Your pallet business needs savvy leadership to navigate through the unusual times business leaders are facing. As we approach the end of 2020, a challenging year to put it mildly, here are some ideas successful leaders live by and habits they follow. We hope these inspire you to make positive changes in your own life and business in 2021 and beyond.
• “It’s during hard times that the winners, and losers, get exposed.”
— Warren Buffet
Hard times can be intimidating but they are also the times to dig deep and tap into the potential of yourself and your organization. Try not to lose your head and become trapped in a scarcity mindset that will cause you to make poor decisions and harm your business in the long run. An example might be cutting too much and leaving yourself unable to rebound when times improve. Then when the economy picks up, you can’t take advantage of the upturn because you laid off salespeople or too many workers on your production team.
• Read more.
Many great leaders follow this simple advice, and there is little debate that reading is one of the best ways to improve your mind and gain access to new ideas. As 2020 winds down, take the time to build a reading list that can help you improve your own leadership skills and learn new ideas that can be applied to your pallet business. Pick up a new or classic business book and brush up your skills. And of course, the Pallet Enterprise has fresh new ideas for pallet professionals month after month.
• Plan tomorrow today.
This is a smart way to keep yourself focused and to reduce stress, so you get a good night’s sleep. It’s also a good way to reduce procrastination and achieve clarity. It’s as simple as taking time at the end of the business day or before lights go out at night to review what was accomplished today and write out some bullet points on what needs to be done the following day. This gets things out of your head and on paper and gives you direction on what to focus on.
• Take action; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
“Better 80% out the door than 100% in the drawer” as the old saying goes. Many of the best leaders and companies avoid overthinking, overanalyzing and basically the curse of perfectionism. If you have an idea to improve yourself or your pallet business, take action on that idea and do something to make it a reality as quickly as possible. Otherwise, it will be quickly forgotten.
• Invest in yourself and look after your health.
A healthy body leads directly to a healthy mind and that will lead to having the mental clarity and energy to do your best. It has been noted that productivity is not so much about managing tasks as managing the energy to get tasks done. People who run pallet businesses are usually super busy, but if you don’t look after yourself, you may only have a couple of hours of peak performance each day. However, if you live a healthier lifestyle and get enough sleep, that can allow you to double or even triple the hours of peak performance you have to accomplish goals.
The pandemic has led to economic uncertainty and accelerated change. That’s why it’s more important than ever to stay focused on being the best leader you can be and to maintain a positive mindset as we all look forward to a brand-new year.
