Take a WHAAAAAT? Wait, I can’t be serious!

Oh, but I am. I recently came across an article about a study that the Harvard Business Review published back in 2009 titled Making Time Off Predictable & Required and it got me thinking about the old saying “work smarter, not harder.”

It also got me thinking about how we are likely suppressing our creativity and our visionary leadership when we are constantly plugged in just bouncing from one email and stimulus to the next without real connection and thought.

The study found that:

When the assumption that everyone needs to be always available was collectively challenged, not only could individuals take time off, but their work actually benefited. Our experiments with time off resulted in more open dialogue among team members, which is valuable in itself. But the improved communication also sparked new processes that enhanced the teams’ ability to work most efficiently and effectively.”

I strongly believe that another important theme at play here is the concept of leverage and literally working smarter, not harder. Many of us have heard of the concept of the four-hour work week but we’re not exactly sure how to achieve it. Likewise, as a business owner we are doing our companies a greater service when we focus on the so-called $1,000 an hour jobs versus the busy work that keeps us numb and on the hamster wheel.

One example of leverage that I am working on in my own business is moving my consulting and coaching clients to a group coaching setting. Instead of filling my calendar with back-to-back appointments that frankly make me feel like that hamster, I am serving my clients in a group setting.

Not only have I been able to massively scale up my business by accepting many more clients than I could normally serve one-on-one, but I have also been able to take the extra time to build a bigger and better marketing curriculum and deliver way more value than I could when I was a slave to the clock.

Additionally, my clients are now able to use what I love to call the cannabusiness spirit of collaboration to work with each other to create an amazing road map for this brand new industry.

Of course if I had a client that was adamantly against the group coaching setting, I wouldn’t turn him or her away.

I think most importantly, I am learning that when I challenge my own assumptions about how things should be done, I wind up doing my best work while enjoying life!

I know! Radical concept!!

Sometimes as business owners, especially in a start-up industry like cannabis, we are so busy doing what we think we should do that we never stop to ask ourselves, “Is this really what I want to do? Is this really my highest calling and the best work for the future of my business?”

So as the summer winds down and Labor Day is upon us, I invite all of us to think about ways we can create leverage within our cannabusinesses and carve out much needed downtime — with no phone, no computer and no social media.

If the Harvard Business Review is correct, and they usually are, we will all see greater success after a much needed vacation.