44: What to do about that exhausting employee

You’ve worked hard to build your business. You’ve taken on more than you had time for, worked longer hours, pushed through when you were exhausted and found a way to get things done. And because your business grew while you were working this way, you have plenty of evidence that it works.But now you want to do things differently. You want to work less, give your team more responsibility and stop feeling like everything depends on you. And even though you know you can’t keep operating the same way, changing it can feel pretty risky.In this episode, I’m talking about why it can be so difficult to change the way you work when that way of operating has helped you build a successful business. And why the business you have today may not need the same things from you that it did when you were building it.Because what helped you get here isn't necessarily what you need to keep doing to get where you want to go.Let’s Connect:Website: kristawilliamson.comFacebook: @kristawilliamsoncoachingInstagram: @kristawilliamsoncoachingSchedule a free consultation call

You know you have too much on your plate, but instead of deciding what you’re not going to do, you keep trying to figure out how you’re going to get it all done.You work a little later, move a little faster, squeeze one more thing into the week or tell yourself you’ll catch up on the weekend. And because you’re used to getting a lot done, you can probably make it work. At least for a while.But as your business grows, simply getting more done isn’t the job anymore. You need time to think ahead, make decisions, lead your team and do the work that only you can do. And that means making decisions about what you and your business are going to take on, and what you’re not going to do right now.In this episode, I’m revisiting Decided Capacity and talking about what it looks like to actually use your capacity to make decisions about your workload and commitments, instead of deciding what you want to get done and then expecting yourself and your team to find a way to do it.If Decided Capacity is new to you, you can also go back and listen to Episode 40: What is your decided capacity?Let’s Connect:Website: kristawilliamson.comFacebook: @kristawilliamsoncoachingInstagram: @kristawilliamsoncoachingSchedule a free consultation call

You’ve planned your week and, on paper, you have enough time to get everything done.But then you sit down to work and you can’t seem to focus. You’re slower than you expected to be, you keep getting distracted, or you reach a point in the day where you just can’t think clearly anymore.It’s easy to assume you need to manage your time better or be more disciplined. But what you may not be considering is how much thinking you’ve already asked your brain to do.In this episode, I’m talking about cognitive load, how it affects your ability to focus and why you can have enough time to get something done, but not enough mental capacity left to actually do it.This episode was originally the final part of a three-part series about capacity. You can also go back and listen, or listen again, to:Episode 40: What is your decided capacity?Episode 41: You’re not running out of time (you’re running out of energy)Together, they’ll help you think differently about your capacity, not just in terms of how much time you have, but everything else that affects what you can realistically take on.Let’s Connect:Website: kristawilliamson.comFacebook: @kristawilliamsoncoachingInstagram: @kristawilliamsoncoachingSchedule a free consultation

You hired a team because you needed help. But you’re still answering questions, making decisions and getting pulled into things you thought someone else was looking after. You finally sit down to get something important done and ten minutes later someone needs an answer, someone else wants you to check something, and there’s a problem that needs to be dealt with. Before you know it, the time you set aside is gone and you’re wondering why, with a team in place, you’re still involved in so much. It’s frustrating, and it can leave you wondering if your team is ever going to be able to handle more without you. In this episode, I’m talking about how this happens and why it can be such an easy pattern to get into, especially when you’re used to being the person who knows what to do.I’ll also give you a few things to think about if you want your team to handle more without you, so you can spend less time involved in their work and more time doing your own.Let’s Connect:Website: kristawilliamson.comFacebook: @kristawilliamsoncoachingInstagram: @kristawilliamsoncoachingSchedule a free consultation

You have a lot to do.Some of it is urgent. Some of it is important. And some of it has been sitting on your list for far longer than you’d like to admit.You know you can’t do everything.But deciding what to focus on, what can wait, and what you’re simply not going to do can feel much harder than it needs to.Especially when it all feels important.In this episode, we’re looking at why prioritizing can feel so difficult, even when you know what to do.You’ll walk away with a better understanding of what makes choosing so hard and a simple way to start making those decisions with more confidence, so you can spend less time spinning and more time on the work you’ve decided matters.And once you understand why prioritizing can be so hard, the next question is: how do you actually do it? Episodes 27 and 28 will help with that:Episode 27: How to Figure Out What’s Most Important (When It All Feels Equally Important)Episode 28: How to Get Your Priority Work Done (When Your Days Are Busy)Let’s Connect:Website: kristawilliamson.comFacebook: @kristawilliamsoncoachingInstagram: @kristawilliamsoncoachingSchedule a free consultation

