A new internet-based tool aims to help small business owners deal with stress, particularly around prioritising their time
You are at your desk, working on something important when a colleague asks you for help. Or your phone rings and it’s a client wanting an update on a project. Or – ping! – something you need to do pops into your mind, or onto your screen.
You stop what you are doing, and switch to the new task.
You probably shouldn’t, says Jonathan Black, an organisational psychologist, especially if what you are abandoning is important. Moving focus can mean running out of time for the original task, which in turn can mean getting stressed, and/or sacrificing time with family to get both done.
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“Do you actually need to react straight away?” Black asks in a video entitled ‘How to take control when you are overwhelmed’.
“Are you doing it because you are afraid you’ll forget something? If so, write that thing down and do the [new] task when time suits you better.”
“Do things deliberately and with reason, instead of just reacting.”
Touché. Guilty as charged. Though journalists working on too many things all at once aren’t the target market of Black’s video.
Instead it is part of the Brave in Business e-learning series launched this week – a collaboration between the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment and Spark Business Lab.
The programme includes six videos focused on two main themes: prioritising when you are overwhelmed; and being in the right headspace for success. The videos and accompanying downloadable resources and check-in tools are aimed at small business owners struggling with running a company in uncertain times and trying to find some work-life balance.
The origins of the Brave in Business programme came from research into business capability, particularly into challenges faced by small business owners, says MBIE Head of Small Business Tui Rutherford.
In the past the focus may have been on practical areas: exporting, management skills, accounting. Wellbeing wouldn’t historically have been seen as a ‘capability’ gap, Rutherford says. But as business owners were hit by earthquakes, floods, Covid lockdowns, supply chain disruptions, worker shortages, and more, the research showed mental health was a critical area.
But it was one SME owners didn’t always recognise, and certainly didn’t always talk about.
“If you run a business, you have probably thought about the importance of looking after your assets, things that help you generate revenue and add value – machines, vehicles, raw materials, intellectual property,” says organisational psychologist John Eatwell in another of the Brave in Business videos, ‘Looking after yourself is good for business’.
“But remember, your most important asset is you, especially if you are working alone or in a very small team.”
When you are in a good headspace, Eatwell says, you can be creative, think clearly and make decisions efficiently; you are pleasant to be around.
When you are tired, stressed and living on coffee, that all changes.
From a physiological point of view, stress sends blood (a delivery mechanism for fuel for your brain) from the front of your brain (the part that looks after complex things like creativity and judgment) to the back, the part in charge of your emotions, Eatwell says.
"Your IQ drops by 15 points. You get grumpy and start acting emotionally. That won't help you give good customer service or treat suppliers well.
“If you look after yourself, your business will do better.”
Some 92 percent of businesses in New Zealand have fewer than six staff; 97 percent have fewer than 20 people.
Rutherford says the Spark Lab programme, which includes hands-on digital workshops on topics such as efficiency and optimising your systems and processes, made the telco a good partner for the Brave in Business programme.
“Spark was already doing work to support SMEs and we saw synergies there. We wondered if they would say yes, and they did.”
The source material for the series came from the Institute of Organisational Psychology.
Rutherford says the biggest challenge launching the series was translating the academic terminology that often surrounds the topic into everyday language, and making the programme as relevant to a florist as an electrician, a hairdresser as a restaurant-owner.
An increasingly uncertain environment
Greg Clark, who heads up Spark’s SME Channels division, says small business owners often start their own companies to have more flexibility and balance in their lives. Often it doesn’t work out like that.
Many owner-operators spend way too much time working and don’t prioritise their mental health or their family, Clark says. Add in something like a Covid lockdown or a natural disaster and it’s not surprising things start to fall apart.
“People are operating in an increasingly uncertain environment, and we know fear of the unknown is a big cause of stress and anxiety.”
When during lockdown Spark provided access to the “Take a Breath” mindfulness programme, first for staff and later for customers, Clark says the uptake was “remarkable”.
“Thousands of people used it, and we got so much positive feedback.”
As an ‘enablement business’, Spark relies on its customers’ companies to grow for its own growth, Clark says. So supporting SME-focused health and wellbeing projects makes sense.
“For businesses to be successful, they need a strong foundation. And for small business owners, looking after themselves, their teams and their families is an important part of their success.”
Spark is a foundation supporter of Newsroom
