Revisit business well-being over Xmas
2019 PRESS RELEASE
As the financial year and business stress reach a unified crescendo, business well-being speaker Linda Wells tells anyone from the self-employed plumber to those at the pinnacle of corporate leadership that the key to averting burn-out is self-awareness.
Wells’ new book, Transforming Your Stress Into Business Success; Take Back Control, Regain Balance, Fuel Your Success, came off the press in June and is a manifestation of the Neuro Linguistic Programming Master’s years in sales, training salespeople to excel, coaching in groups and in private, and speaking both in New Zealand and abroad.
The central message is about doing business at any level successfully, in a way that does not detract from personal happiness and wellbeing. It is entirely possible, but it requires a significant mental shift.
Wells uses the example of what businesses are dealing with right now.
“Right now, another provisional tax payment is due. There is also an increase in pressure to get all work in and completed before Christmas. For businesses whose work is seasonal it’s their busiest quarter of the year. Off the back of this are cashflow concerns, especially with staff needing holiday pay, and in many cases, staff being unavailable because they’re on holiday.
“The thing to also ask here is, how will ‘the boss’ actually get a much-needed break? Is he or she vowing passionately not to suffer this stress next year… but without any plan on how to change things?”
In addition, even just the thought of having no income when the doors are closed for 3-4 weeks can have a major effect on a person’s state of mind, adds Wells.
“Feeling constantly overwhelmed by the demands of business and work often means you miss out on time with family and friends even when you’re with them, because you can’t shake off your thoughts about work. It’s debilitating” says Wells. “Eventually the body is in a constant state of alert, and you feel wired and tired at the same time…leading to issues like loss of focus, poor memory, short attention span, diminished learning, faulty perception and disturbed sleep.”
The contents of Wells’ book are also illustrated in her 45-minute keynote speech. She lists the three states-of-being that categorise where people ‘are’ in their business and life wellbeing.
“The first State of Being I call the State of Nirvana. This is where you’re in control of your business and your life, and you can exit the business on your own terms. But for many, something starts to shift.
“You’re working at the coal face of your business and you’re still the boss, yet…you’re feeling that things are starting to slide, that you’re not always in control anymore. I call this state, Personal Subsistence, or PS.
“Often very quickly, without warning, you end up in the 3rd State of Being that I call The State of Degeneration. Here, you feel overwhelmed everyday with the pressure of running the business. Many people who came to me for one-to-one coaching were in this state.”
Wells’ own struggles have informed her practice; her business stress-to-well-being story features her staying awake for days on end to close exhilarating sales deals. But she was struck by an epiphany when, washing her hair one morning, clumps of the stuff came away in her hands.
There was no way she was going to give up her hard-won success, so she committed to finding a way for success and wellbeing to co-exist, and this in-turn became her business.
“For those running businesses, even if they can get through coping with the holidays, by the time everyone is back at work there are only two more months until the end of that financial year. Naturally, the pressure on personal relationships magnifies too, and if the Leader, the Boss, the Manager or CEO is stressed by all this and unaware of it, what chance has his or her team got?!”
Transforming Your Stress Into Business Success; Take Back Control, Regain Balance, Fuel Your Success is available to order online at www.transformingyourstressintobusinesssuccess.com
Linda’s work was featured in The New Zealand Herald One Roof magazine, on TV3 The Cafe, in nationally distributed Construction News, industry magazines Irhace, REINZ magazine and other institutional websites and publications.
