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How well do you manage the ups and downs of your busy and slow periods?

2 min read

Leadership

SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 210,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.

How well do you manage the ups and downs of your busy and slow periods?

    • Very well — I ride the ups and downs easily: 33%
    • Well — I do an OK job balancing the busy and slow times: 52%
    • Not well — I struggle frequently with going up and down: 14%
    • Poorly — I dislike the ups and downs and don’t do well with them: 1%

Enjoy the slow times. Generally folks are pretty good at managing the busy times. The times that are problematic are when things are slow. We get used to being busy so when a slack period hits, it can be unnerving. One of the worst things you can do when that happens is spin up a bunch of new activity to fill the void. Get comfortable with the lulls. Use them to recharge your batteries for when the inevitable busy periods come. Finding peace during those slow periods is a key to tackling the busy periods effectively.

Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS, author of  the upcoming book “The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved” and “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”