What do I say to my team member when he or she comes to me and says, “I need to take a step back.”? That’s a very good question. There’s no right or wrong in the answers but this is the thing that Masa and I have been doing for the past 10 years. When we find people, people sometimes come to you and say, “I think I need to take a break. I’m a little bit tired. I need to take some steps back.” There’re a couple of things. First of all, the first thing is to have an honest conversation with them, with no consequences. You make it aware and always pre frame that conversation as ‘Whatever happens after this conversation, whatever you choose to do, I understand that you’re gonna want to take a step back. I just want to understand you better and know what I can improve if it is something that I didn’t do right. What can I improve in the future for myself?” Then you can have that honest conversation. You can ask them questions and find out exactly where they’re at and the reason why they feel they need to take a step back. That’s one thing.
Obviously when they say, “I need to take a step,” most of the time it’s because people feel like they’re overworked, overwhelmed, things are happening in their lives and it goes back to, are we giving them enough results in their business? When we’re talking about business, for example. If we’re not giving them enough results for them, the price to pay for the feeling that they have is not high enough. When the feelings are overwhelming or they feel too tired, too exhausted, they are working too much and the results are not there, obviously that overweights the negativity that it brings. Then obviously they feel they need to take a step back.
It’s always about keeping that balance. I think, when you’re talking to your team members as you are tracking their results and you keep them accountable so they don’t get to a point where they’re burnt out and then they feel they need to step back. That’s one thing. The other thing, the second thing that Masa and I always have a look to in the case of our business, we say, “Okay, well if that is happening often in our business, what are the demographics of these people?” For example, there’s usually somebody with a family with kids. Usually with school holidays, they feel overwhelmed because the kids are back from school. They need to spend more time with them. They have the husband or the wives. They have a lot of family commitments. They feel like they need to take a step back from the business, which is great and then you need to allow them obviously to do all that.
What I would be thinking in terms of my business so I can get more results is, how can I get different demographics in my business, somebody that is younger maybe or somebody that is older than these demographics that will want to take holiday vacation with their kids when they have holidays? That way, I can balance out how my business is performing. I said two main things. First of all, obviously you address that person and you talk to them and you find out exactly where they’re at and what is the reason why they feel they need to take a step back. Second of all, I have a look at my business and I think, “Okay, well maybe I need to change the demographics that I have in my business so I have a little bit of everything, the same way that I have different countries to balance out whether one country is developing more or less or having more business in one than the other.” That way, you balance out your business and your income always stays stable.
