It’s 15 days until the end of the year. That’s 15 days to finish the year, hit your goals, get ready for next year, and do everything you need to do for the holidays.
The end of the year — the finality of it — is always a stressful time of year. No wonder you can find these stories online:
• “5 yoga poses for holiday stress in under five minutes”
• “Holiday stress can increase alcohol abuse”
• “7 foods to calm holiday stress”
• “Keys to heavenly peace: how to reduce holiday stress”
Don’t get me wrong: Stress is unavoidable in any business and in life. Stress can even be beneficial at times —many good things happen when we stretch ourselves beyond our comfort limits.
What is the right amount of stress?
As a CEO, one of my goals is to put our team in the right place to succeed. That means knowing how to celebrate and be supportive when the team excels and when to be demanding when the team needs to focus on achieving company goals and their own goals.
I have to know when I’m pushing the right buttons and when I’m pushing too hard. Here are a few thoughts about when stress is right.
Balance stress with relaxation
Work-life balance is important to our executive team. We want a well-balanced team comprised of well-balanced professionals.
Scientists have proven that the only way to avoid burnout is to balance stress with relaxation. Your mind and body will eventually crash if the amount of time you spend relaxing — sleeping, reading, exercising, vacationing — doesn’t match the time spent under chronic or acute stress.
The holidays bring stress, but they also bring many opportunities to relax and unwind with family and friends. I hope you take advantage.
Self-imposed stress
Groups360 hires driven people who want to succeed. I’ve noticed that driven people deal well with stress and often put as much (or more) stress on themselves than the company does. They simply want to be better.
I’ve also found that high-performing team members have learned over the years what they need to do to manage their stress balance.
Self-imposed stress is also fine as long as all goals are aligned with the company’s long-term goals. That leads me to my final point.
Keep stress in perspective
I think stress is fine as long as it doesn’t cause our team to lose perspective, especially our long-term goals.
There’s a good reason that hospitality veterans refer to fourth quarter as the “silly season.” People run around trying to make deals that they would never make in first quarter because it is the end of the year. This applies to both event planners and hotels.
I never want Groups360 to lose its long-term vision for short-term gains. We want to be smarter than that. As with our holiday shopping, if a deal appears too good, it often is.
Happy holidays
Happy holidays from the entire Groups360 team. Please make sure you spend time with the people who matter the most to you during this special time of year!
We’re looking forward to a great new year and everyone achieving their goals.
