Upsize Primer: Stress-busters

Stress-busters

by Sarah Brouillard   LIKE IT OR NOT, each small-business owner has a silent partner: stress.

Stress — that fight-or-flight hormonal holdover from humanity's prehistoric years — can spur owners to accomplish tasks more efficiently. Its presence is necessary, even healthy, experts say, to succeed in life and work.

But it can also undermine our efforts. The problems begin when there's too much stress, and too few breaks from it. Signs that stress has taken a toll include headaches, tense muscles and indigestion — all of which owners can hide to suffer in silence. When stress causes owners to get moody or lose focus, that's when damage to one's business can be wrought.

“The bottom line here is that if the small-business owner isn't able to effectively manage their stress, it doesn't only impact their effectiveness — it also impacts the rest of the company,” says Heather Johnson, an executive coach and consultant in Rosemount with Klassen Performance Group.

Owners lose productivity, and they can inadvertently mess up the delicate interpersonal dynamics of their companies. While buffers exist at large companies to steer troubled executives toward help, small-business owners — who are often alone at the top — may have to depend on subordinates to point out if there’s a problem. That can be a very intimidating task for their employees.

Executive coaches, such as Johnson, agree that stress can't be eliminated. There are ways to manage it, however. Stress is like exercise: it's important to train our muscles and lungs to build endurance, but it's equally important to give our bodies rest and time to recover and rebuild. Bodies can be trained in the same way to handle stress.

Executive coaches suggest some therapies for dealing with stress. But ultimately, it’s small-business owners’ individual interests, hobbies and creativity that lead to the most effective stress relieving, they say.

“They need to consciously build in times for them to recover,” says Johnson. “They need time to recharge their batteries.”

For those nose-to-the-grindstone owners who feel like this is all kum-ba-yah nonsense, they should understand there’s a noticeable benefit: Taking a rest builds up their stress tolerance. And then they can manage even higher levels of stress.

Deep breathing
Stress disrupts the hormonal balance in our bodies.

When the mind is overloaded, the body dumps a lot of adrenaline into its systems, causing the lungs to breathe shallowly and the brain to become hyper-alert, says Thomas Mungavan, president of Change Masters Inc., a Minnetonka-based executive coach company.

For executives and small-business owners, these symptoms can actually mimic those of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), says Mungavan. He says a January 2005 Harvard Business Review article addressed how overachievers, when bombarded with incoming messages and competing tasks, can become distracted and impulsive. In fact, many of these people have sought help — and potentially, a diagnosis — from doctors, only to discover their scatterbrained state is stimulated by their work environment, and not genetics.

To combat this frazzling, frenzying effect, Mungavan suggests “meeting breathing” — deep breathing to help center oneself and regain focus. Breathing through the abdomen, instead of just through the tops of the lungs, can induce calmness, especially when done methodically. Mungavan recommends breathing in 10-second cycles. It’s the same exercise used by professional singers.

“When you breathe like that, the physical body says, ‘OK, the emergency is over,’ ” he says.

The advantage of this tactic is it can be used on the job, in the moment, and can be conducted discreetly even if surrounded by employees or colleagues. And bending one’s limbs into a pretzel isn’t necessary.

Another traditional therapy is simply to go on vacation, he says. But the benefits go deeper than rest and relaxation. Vacations help small-business owners put things in perspective — that the world doesn’t end if they don’t land that crucial business deal, or hit their sales goals for the month, he says.

By traveling the world, or at least spending time in a different corner of it, owners can gain a clearer view of what’s important, and how insignificant certain problems really are in the grand scheme of things.

Others suggest finding a daily pursuit away from work to regain balance. You can choose to do anything, they say, but at least do it. People are more likely to stick with an activity that they enjoy and integrate into their routine.

Local business owners say they use a number of methods to de-stress.

Tony Carideo, owner of The Carideo Group in Minneapolis, isn’t one to take week-long vacations. Instead, he says, he takes half-days off regularly, usually on Wednesday mornings. The mini-vacations aren’t work-free. He’ll check e-mail from home, then go for a run. But breaking the routine even a bit is refreshing to him.

Brian Van Nevel, co-CEO of Spectrum Commercial Services in Bloomington, will listen to music in his office. Before a song is half over, he’ll feel his heart rate slow a bit, he says.

Jeff Prouty, owner of The Prouty Project in Eden Prairie, does everything from running marathons to climbing mountains. He’s also recently returned from his first sabbatical, when he took six months away from the company he founded, as a way to rejuvenate himself and let others in the company take the lead.

‘Stress gets stuck’
Rose Lebewitz, owner of Rosenthal Furniture in downtown Minneapolis, finds that exercise helps restore her balance. She usually runs once around Lake Calhoun or Lake of the Isles after work. During colder months, she uses the treadmill and StairMaster at her house. “I do not eat, I do not do anything until I’ve worked out,” she says. “If I can’t get stress out of my system, it gets stuck.”

