Grow A Thriving Wellness Business By Reducing Employee Stress

If your boss is stressing out about business results and it’s rolling downhill to you, well, guess what--it’s also rolling down and getting all over your clients.

As a wellness professional, if you are stressed out and overwhelmed, it will leak over to your clients and they will pick it up from you. This is a problem, since your client it coming to you to be refreshed and rejuvenated.

 You, in a state of stress & overwhelm, is actually working against all that you are working towards.

Employee stress is actually what is hurting the company performance.

Let's focus on what matters most -- providing excellent results with your clients.

 What would allow you to provide better results to your client?

Have you done a deep dive as an integrated team to see how the team could collectively serve your client better?

 Here are three places to look at when upleveling your client care:

 Engagement

• How engaged are you with your client?
• Are you excited and welcoming on their arrival?
• Are you following up from previous sessions or even from sessions with other providers in the clinic?
• Is it clear through your conversation with the client that the clinic practices a multidisciplinary approach?
• Are you reminding them about their next appointment before they leave?

 Customer Experience - Think about the client’s experience from start to finish:

• Are you delivering a result that would have the client compelled to go shouting from the rooftops how amazing your service is?
• Do they get excited to come to their appointment with you?
• Do they leave feeling better than when they arrived?
• Are you delivering your brand promise?

 Infrastructure

Your systems and processes will make or break your business and your sanity. You don’t need to invest in multi-million dollar solutions, especially at first. Often times, part of what is preventing a company from growing is that the systems & processes aren't scalable. Take a look at the workflow through the lens of the customer journey, from start to finish. Any place where there are:

• Gaps in time
• Replication of work
• Blackholes or the endless loop...

...you are wasting energy and losing money. If you know of a major issue and how to fix it which would help the overall customer experience, increase revenues and even out the stress levels in the office, speak up about it!

 That is an easy way to contribute to growing the business just in the course of doing your job on a daily basis.

 Now, let’s really dig in...

• How can you show up in your greatness which would be of the highest service to your client?
• Where have you been sliding in your work and what simple steps do you need to do to step it up a notch or two?
• Have you simply been going through the motions?

 Try listening to your clients needs at an even deeper level than before. Be truly present with them and lean into more sensing what the next correct step is instead of being so mental about it all.

 Tap into your well of compassion and extend it to your client. Compassion for all they have experienced and are carrying with them. Now, extend that same compassion to your boss.

 Realize that it’s a lot of pressure to run a business that other people rely on to provide for their families. Every business owner that I’ve ever worked with has taken this burden seriously and has spent countless sleepless nights over how to keep running a solid, sustainable business and not let down those that they employ.

 Part of being great at what you do, also means being a leader to help do what’s best for the whole. Providing excellent service is a great place to start. The next place is upleveling your leadership, regardless of your position or title.

1.  What can you do to help achieve the company goals?
2. Can you provide a top notch customer experience that your client will want to shout from the rooftops about your service to anyone that can listen?
3. Can you encourage them to leave reviews sharing about their experience?
4. Or tell a friend or two about their experience?
5. Can you share with your friends, family or social media how much you enjoy working there?

The more you share about what a great place you work, the more work will flow in for you to work with.

 Your boss needs help knowing which one of their ideas has a “sticky” factor which will move the needle.

 Speak up, give your opinion on what is the best way forward -- from your perspective and be unattached to the outcome.

 Here’s a general guideline on how to approach this crunchy conversation: 

Step 1. Ask to meet with your boss at a time when they can give you their full and undivided attention.

Ask for an appropriate length of time. Usually, 15-30 minutes is sufficient to ask for on their calendar. Remember, your boss is busy so you need to be prepared to deliver your message succinct yet in an impactful way.

Step 2. Prepare to deliver your message.

The worst thing you can do is be unprepared and come off looking like you are complaining and entitled. If you want to create change, you need to show your support and be part of the solution.

Step 3. Deliver your message. Thank them for their time and for meeting with you.

Acknowledge your boss’s directives: “I’ve been thinking a lot about what you’ve been saying lately about improving the clinic’s performance and increasing how many clients we have each month.”

Show Support: “I agree with you, I think we can do a lot more with the clinic than we are currently.”

Take Ownership: Show you are willing to own your part in the overall success: “I know I have a part to play and am willing to do what I can to make our clinic the best one around.”

Get Permission: “Can I share an obstacle that I’m having that is getting in the way?

Obstacle: (Share the obstacle you can’t get around on your own) “You’ve been asking us to do so many different things all at the same time, I’m noticing that even my basic care for my clients is starting to suffer."

Solution Share: (Your suggestion for improvement) “It would be very helpful for me if we could pick fewer things to implement but implement them very well. Going slower would allow us to learn how to do the new things really well before moving on, creating a stronger foundation. For example, I think that if we focused on X, Y and Z now until next quarter and then implement A, B, and C, we would see better results and the team would be less stressed out. A stressed out team is bad for business”

**Note: Be prepared to back up your claims with tangible facts and figures.***

 Check-in & be part of the team looking forward: “Would an idea like that work to achieve what we are aiming for?”

Be co-creative in the process: Don’t be attached to things happening exactly the way you envisioned. Just remember, you aren’t always going to get your way. Things will rarely look like what you imagine they will look like, but as long as things are headed in the correct direction, then you have to be able to go with the flow to some degree.

Most bosses love it when members of their team are being thoughtful about how to do things better and are willing to step up.

The co-creative process could also include brainstorming other ways you can help.

• Beyond those from earlier, what other ways can you move the needle?
• Can you help hold your peers accountable?
• Can you start moving the company culture towards one that is enjoyable and profitable simply by the conversations you have with others?
• Are there major obstacles that suck up your time as part of your day?
• What improvements to the infrastructure would have a huge positive impact?

Share these awarenesses with your boss regularly along with the impact of change would be and keep the conversation going.

If trying the above tactics don’t produce the progress that you were hoping for, it may be time to call in a professional to help guide your business and your boss. Contact me for a free 15 min consultation to see if I can help support your business to grow while reducing the stress and overwhelm.