Today, I’m talking to all my busy mom (and dad) business owners with this post. There are days when you are just tired, and the exit to better days is simply not in view. How do you keep your spirits up or raise your spirits? What can you do?
Celebrate. I don’t mean a cake or candles necessarily here. Stop what you’re doing and grab a piece of paper and start making a list. What has gone right in the past week or month or year? What are you proud of accomplishing or moving past?
I do this every year at the end of the year. One year I celebrated the end of a terrible contract for printers. Another year I celebrated having the courage to hire global team members who lived in Africa and the Philippines. You can put personal milestones in here, too.
If you have a team, what did each of your team members do that you’re proud of? What were the systems that they improved? Think of each one and add these to your list. Put these good things out there for the whole team to celebrate. The whole team starts looking for things they can do that are worth celebrating.
What about your vendors? What have your vendors done that was beyond expectation for you? Add these to your list. I have to admit. I have not done this one yet. I am excited to add this to my list of things to do this year. My IT company did something amazing. They actually brought me, from 1.5 hours away, a new computer when the first one I bought from them didn’t work. The second one didn’t work either, but it was really amazing being on the receiving end of that kind of customer service. It exceeded my expectations. How would our services change if we told people about how wonderful they were?
If you’re having problems thinking of things to write, try one of the following two things:
- Implement fun ways to celebrate with your team. We like “catching you doing something good”. This is an opportunity to celebrate when a team member follows a system or when they go above and beyond what’s expected. What’s really great is when they start spotting things their teammates do.
- Ask them what working for your company has done for them ― what they are grateful for ― and prepare to be blessed. I asked a team member who was resigning how working with us impacted her. She said that the opportunity allowed her to discover who she was. Wow. I was floored. If you need something to celebrate, there is someone on your staff who has been impacted for the better.
We employ a separate team of witnesses to come witness our estate plan signings. It is a team that others might think was not really necessary. One of our witnesses had a very serious surgery and she told us that our signing meetings were the reason she got up out of bed and got dressed. The firm helped her recover without any of us knowing it. Another one of our witnesses used to never leave her home. She was a client first and we thought we would have to go to her home to sign her documents. She decided to come to the office. Then, to our surprise, she wanted to join our witness team. She learned how to check her email, which was a requirement for working on our witness team. She’s been a wonderful part of our team.
Sometimes we are all leaders. Our lives are impacting other lives. Often, we don’t see the impact we are having on our team until we ask. Our team can be a key to helping us find the good that’s happened ― or rather, that’s happening in our company. Be encouraged by celebrating the small wins and bring in your team to add to your list and to encourage you. We all need a lift from time to time ― to know that the daily grind is worth the effort. Celebrate and be encouraged.