She’s even installed a shower at her century-old shop so she can run during the day, if she so desires, and then freshen up when she returns to work.

Fine dining is another way Lebewitz unwinds. A self-described “food snob,” she appreciates high-quality meals. At one time she had a personal chef. Now, if she wants professionally prepared dinners, she goes to local restaurants. Eating out also affords her a social outlet.

Lebewitz says her sources of stress are varied. Not only is she running a family business with a multi-generation legacy — not to mention, an impeccable reputation to maintain — she’s had to deal with unexpected and undesirable events that go hand in hand with operating a downtown business.

Smoke from a Dumpster fire in an adjacent alley stunk up most of her furniture inventory in 1999, forcing her to sell it in a fire sale and for salvage. Then, several years later, back-to-back floods — caused by Light Rail Transit (LRT) construction outside her entrance, she says — damaged inventory, show-floor displays and carpeting. In spring 2006, a middle-of-the-night gunshot shattered her front window. While bouncers from the nearby Augie’s Bourbon Street Cabaret, The Gay 90’s and Drink bars protected her storefront, Lebewitz and a friend swept up broken glass and boarded up the hole.

With all the hassles her urban setting has caused her company, perhaps that’s why Lebewitz chooses to escape to her horse barn in rural Maple Plain to get a respite. She goes about two times a week. “It’s really not that far, but far enough that it’s a different world out there.”

There, she grooms and rides her four horses. Says Lebewitz: “It’s a source of calmness, peacefulness.”

Set limits on business talk
For some small-business owners, balancing family with work can be a source of stress.

For Jodee McCallum, it’s doubly so. With her husband, Ben, and brother-in-law Aaron, she runs Three Sons Signature Cuisine, a Minneapolis-based catering and event planning company. She’s the mother of two small children, whom she often cares for while working out of her office at Blaisdell Manor in south Minneapolis.

To boot, she’s in her last semester for a law degree she’s been pursuing part time since 2002. Earlier this year, she launched A Wine Affair! — a monthly wine and appetizers tasting event, held at the company’s other real estate holding, St. Anthony Main Event Centre.

What makes the working relationship with family members click is the level of communication. “We can really say anything to each other,” says the CEO and director of marketing. And though it can be difficult to enforce, they put limits on when and where they can talk about the business.

After hours, for example, McCallum discusses the work day with her husband over dinner — and then that’s it. The topic is tabled until the following day.

The rest of the evening, after the kids fall asleep, is spent talking about other matters. Or zoning out in front of the TV. “You know, there’s a lot of mindless television on now,” she says with a laugh. “It’s nice just to have it on as a distraction from the day before you go to bed.”

Between her law homework, child rearing and running a business, McCallum admits she has no time for herself.

“My stress reliever is just stopping what I’m doing, making sure I get a couple hours in each day playing with my kids. Because the reason I’m doing it all is for them. It’s for my family, and to create a better life for us.”

Bolster management
Sometimes, the remedy to small-business owners’ stress lies inside their companies. Owners may need to look at their management style to identify ways to alleviate stress.

Lynn Gordon says she ignored her own stress levels while growing French Meadow Bakery & Café, her Minneapolis-based organic, yeast-free bread making and retail business. The CEO and founder says several years ago she would leap for the phone on its first or second ring — an action indicative of the way she handled her company overall.

Katie Cooney, an executive coach and vice president of Minneapolis-based leadership development company LeaderSource, says such “eager stress” drives small-business owners to become successful. But they’ll become overwhelmed without “taking a pause” to regain focus, she says.

“When reaching for the phone, rather than try to respond in the moment, take 10 seconds to center yourself before you pick it up,” says Cooney.

As difficult as it may be to give up some control, delegating some responsibility for tasks to others is another way to rein in stress, says Cooney. Gordon says that was her solution: She now asks her staff to answer most calls and take messages.

“I'm more cause than effect,” she says.

[contact] Katie Cooney, LeaderSource: 612.375.9277; ka*********@**********ce.com; www.leadersource.com. Lynn Gordon, French Meadow Bakery & Café: 612.870.4740;  lr******@**********ow.com; www.frenchmeadow.com. Heather Johnson, Klassen Performance Group: 651.322.7821;  he*****@*********************up.com; www.klassenperformancegroup.com. Rose Lebewitz, Rosenthal Furniture: 612.332.4363; ro***@****************re.com; www.rosenthalfurniture.com. Jodee McCallum, Three Sons Signature Cuisine: 612.874.0880;  jo***@**************en.com;  www.threesonssignature.com. Thomas Mungavan, Change Masters Inc.: 952.930.2315; tm*******@***********rs.com; www.changemasters.com.