Sometimes you have to ask yourself, “Is this a problem to be solved, or a tension to be lived with?”
Some examples of tensions to be lived with are:
- Working in a family business – the family dynamic likely isn’t going away anytime soon. Those personalities will always be in the mix.
- Industry cycles. Your business may have crunch seasons or crunch hours during the day or week.
- People issues. We have hopes that one day we won’t have any HR issues, because we read about a business in Fast Company that is run by wunderkinds that have finally put these issues behind them with their ultra-progressive people policies. Search ‘google employee complaints’ sometime for some enlightening reading.
If it’s a tension to be lived with, take a different view of your situation. Decide if you can live with the family personalities in the business, work hard during the busy times, or get good at dealing with HR issues. If you really feel like that particular tension is not for you, find something else. But realize of course that you’re trading one tension (that you know) for others that you don’t.