Strategies to Combat Burnout for You and Your Team

The average professional experiences burnout by the age of 32! The results of this survey also found that remote working is potentially making it worse, as employees felt compelled to work longer hours and the lines between work and downtime became blurred.

But what is burnout....

The term was defined by the psychologist Herbert Freudenberger, who described it as a “state of mental and physical exhaustion caused by one’s professional life”. So being overwhelmed and exhausted by all the things you have to do, while at the same time feeling like you are not doing enough...

There are three factors of burnout: Everyone will experience elements of each one, but particular factors show up more for different people. Burnout can show up differently for men and women.

1 - Emotional exhaustion (Common for Women) - The fatigue that comes from caring too much for too long. Could be Professional, Parenting, Social Activism, anything where you are demanded to care.

2 - Depersonalisation, separating emotionally from work (Common for Men) - The depletion of empathy, caring and compassion.

3 - Decreased sense of accomplishment - The incomparable sense of futility, feeling that nothing you do makes any difference.

These symptoms are a result of chronic stress. To start to understand how to overcome the stress, we need to look at what the causes of stress are - the stressors.

Stress manifests in the same way no matter what the stressor is, being chased by a sabre toothed tiger or living through a global pandemic.

Emily and Amelia Nagoski authors of Burnout talk about the stress response cycle, and how you need to change your body's physiological state to deal with stress in your body.

The Stress Response Cycle is a biological process in our body, that has a Beginning, Middle and an End. The beginning being the Stressor, the thing causing the stress like children, work, traffic. We can't always escape what is activating the stress, and therefore instead we need to separate the stress from the stressor and deal with that directly. Signal to our body that the threat is over.

Whatever you do, don't relax! If you have ever suffered from stress and then been advised to relax, this will not deal with the stress in your body, you need to complete the stress cycle. Although you cannot always deal with the causes of our stress, the good news is you don't have to wait to deal with the stressor to deal with the stress. Here's how:

• Exercise - Any form of physical activity.

• Breathing - Breathe out for twice as long as you breathe in. Breathe in for 4 and out for 8 for a couple of minutes.

• Positive Social Interaction - Natural inclination to connect with others. Doesn't have to be huge event.

• Laughter - Belly laughing, the type that takes over your body. Reminiscing about times you laughed that way can be enough.

• Affection - A warm hug in a safe and trusting context.

• A Big Old Cry - Physical expression of emotion.

• Creative Expression - Painting, Drawing, Writing.

• Get Enough Sleep - Not always easy to do, but don't underestimate the power of sleep!

• Imagination - Can be used to defeat your stressors/fight the tiger! Your imagination doesn't know the difference between fighting in real life and fighting in your imagination.

Early signs of professional burnout.

So we have looked at what to do if experiencing burnout, but how can we start to notice it so we can prevent burnout altogether?

'One of the things that causes burnout is our inability to recognise the hard stuff welling up inside us. And the solution is to be able to turn toward the difficult feelings with kindness and compassion.' - Amelia Nagoski

Emotional Awareness - One of the primary barriers to listening to your body is a fear of the uncomfortable feelings inside your body. Emotions are commonly seen as good and bad, black and white, happy and sad. Being positive is seen as the only way to be, and if someone is seen to be negative they are told they have the wrong attitude. It is therefore easy to create a culture of toxic positivity which denies people the confidence to be their authentic selves at work.

Emotions are cycles that happen in your body, neurological events inside your whole nervous system. Emotions are an involuntary neurological response, and yet we expect people to have complete control over their emotions at all times.

A survey of 70,000 people conducted by Susan David, Ph.D. found that a third of us judge ourselves for experiencing 'bad' emotions like sadness, anger or even grief. Or actively try to push aside these feelings. We not only do this to ourselves but to others, we inadvertently shame them out of emotions seen as bad, and jump to solutions. Failing to allow them to see these emotions as inherently valuable. When emotions are pushed aside or ignored they grow stronger.

When people are allowed to feel their emotional truth - engagement, creativity and innovation flourish in an organisation. When we push aside unwanted emotions to create a culture of toxic positivity we lose the capacity to navigate the world as it is, not how we want it to be.

'Feelings are tunnels, you have to work through the darkness to get to the other side. Exhaustion happens when you get stuck in the emotion' - Emily Nagoski

What can Managers do....?

Leading by example is one of the best ways to shape a culture. Being honest about your emotions will start to build a culture of psychological safety.

'It may sound obvious, but recognizing your employees as human beings is a good start. We often lose sight of our shared humanity in the midst of our dogged pursuit of productivity and profit. But success isn't possible if we're building upon an unstable foundation. The ability to help others be present with their own emotions is the core to effective teaming and leadership.' - Susan David, Ph.D.

Acknowledge your teams emotional and physical needs, incorporate time for this in regular meetings 'Where are you at?'. For people to become more aware of and clearer at expressing how they feel, the below 'Mood Meter' is a great tool to be able to have that conversation and better articulate how you are feeling. Being able to name the emotions you are feeling and it's relationship with energy, is a great way to be able to recognise when the hard stuff is starting to build up inside, thus helping to prevent Burnout.

Image Credit | The Present Psychologist

When we are able to accurately label our feelings we are more able to discern the cause. There is a big difference between feeling stressed and feeling despair. Emotions are data, containing flashing lights to things we care about.

Ensuring that your team members know they are valued when they are upset or if your organisation is going through a period of change, will help them to avoid unnecessary stress. Showing individuals how they are valued is not something that needs to be saved for an annual review.

How to create a culture that avoids burnout

The world of work has changed, which brings opportunity. So instead of bringing old habits and culture to the world of hybrid work, build something better. Ask your team what their ideal looks like....?

Managers and Leaders - your role is to help employees protect their pace, place and space. Manage the room on video calls, to create a space where everyone can be heard. Structuring agendas, agreeing presentation rules and contracting upfront all help to minimise anxiety and potential stress for your teams.

You only have control over what you can control.... don't let that make you think you can't positively impact yours and your teams experience of work. Here are some ideas for creating healthier ways of working to improve performance and combat burnout:

• Limit Screen Time - being on camera is like a performance and very draining. Can some of your meetings be calls? Are you encouraging your team to have regular breaks to go outside even if just for 10 minutes?

• Encourage Boundaries - blurred lines between working and downtime is all too easy when you are working from home. How can you ensure your team are separating their working hours from their non-working hours? No e-mails after a certain time for example.

• Create Ritual and Routine - Replace the commute with another ritual, other breaks and boundaries that help delineate the transition from work and home.

• Alone Time - For some working from home, also means less time on their own. Whereas before they may have had a commute, now they are straight into family life. Building in space for some time alone, is a great way to reduce the potential for overwhelm.

• Asynchronous Communication - any type of communication where a message is sent without the expectation of an immediate reply. This can help to remove the feeling of expecting to always be 'on'. Gives teams back control of their day, which can encourage flow. E-mail, Slack, Trello are a few examples of ways to communicate without adding pressure.

• Voice Memos - Research shows we actually communicate more emotion and nuance via audio. Send voice memos where the recipient can respond in their own time.

• Minimise brainstorming in meetings - encourage people to write down ideas before a session, rather than putting people on the spot and adding to their anxiety.

Mental Health UK have some downloadable resources too. A template for creating a Wellbeing Plan, and booklet on Managing Stress, and Building Resilience are worth a look.

If you would like to explore any of these topics in more detail, and how coaching can support to reduce stress and combat burnout please get in touch with your questions. Thank you for reading.

Beth

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Resources:

https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_david_the_gift_and_power_of_emotional_courage

https://www.burnoutbook.net/media-1