By Ari Weinzweig, Zingerman’s Co-Founding Partner
originally written for Specialty Food Magazine, March 2009

Successfully running a retail operation is about more than keeping an eye on trends and SKUs. It starts with a balanced mindset and focused outlook. However, talking about ways I keep a clear head—from writing in a journal to focusing on details to cooking a full meal at night—may seem insignificant when there’s so much uncertainty around us. But if you and I as leaders don’t stay centered, what is going to happen to the people we’re supposed to be leading? That’s why I’m sharing ten things that have helped me stay grounded through many years of challenges, obstacles, diversions and distractions.

1. Being Self-Aware
This is about watching myself with the same eye for detail that I watch everything else. If I can’t stay on top of what I’m doing, then everything else goes downhill. So I try, ever imperfectly, to monitor my moods, reactions, feelings, breathing, energy level and everything else that’s going on inside me. It’s helpful because it allows me the opportunity to modify what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, and to maximize my own effectiveness and that of the organization. If I find myself sliding into negativity, being mindful helps me catch it before I create a big organizational mess (not that I could ever do that!).

2. Writing Thoughts Down
For at least 15 minutes every morning I write down whatever pops into my head. It could be anything from new ideas, to complaints about customers, to the great service work of someone new working the counter at the Bakehouse. This process provides me with a bit of a runway from which to effectively take off for the day’s work.

The point is to pause, reflect and to get myself centered. If I’m frustrated, it’s good for me to recognize that early so that I can keep from overreacting if someone jumps in my face the minute I get to the store. If I’m low on energy, I have time to figure out how to rev myself up before I get too far into the day.

3. Appreciating Others
In this business, it’s easy to sink into frustration and anger over what’s not being done right. But for everything I can find that isn’t right (and I’m good at finding these things), there are almost always about 100 things that are being done well. What I’ve learned is that the more I focus—and comment—on those good things, the more they happen. It is an effective cycle to get into. And, when things aren’t going as planned (which, of course, happens all the time), the earlier focus on positive achievement gives me more credibility when I have to have more difficult conversations.

4. Working Out
I swear by running. For me it’s a chance to clear my head and let my thoughts wander. It  is the equivalent, I think, of meditating. I have 30 to 60 minutes where I have no distractions, no questions and no need to smile or say anything.  I just run. My mind goes where it wants to go. My legs keep the whole thing moving, my breathing stays pretty steady. When it’s over I feel better. And I’ve usually come up with two or three large and small insights or ideas in the process.

5. Minding the Details
I stay much more focused and grounded when I keep my attention to detail at a high level. To help with this I’ve trained myself to use all five senses together and tune in to as much of what’s going on as possible. I listen, watch, smell, taste and touch which are, of course, at the core of what we do in the food world. It helps me to stay in the moment and not drift off into thinking about what could have been/should have been/might have been or what I should have/could have done differently. You might want to start by focusing on one sense to use on a particular day. On Monday, you might want to pay attention to what you see. On Tuesday, what you hear and so forth. You’ll be surprised at what you learn.

6. Cooking Every Day
I feel fortunate that the thing I do for a living is also something that helps keep me centered; not everyone gets that kind of continuity in his or her lives. Most every night I go home and cook a full meal and it is truly one of the cornerstones of my routine. It brings me back to a calm, considered and fully flavored place at the end of each and every day.

7. Talking With Friends
This is a huge help for me in staying grounded. When I start to slide into the craziness of leadership life, it’s critical to have good people around to give me a reality check. These people include colleagues within the organization and peers within the industry. But of equal import is finding friends outside of work—the latter are able to listen and share thoughts without all the emotional ebbs and flows that inevitably come up when we stay within the mental walls of our own company.

8. Being in the Moment
Please don’t misunderstand the subhead—being in the moment doesn’t mean, “Live for the moment, past and future be damned.” I work a lot on understanding the past and deciding what I want the future to be like (see more about that in the next section). But having said that, I try to be as actively engaged in what’s happening around me as I can. So much of living in the moment is about noticing, appreciating, listening and learning in the here and now.

It can be difficult but I try to not get caught up in thinking about what I should have done, could have done or drift off into fantasies about the future. Kate Ludeman and Gay Hendricks sum it up well in their book, The Corporate Mystic. They write, “Every minute you spend thinking about the way it used to be or the way it ought to be is a minute you haven’t been thinking about the way you could make it be.”

9. Understanding History and Vision
At Zingerman’s, having a good sense of where we’ve come from, and a clear, documented, agreed-upon vision of the future make it infinitely easier for me to stay living in the moment. No matter what happens in the next half hour, I don’t need to expend energy rethinking where I’m going in the long term—we’ve already decided as a group what our organizational future is going to look like ten years from now. If I lose track of the vision and forget where we’ve committed to going, I start wandering around in a mental panic, burning energy like crazy, making no progress. (If you don’t have a vision of the future documented for your organization and/or yourself, let me again take this opportunity to recommend it—it works. Multiple essays on visioning are available for the asking—email us at zingtrainzingermanscom  (zingtrainzingermanscom)  .)

10. Breathing Deeply
By simply taking a series of deep, even breaths I can help center myself in most any situation. It doesn’t solve the problem at hand but it certainly helps me stay calm enough to make better decisions and avoid doing stupid stuff that gets me into trouble.

Mindful Endings
I can talk about how helpful it is to actively work toward balance and focus, but it can still be difficult to do all the time. It was even harder at the beginning when I was first incorporating these skills and activities. I remember when I first started running, how hard it was to make it ten blocks and how much I never wanted to go again. Those challenging moments were replicated in recent months when I hit the trail again after being sidelined with an injury. It hurt like hell, my rhythm was non-existent, my breathing wasn’t even and I was happy to make it five minutes. The difference is that 20 years ago I wanted to quit. Now I’m just more determined to get myself back in sync. I know that I will continue to run and do all this other stuff around staying centered. It’s easy to find myself losing focus or coming up with reasons not to do them, but I know that they work and that when I use them I do better and the organization and everyone around me does, too. So I will keep at it.