The Red Zone Effect

A year or two ago my employer was kind enough to cover the costs for me to see an executive coach, to accelerate my skills as a professional and a leader.  It was a good opportunity and I had many “Ah-ha!” moments during my sessions.  One that has stuck with me for a long time, and that I believe is something that all startup owners ought to be aware of, or anybody for that matter, is something I’ll call The Red Zone Effect.

Basically, we’re all in the startup game because we’re ambitious, motivated, talented and competitive, or some combination of those things.  And, being that type of person, it’s very easy in the early stages to push yourself as hard as you can, or harder.  You want to get out of that uncomfortable negative cash flow period, or accelerate your profitability so that you can reinvest in more staff, resources or product upgrades.  And so, you work tirelessly every night, burning the midnight oil and pushing yourself to go the extra mile – and then further.

What my coach explained to me was that we’re all basically running in a circle trying to balance our productivity with our personal life, in order to maintain a healthy level of stress.  Essentially, if you’ll look at the image of the bull’s eye included here, we are performing at our most optimal level when we are in the Purple Zone – running nicely between an energetic relaxed state and very stressed out.  A healthy level of stress means that stress is telling you what you need to do to avoid bad things from happening and is pushing you to achieve tough goals.  That’s when you’re most productive and that’s what’s happening in the Purple Zone.  The best way to maintain this healthy level of stress is to slow down and pop out of the productive Purple Zone every once in awhile, into the slightly relaxing but active Blue Zone where you might hang out with some friends, play a round of golf, or otherwise get some fresh air, some social time, or whatever it is that helps you truly unwind.  That might take a few hours and ought to have you waking up ready to go at it again the next day.

The problem is, most people run and run inside the Purple Zone until centrifugal force pushes them into the Red Zone, where an unhealthy level of stress is – where they are no longer being productive, because their body, mind, and spirit are worn out.  But, what’s even worse is that many people just keep running – running and running in the Red Zone because they think that there is no time to slow down, no time to take a breath and relax.  During this time, they’re pushing themselves further and further into the outer rim of the Red Zone and, all the while, producing poor results, more negative energy with their team, and overall less output than what they’re capable of when they’re in the Purple Zone.  They might be spending 16 hours a day at 50% efficiency instead of 10-12 hours a day at 100%.

If you’re the type of person who is doing this, eventually what happens is, your body and mind shut down and they reactively hurl you into the center of the circle, into the Green Zone, which is basically a lethargic zone where you literally don’t want to think or move for as long as it takes to recover from the long period of stress you’ve put yourself through.  The only thing you’re capable of is sitting on your couch and watching television for 2-3 days, or trying to get out of bed for 4 hours in the morning with no success.  Now, you’ve not only wasted valuable time working at 50% effectiveness while you were in the Red Zone, but you’re stuck in the Green Zone for however long it takes you to recover from your high levels of stress and not being productive at all.

The point is, no matter how aggressive your goals are, or what challenges you’re facing in your business, if you fail to take the time to keep yourself under a healthy level of stress, you’re actually not doing you or your business any good.  You’re wasting time being unproductive when you could be performing at an optimal level.  You have to take time to create balance in your life and every good manager does this.  So, if you’re reading this article and feeling as though you’re already in the Red Zone or at the edge of Purple, think about something you’d like to do tonight – see a movie, go out to a nice dinner, visit with old friends – and make it happen.  Tomorrow, you will wake up feeling refreshed and ready for action.  In the long run, you’ll be more effective and, frankly, more fun for your employees and clients to be around.  And, if you can’t make time to occasionally enjoy life, what good is being a successful business person anyway?

 

Joey Flores
Managing Partner
 joey@StartupArmy.com | http://www.linkedin.com/in/joeyjflores
Startup Army | www.StartupArmy.com
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Tagged as: productivity, startup advice, work life balance, work related stress