that I was busy was an understatement. 

I was constantly in a state of go go go, with a lot of people relying on me and a very full life. 

One day I had a massive panic attack in my office, it took every ounce of strength to walk to my boss’ office and when I got there, I crashed.  

I was completely burnt out. 

As a naturally optimistic person in the prime of her corporate career, the feeling of having zero motivation or capacity to do or think was scary! Turns out, it was also quite humbling. 

It forced me to stop. 

I had to rebuild a new way of working, thinking and being.

When I think about being ‘busy’, I think about the feeling of being burnt out. And I never want to feel that way again.

This is why I’m so passionate about helping other women in business never experience this feeling for themselves. 

So I ask you, how would it feel to run your business without the threat of burnout?

How would it feel to release the shackles of ‘busy’ to be able to thrive in your business and your life?

Time passes by so quickly and it’s too easy to miss important dates, and live in a cycle of perpetual guilt for whoever it is you’re letting down today. Not to mention the increase in concerns around health and stress. 

I know you want more time, more joy and to feel happy and content. And I know you think to get this, you need to do more. 

The opposite is true. 

There’s a difference between going through life being ‘busy’ or going through life ‘living’. 

Busy is when things feel chaotic, out of control and you go through the days every single minute accounted for. By this definition, it’s an unresourceful (or dysfunctional) state to be in. Especially for long periods of time.

Living is when things feel calm, and somewhat under control, there’s more joy and presence in what you’re doing… it’s the resourceful (or functional) state of being. 

Through awareness and understanding of how these two extremes play out in your business and in your life, you can identify when you’ve been pulled into the busy trap and how to get yourself back to living. 

Where would you place yourself on this graph?

 

X marks the spot as the gold standard of where you want to be. X means that you’re present, grounded, tapping into the past to learn and grow, and equally looking forward to seeing what lays ahead without drowning in worry about the future. 

I’d love to know, do you resonate with being busy or in a state of living most of the time?

What’s 1 thing you can do to come back to living when you’re stuck in the busy trap?

If you relate to being stuck in the busy, why not book a free 20 minute clarity call (book here) with Ness or I to identify the #1 thing that holds you back from living more.

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