Valerie Williams on Managing Stress in Start-ups
Essence, July 1997
As a professional coach working with both individuals and corporations,
Valerie Williams says her role is to bring expertise out in
a client, rather than bring expertise to a client. Williams,
who has degrees in occupational therapy and counseling psychology,
spent 13 years as a health-care executive with the Prudential
Insurance company where she coached informally. She launched her own
business in 1994 in Edison, New Jersey, and much of her work now focuses
on entrepreneurs--coaching them to "become bigger people" as
they move to build a business. Yet starting a business is always
stressful, and becoming a bigger person first means learning how to
manage the stress that comes with a start-up. Williams shares these
thoughts on how to handle such stress:
What aspect of launching a business is most stressful?
The demand it places on you in terms of who you now have to be. And
you do have to be someone different. It requires a new identity. If
you were a corporate professional before, you had a lot of answers
and support built in--the Xerox machine, the secretary. There's relative
safety in the corporation. But as an entrepreneur there is no safety,
no structure. Your business will be a reflection of you. And you have
to be personally big enough to run the business.
What do you mean by "big enough"?
You have to have vision, self-management and discipline. Lots of people
have talent and energy when they start a business, and they think that's
all they need. But that's only one small part. If your business is
making dresses, why do you want to make dresses? What's your
vision? There are so many decisions involved in how you spend your
time and money when running a business that, if you don't have a clear
vision of what you want to do, you can become scattered and unfocused,
and that leads to stress. Being big enough means you are strong enough,
firm enough and confident enough to stay focused on your vision.
What can be done to alleviate the stress that comes with a start-up?
A lot of stress management involves being clear about your boundaries,
what's okay to do and what's not. The tendency is to want to do everything
for everybody, and that's a big mistake. For example, when I first
started, my individual clients wanted to work with me any time of the
day or evening. If they wanted me to be available at six o'clock in
the evening, I was there. If they wanted me on Saturdays, I was there.
And I was running ragged. Now it's only okay for individual clients
to work with me three days a week at certain times of the day.
Is this realistic if you're trying to build a business?
Setting boundaries means you've got to be able to let some business
walk away. That's the hard part, and that can be scary. You're afraid
not to be available. But if you stay in fear, you will stay small.
When I first started out, I had hidden beliefs that kept me small and
stressed out.
For example?
I thought I wouldn't have a life, so subconsciously, I kept the business
small. My hidden belief was that if it grew, I wouldn't have time for
myself. You might believe that the business will be bigger than you
are. Or you think you can't say no and turn down business. There is
often ongoing fear about who you will be if you become super-successful.
These unconscious thoughts all add up to stress.
How does professional coaching help the entrepreneur?
A professional coach focuses on who you are while you're becoming
an entrepreneur. And the key to any success and stress reduction means
having a strong personal foundation.
