The Curse of the First Quarter: Why Q1 Feels Harder Than It Should

If you’re a business owner reading this in January or February, there’s a good chance your team feels different right now.

Maybe someone who was crushing it in November suddenly seems off. You’re getting more “can we talk?” messages than usual. Or performance issues are popping up that weren’t there a month ago.

And if you’re being honest with yourself, you’re probably wondering what you did wrong or what changed to make everything feel harder all of a sudden.

Here’s what we tell every member who joins Mentor Pods: you didn’t do anything wrong, and this isn’t unique to your business.

What you’re experiencing is something we call The Curse of the First Quarter, and it happens to almost every business owner we work with. Understanding why it happens is the first step to handling it better, and that’s exactly what we’re going to walk you through today.

What’s actually happening in your business right now

The holidays just ended, New Year hit, and everyone in your company is suddenly reflecting on their life choices. Your team members are asking themselves questions they don’t ask in July or October: “Is this job right for me? Am I where I want to be? Should I be doing something different with my career?”

These are normal human questions.

But here’s what makes January and February different from every other time of year: in industries where Q1 is naturally slower, your team has way more mental space to sit with those questions instead of just executing and moving forward.

When work slows down, people aren’t as busy, and that’s when the doubt creeps in. Less work means more time to think or scroll LinkedIn and see what other people are doing.

They also have more time to listen to family members who ask uncomfortable questions at holiday gatherings.

Their cousin at Christmas dinner said, “You’re still doing that job?” and planted a seed. Their uncle mentioned something about stable corporate positions with benefits. Or old friends posted about their new role with amazing perks.

All of those comments stick around in January when there’s more time to process them, and suddenly, your solid, reliable team members are questioning everything.

This is why resignations spike in January and February across almost every industry. Performance dips, even among people who aren’t actively looking to leave. And now you’re getting more “we need to talk” conversations right now than you did three months ago. Not because you’re failing as a leader or because your business is struggling. It’s because it’s January, your industry is slower, and your team is human.

Why most business owners handle this wrong

When we talk to business owners who are experiencing this for the first time, most of them make the same mistakes. They see the pattern and immediately start fighting it, scheduling emergency team meetings, giving motivational speeches, and trying to convince people to stay engaged and committed.

They think that if they just communicate better or inspire harder, they can logic people out of the doubt they’re feeling. But you can’t reason someone out of something they didn’t reason themselves into, and the doubt your team is experiencing isn’t rational. It’s emotional, seasonal, and it’s deeply human.

The other common response we see is pretending it’s not happening. Business owners tell themselves, “everyone’s fine, the team is solid, no issues here,” while underneath the surface, people are struggling – questioning and feeling alone in those feelings.

When you don’t acknowledge what’s happening, your team members think they’re the only ones experiencing it, which makes them feel even more isolated. They start thinking, “maybe this means something’s really wrong with me or my fit here,” instead of recognizing it as a normal seasonal pattern that everyone goes through.

How we prepare Mentor Pods members for this

In Mentor Pods, we teach our members to position Q1 not as “the slow months we have to survive” but as “the Power Quarter when we get better.”  We’ll talk about it later, but the core concept is simple: while everyone else panics about being slow, you’re going to use this time strategically to build, improve, and prepare.

When you reframe Q1 for your team, you’re giving them a mission instead of just managing their doubt. Instead of sitting around wondering if they’re in the right place, they’re actively working on projects that make the business stronger.

What you should do this week if you’re experiencing this

If you’re reading this and recognizing the pattern in your own business right now, here’s what we recommend you do immediately:

Acknowledge with yourself that this is normal and it’s not a reflection of your leadership.The Curse of the First Quarter happens to everyone, and knowing about it doesn’t make you immune to it, it just makes you better prepared to handle it.

Talk to your team about what’s happening. You don’t need to make it a big, dramatic thing. Just acknowledge that Q1 can feel different and that you understand if people are experiencing some doubt or restlessness right now.

Check in more often with your key team members. Not to convince them to stay or to give motivational speeches, but just to listen. Sometimes people need to voice what they’re thinking to realize it’s not as serious as it felt in their heads.

Give people something meaningful to work on during the slower period.  Identify one or two internal projects that would actually benefit your business and give your team ownership over making them happen. When people feel productive and purposeful, doubt has less room to grow.

Some people might still leave during Q1, and that’s okay. The ones who were going to leave probably would have left eventually anyway. The ones who stay are your solid core, and they’re stronger for having gone through the pattern with you while understanding what was happening.

We see this play out every single year with our members. The first year they experience Q1 with us, they’re nervous and uncertain. The second year, they’re prepared and confident. By the third year, they actually look forward to Q1 because they know it’s when they’re going to build the foundation for their best year yet. That’s what happens when you stop fighting the curse and start preparing for it instead.

Want to know how we prepared them? Check out how we turn the curse of the first quarter into the Power Quarter, our framework for using Q1 as your competitive advantage instead of something to survive.