As an entrepreneur, you know what it means to be on your game. Many times
you're under pressure because your personal performance will have a major impact
on the success of your business. All at once, you might be pitching your first
new client, trying to land your firm’s largest customer, meeting with investors
or preparing an industry speech.
Such situations are usually accompanied by stress that threatens to push you
off track. Here are some tips to help you stay focused and at your best when it
matters the most.
I tell clients that you need to take care of yourself all the time if you
want to be great some of the time. In a
Harvard Business Review article, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz also support
this view by comparing executives to athletes. Like athletes, corporate leaders
must spend as much effort renewing energy as they do expending it by building
physical, mental and spiritual endurance.
Think about it: You would never expect an athlete who doesn’t exercise,
sleep, or fuel her body with healthy food to focus and excel. Yet this is
exactly the regimen many entrepreneurs are training under. This might work for a
while, but not if you want to be on your game for the longer term.
Physical conditioning is the underpinning of excellent performance. But top
athletes also combine techniques to stay focused before a big game. Here are
some tricks that help manage stress before an important event:
1) Research the room. Learn everything you can about the people you’ll
be meeting with. The more you know about the history and dynamics of the people
involved, the better you’ll be able to anticipate the questions they will ask.
Much stress comes from not knowing. The more knowledge you walk in with, the
better you’ll feel.
2) Prepare and practice. Know the points you want to make, and
practice them out loud. Rehearse your tone, cadence and body language. For group
events, it’s helpful to stage the meeting ahead of time to determine who sits
where and how to hand off different parts of the presentation so it flows
naturally.
3) Visualize your success. The ability to visualize your success has
been shown to improve your chances of achieving it. As Henry Ford said, "Whether
you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right." Mentally go through a
perfect scenario for how the meeting will go, including your peak performance.
This should be an ongoing internal movie that you view a few times before the
actual event.
4) Find your pre-game ritual. Many executives have their own version
of a pre-game ritual that helps pump them up and makes them feel positive before
walking into a big meeting. I use laughter. If I’ve just been laughing and
talking about something fun, I will carry those feelings into the meeting. While
driving to an important event, I find a way to laugh and trade entertaining
stories with the other folks I’m going with. If I’m alone, I’ll call a friend.
Some people like to listen to their favorite rock band or even to relax quietly.
Find what works for you, and do it consistently.
5) Breathe. When you’re about to go into the meeting or event, you can
lose all the benefits of the upfront work if you allow stress to take over.
Without realizing it, we tend to tighten our shoulders and clench our jaws. Our
blood pressure goes up, and the heart beats faster. An age-old cure for anxiety
is to breathe deeply. I suggest four counts in and three counts out. In just a
few seconds, breathing can counter the physical effects of stress and keep them
from taking over.
Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. Whether you plan to win or just
finish, you’re training for the long term.