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Why action is critical to overcoming the anxiety caused by uncertainty

Pavlo identified the 5 biggest issues threatening the survival and growth of established business owner, due to Covid and the challenges of lockdown:

  1. Cannot get access to funding
  2. Struggling to find new clients
  3. Cannot pay rent/suppliers
  4. Motivating staff and ensuring performance
  5. Anxiety and fear which is largely oriented around uncertainty.

He has already shared strategies and remedies for the first 4 and now talks to the last concern – Overcoming anxiety in order to set strategy for the year ahead. Listen to these in the podcast or read on for the key takeouts:

A lot of business owners are looking for a path of action, to simply tackle that anxiety.

What lies ahead is an extended period of uncertainty around Covid. Pavlo pointed to the time it takes to vaccinate people, when the vaccine becomes available – it is as slow as 4 people per hour, which means it will take a very long time for any vaccination programme to become nationally effective. As always, he reminds us to Expect the Best but Plan for the Worst!

The reason action it is important is because it puts you in control. Taking a view and acting to build your business towards a destination, despite uncertainty offers you a number of benefits including:

  1. Time – you can never get it back.

    When the lockdown happened, many people didn’t invest in growth, they learnt to bake bread and waited for it to pass. It was crazy, because for a business owner, the way you behave now, must build toward something in the future. At all times.

  2. Lead – you are the leader!

    The word comes from lædan, which means leading from the front, If you don’t lead in your business, who are your team supposed to look to?

  3. Act – the act of acting empowers you.

    So long as it’s directed, then over time it’s no different to compound interest and investing: it builds mass, and momentum.

  4. Energy agility

    It is so important to be growth mindset oriented all the time so long as you have control over the pedal, accelerator, steering wheel and rudder of your business. If you are, it creates a cultural mindset in the organisation that the whole team orientates around, and this puts you at the front of the market.

  5. Signals – how to identify the earliest signals of change and new change.

    Pavlo used an analogy of someone wanting to cross the highway. A BUSY highway. As a pedestrian standing still, all you see is a stream of fast moving cars. Whereas if you are in motion in the traffic – you see the gaps.

  6. No one cares – the brutal truth!

    If you don’t care, no-one else will, and if you have invested everything in that business, it is fundamental that you get out of the headlights and find a strategy to act.

In the next discussion, Pavlo will speak to the three strategies that he sees as critical to adopt to get you and your business on a positive trajectory to growth.