You’ve built your business by figuring things out as you go.When something goes wrong, you deal with it and when you need to make something happen, you find a way. When things don’t go according to plan, you work harder, change course and somehow manage to land on your feet.And you have years of evidence that this works.So you keep going.But financially, things might not feel quite as good as your growing sales suggest. Cash is tighter than you think it should be. You’re making bigger decisions with more money at stake, and there are questions about the financial health of your business that you know you can’t really answer.Still, sales are growing. Things are working. And you’ve always figured it out before.So why would you stop now?In this episode, I’m talking about what happens when the way you’ve always operated starts to collide with the financial reality of the business you’ve grown and why that can be so difficult to see while things are going well.Let’s Connect:Website: kristawilliamson.comFacebook: @kristawilliamsoncoachingInstagram: @kristawilliamsoncoachingSchedule a free consultation

Somewhere along the way you started using your goals and your results as a way to measure success or failure. Goal setting and goal achievement became a weapon you used against yourself, instead of a tool that you used to operate your business. This became a problem because when you hit your goals you felt successful and when you didn’t it felt like you were failing. It hung over you, it affected how you showed up in your business, how you approached challenges and problems, and instead of helping you, it became something that stood in your way.You've probably been using goals like this for years, every quarter, every launch, without ever stopping to notice what this was doing to you and your business. This episode is about how and why that happens, the impact it has, and most importantly, how to turn this around and start using goal setting and goal achievement as an effective tool instead.Let’s Connect:Website: kristawilliamson.comFacebook: @kristawilliamsoncoachingInstagram: @kristawilliamsoncoachingSchedule a free consultation

You remember what it took to get this business off the ground. The early mornings, the late nights, saying yes before you knew how you'd pull it off and then figuring it out anyway. Nobody handed you a team or a budget. You just gave it everything you had, because there was too much riding on it not to.So now, when someone suggests you slow down, delegate more, stop answering every message the second it comes in, this feels scary. Because if that's what got you here, doesn't letting go of it mean letting go of the thing that made your business successful in the first place?That fear makes complete sense. But it's not telling you what you think it is. Your business needs something different from you now, and hustle might be exactly what's in the way. Let’s Connect:Website: kristawilliamson.comFacebook: @kristawilliamsoncoachingInstagram: @kristawilliamsoncoachingSchedule a free consultation

You're having a pretty good morning, getting through your priorities, and something unexpected happens to set you off. Maybe you get a call from an upset customer or an important delivery gets messed up and you see red, and you let the entire team know how you feel about it. Maybe it’s someone on your team who keeps making the same mistake and before you know it you’re snapping at them or barking the instructions out. You know these aren’t your best moments, that your reactions aren’t helping anyone, but you don’t think there’s really anything that can be done about them.  You can’t seem to control them. You’re someone who says what you’re thinking and you’re not good at hiding how you feel, which means you can’t control your reactions — or can you?This episode is going to teach you how to stay in control when things go sideways, so you respond in a way that actually solves the problem and feels like you.Let’s Connect:Website: kristawilliamson.comFacebook: @kristawilliamsoncoachingInstagram: @kristawilliamsoncoachingSchedule a free consultation

You know exactly who this episode is talking about. The employee who needs to talk everything through. Who brings their mood into every interaction. Who always has a situation that needs an exception.And it’s frustrating you. You feel resentful about the time it takes and disappointed that it never really seems to change things — no matter how much of your time you give it. You don’t love this part about being a boss but you also don’t want to be a jerk. And you don’t want them to quit. Because you really don’t have time for that either.  It’s just the ugly side of being an independent business owner, or is it?This episode will turn your current view of the situation upside down. And it will show you a different problem and solution so you can finally solve it for yourself. Let’s Connect:Website: kristawilliamson.comFacebook: @kristawilliamsoncoachingInstagram: @kristawilliamsoncoachingSchedule a free consultation