At last you can see the Christmas break coming. Rest, relaxation, wine, friends … but the holiday period can be about much more than that. Used well it is time for resolution.

We are lucky living in the Southern Hemisphere. Sure we don’t experience Christmas in the snow. But instead of the few days of public holidays for Christmas and New Year that the Northerners get, we holiday on, dosed up with vitamin D, good wine, family and friendship.

In the blast that is the Christmas/New Year week, we eat, drink, party with friends and rejoin the family. This blurred patch sits well between the end of year rush to get business matters tidied up and the calm of a few weeks of quiet relaxation.

There is both peace and disturbance in these contemplative weeks. Peace comes when the business rush has gone and the shorts and togs come on. We can kick back, soaking up the slowness of it all, smell the roses and take pleasure from the moment.

But disturbance lurks when the brain awakens after the festivities and activates thoughts that sat at the back of your head, crowded out by the busy year end at work and Christmas celebrations.

In the peace of the holiday the big stuff that you’ve filed away in the back of your mind can come to the fore. It’s no longer crowded out by the busy ‘today’ stuff.

The brain is supported in the awakening by the sudden completion of one year, so quickly followed by the beginning of the next year. In a nanosecond we go from ‘thank God that year’s over’ to ‘here we go again’.

The matters that have lain in the back of the head that begin to emerge are invariably big issues like:

• My son is not the right person to run the business.
• We need an independent director.
• I really don’t know how we are going to cope next year.
• I have to get better balance into my life.
• We’ve got to take advantage of the opportunities in Australia.
• How can we get some imagination and innovation into our business practices?
• The business is growing beyond my capability to manage it.

In all likelihood, these ‘blockbusters’ have been in your mind for some time. You have known all the time that your son is not up to it, but it’s easier to leave things as they are — it’s my son we’re talking about here. But the holiday period is valuable because unlike any other time you have space to think these big issues through and hopefully decide on your best course of action.

You might have conversations about these big matters with your close friends while walking along the beach, with your life partner over a glass or two of wine or with yourself in a contemplative setting.

There is no doubt this period is a learning one. Space and time allows us to really listen to others. And ‘the others’ need not be close friends; indeed they may be people you have met for the first time at a mate’s barbeque. These ‘new people’, from whom you learn, will be from different backgrounds — Auckland bankers, overseas visitors, Southland farmers, Maori trustees. From these people we might learn:

• It’s time to take up some interest rate swaps in this period of the economic cycle.
• China’s annual growth rate may well reduce to below 6%.
• The unemployment rate in South Auckland will exceed 15% next year.
• There is going to be opportunity to pick up some failed wine businesses in 2009.

Of course these learnings and others may come from other sources, such as readings enjoyed at less than breakneck speed. This is the time to put aside the light and frivolous and explore new and more challenging topics of interest.

But it is the big issues you will want to progress. For years now I have taken a day near the end of my summer holidays to slip away on my own, armed with pencil and paper. I find a secluded spot on the banks of the river near our bach, on the eastern side of Lake Taupo. Leading up to this day I will have allowed various thoughts to come to mind and, if I have time, think about them rather than push them aside. But on this chosen day there is no escape. I am meeting with myself, I know the agenda; I am going to address the big issues.

Initially I might brainstorm the thoughts, probably putting them in some form of structure by mind mapping (as opposite). I write the central thought in the centre of the page and then jot down issues, possible solutions and actions as thought starters.

Let’s assume I was dealing with the issue that ‘my son is not right for the business’. (I actually don’t have a son so there is no chance of offence!)

At this point I think as objectively as I can about the issues, pondering all the possibilities, opening my mind as much as I can to all the ideas sitting idle over the holidays, the people who could assist me with the issue and so on. Once you have got as far as you can, take a swim, go for a walk or have lunch. When you return to it look at where you have got to and ask objectively ‘have I thought of everything?’ Once you have all the information in front of you, move into decision mode. What is the best thing to do in this circumstance? Decide in the interest of the business, of you the owner, of your son and of others affected by the outcome. Push yourself in this process.

Do not allow yourself to return to the convenient. Even if that is where you do come back to, firstly consider the more challenging solutions. Always ask yourself ‘what is the implication of the solution?’ Keep ‘unpeeling the onion’ as a former boss used to say to me. Undress the problem. Don’t address symptoms; only use them as evidence of the core issue. You must get to the core issue and address what is the right thing to do.

Once resolution is reached, write it down. Now you have given yourself a commitment, you must follow through. Armed with the preferred solution you now move to implementation. Consider how you will undertake the solution, the people involved, the capacity in which you will involve them, the timing of their involvement, which people get told when and so on. These are very important issues and, as such, you must mine the execution to the last detail.
But while on the banks of the river it is enough that you have captured the solution, recognised its magnitude and appreciated the detailed planning required for its execution.

In my case I would return to my bach with a list of the key things I was going to do in the upcoming work year. In all likelihood I would share the list with my wife who no doubt would disagree with parts, in which case I may reconsider, or contemplate her perspective then leave the solution as decided.

Over the course of my career I have been increasingly aware of the loneliness of those in charge. As CEO of a large company I was conscious of responsibility and accountability to a degree that none of those reporting to me could feel. But this loneliness is even more acute for owner managers who don’t have the infrastructure of work colleagues with whom to share their issues.

Owner managers learn how to deal with this loneliness through the process of coping. We are, as they say, the result of our experiences.

Loneliness can be overcome by finding a business soul mate with whom to share your thoughts and find solutions. I recently visited Richard Krebs, owner of the engineering moulding business Hyspec. Richard participated in the first Icehouse Owner Manager programme back in 2001. It was great to see his turnover is now up four-fold, but what he found most helpful following the programme was the quarterly meetings he instituted with three other owner managers (not necessarily related to engineering). These meetings helped relieve him of his business loneliness and gave him fresh ideas. Before attending our programme Richard arrived home at 6pm exhausted and immediately went to bed; today he is unburdened and now eats dinner before going to sleep!

So don’t let the Christmas break pass you by. Use the peace and tranquility offered by this time to think through your big issues and put pen to paper to resolve the best course of action. Armed with these resolutions you will hit the ground running in 2010.