Exhausted business owners need to plan differently now than they have for the past 10-months... here's how...

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Transcript of video:

My name is Nick Leighton and for the next few minutes you are exactly where you want to be.

This is originally recorded November 3, 2020 for Facebook Live - uncut and uncensored.

Last week we looked at being anxious - and how planning for 2021 can help

This week - let’s look at why you may be feeling exhausted and what can be done about that.

In extreme uncertainty, organizations are usually unable to return to business as usual for a long time… and this COVID-19 situation has been around for near on 10 months.

This exposes you as a business owner and your teams to the risk of exhaustion in the face of constant and apparently never-ending change. A crisis may galvanize a company’s owners and senior managers in its initial phase. But once that adrenaline fades, continuing uncertainty becomes draining. At worst it can take a toll on your mental and physical health, causing major harm to organizational effectiveness, from a decline in responsiveness, to a deterioration in the overall quality of work.

Rapidly moving events demand speedy decisions but also a wholesale change in the way you operate.

The operating cadence in which you meet, discuss, and take action needs to match the evolution of the crisis. This does not imply a simple speedup of existing processes. Rather, it means creating entirely new procedures.

To make informed decisions, business owners need specialized knowledge and should actively seek this in two areas.

Firstly, consider expert advice. Experts can contribute to better decisions by filling gaps in your existing knowledge. For example, you may need external advice—from epidemiologists—to assess the course of the COVID-19 pandemic - or a business coach who is actively working across multiple businesses and can bring you best practices.

Secondly, you should reach deep into your own organization for frontline insights—such as those that a customer-service representative could provide on customer experience.

Unprecedented crises frequently require leadership to take unprecedented actions—bold, speedy actions that would feel risky in normal times. As you focus intensely on making fast practical decisions, you must also be prepared to shift course if — or as - the situation changes.

To manage an extended recovery period, management structures and processes now have to shift to a long-term, sustainable operating model. The shift from crisis mode to recovery of sustainable operations is more an evolution than a transformation.

So, as a business owner, you may be exhausted - and so may your executive team.

But now we need to take a breath, look to initiate long-term planning, while keeping in place some crisis monitoring.

Now is the time to look to the future for sustained profitability.

If you are interested in the five key areas business owners of the leading companies I work with are closely looking at, then I’ll post a link below.

Now it’s your turn. What does your strategic planning look like?

Any good advice for others?

Post here – I would love to know.

If you found just one nugget of advice or inspiration in this quick video useful, then please do me a small favor - like and share.

Follow this page & join me next Tuesday - when we’ll take another look into Entrepreneurship and business ownership for today’s economy.

My name is Nick Leighton and I wish you passion, profit, and happiness.

Need help with your 2021 business planning? This free webinar - 5 Ways Business Owners & CEOs Prepare to Seize Opportunities - may help you: http://tiny.cc/webinarCEO

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