Being a Leader During Stressful Times In Business

It always feels great when business is going well, there are no hiccups, and all the moving parts are perfectly aligning, but when it comes to being a business owner, that is not the reality all the time. Sure, we do our best to cultivate a culture and a successful routine that allows us to handle hard times as best we can, but there are going to be times when unforeseen stressors come out of the wood work. How can you best lead your team and your business through these types of situations? What are the mechanisms that you must utilize as an owner, manager, or director to ensure that the whole company doesn’t crash and burn?

Throughout my years of leading teams of people, I have been through my fair share of stressful times and here are some of the tips on how we have gotten through those situations.

Being a leader during stressful times in business means you must:

Set the atmosphere. Everyone may be sacred or tired or worried or frustrated, but that cannot come from the top. You must allow room for peace and hope to resonate from the top levels of leadership to inspire your employees to feel the same.
Encourage one other. Stress can start to make murky waters. There are some who begin to allow words and accusations come out that they would never have been a part of if they were not stressed. Encouragement goes a long way and having a positive attitude during stressful situations is one way to combat the negative circumstance.
Be a planner. Make plans – daily if need be – to ensure that you are doing all that you can do to move out of this season. Waiting for it to pass without a clear direction or solution will not alleviate any stress off of you or the employees in your business.

During my journey of documenting Project (-), NEX-XOS had a stressful season that seemed to go against all of the goals I had previously set for my personal life and for the business – but overcoming them is a testimony to the team and the product. See more about that here: