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daisyshah2019 · 3 years ago

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A 21st Century Disease: Recognising Burnout & Defeating It

Here’s a (not so) fun fact: The World Health Organization (WHO) recognises burnout as a medical condition.

Worry, stress and anxiety have become society’s new best friends post-pandemic. Reports from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America revealed that around 40 million people in the United States suffer from an anxiety disorder.

We often use the terms worry, stress and anxiety interchangeably but they don’t all mean the same thing.

Some topics we tend to worry about are our finances, job security and health and when we are transfixed on them, it can push us into a mental state where it becomes difficult to concentrate on other things.

While worry is something that starts in our minds, it can manifest into stress, which affects our physical well-being. Stress is incited by external circumstances and causes a response in both our mental and physical state. Stress can make us feel irritable, tired and even cause digestive and muscle pain.

Anxiety can be defined as a combination of worry and stress. In the words of Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Dr Marques: anxiety is a response to a false alarm. Think of a time when you had to present an idea to important clients, and you were well-prepared for it yet couldn’t help but feel anxious because false alarms were going off in your head — What if I am not prepared? What if they don’t like my presentation? What if I am incapable of such a responsibility?

These what-ifs are signs of anxiety.

INSIDER SECRET: Pent up stress and chronic anxiety can cause conflict within your team. We discuss how to manage disagreements and improve communication in our workplace stress management workshop with the goal of building a productive and safe work environment.

Employee burnout

Being a leader is not only about assigning tasks and guiding team members, but also identifying the signs of burnout and stress in your team. In today’s world, building a relationship with your team virtually can be hard work but with operations moving online, it’s more important than ever to know how to build trust in a virtual team. By paying attention to the behaviours of your team and instilling healthy communication, you can recognise the signs of burnout to help them deal with it better.

If your team appears disengaged, are skipping meetings and are unenthusiastic about new projects, they may be stressed out

Another sign of employee burnout is when they begin to cut connections with peers and come across as distant. Pushing people away is a common sign of stress.

A sudden decrease in the productivity of your team can also be a sign of burnout.

If one of your team members is suddenly offended by feedback, there may be something bothering them.

As a leader, it’s not always about giving instructions and directing your team. The relationship between leader and team is a two-way street where you offer your listening ear as well.

PRO TIP: The Better Conversations workshop is created for professionals with the goal of improving listening skills to tackle challenging conversations with ease.

Leadership Fatigue

Leaders take on multiple roles in the workplace to ensure their business runs smoothly. They are coaches, strategists, decision-makers and even mediators when handling conflict among team members. With so much on their plate, the pressure can be overwhelming and may also increase anxiety.

Burnout reduces your energy levels, makes you unproductive, feel resentful and even compromises your health. Leadership fatigue can greatly affect business production as burned-out leaders may even lose confidence in themselves when making important decisions. With nearly 60% of leaders reporting feeling used up at the end of a workday, it’s important to be able to identify signs of leadership burnout at its early stages or risk prolonging exhaustion. Here are some possible signs of burnout:

When your initial passion is causing dread

Getting irritated with your team frequently

Turning to self-medicating tendencies like excessive drinking or eating

Losing your cool over small situations

It’s easy to overlook the well-being of leaders when they’re expected to have their lives together but after all, they’re human too. Some leaders may have the false perception that they need to develop leadership skills for the sake of their team. Many fail to know that leadership includes accessing their feelings and managing them to be the best version of themselves.

“Burnout is what happens when you try to avoid being human for too long”

~ Michael Gungor

6 Powerful Tips to Beat Burnout

Burnout is on the rise. The reputation and market value of organisations are at stake due to the increase of work-related stress, and this is why organisations worldwide are resorting to workplace stress management workshops. While you’re looking out for your team’s well-being, improving personal excellence and leading high performing teams also requires you to keep your mental and emotional health in check.

These few tips below will show you how to develop yourself as a leader by helping you beat physical and emotional exhaustion from work.

1. Use your purpose as a reminder

Whenever you feel like it is impossible to continue, remind yourself of why you love your job. What is your greatest motivation for waking up every morning and going to work? For some, money might be their greatest motivation and for others, it may be the experience of guiding and coaching fresh minds. Rather than being fixed on the negatives, find the positives in your work.

Whenever you’re battling hurdles, defining your purpose helps to create a clearer path to follow. At times, it’s easy to lose track of your purpose so little habits like having a motivational quote on your mobile wallpaper can keep you focused.

2. Approach new ideas with a fresh mindset

Have you ever asked yourself why we’re always more enthusiastic about trying something new? Don’t you find it interesting that a new face in a team can be more creative and innovative compared to someone who has been doing the same work for years? This is because a beginner’s mind is interested in exploring maximum possibilities while an experienced mind thinks in a direction it has been trained to follow for years.

In her work, ‘Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind’, Shunryu Suzuki says: “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” Leaders who understand that young, fresh minds are an asset to the team are likely to be more successful than those who believe experience is everything. When leaders and their team practise looking through a beginner’s lens, it allows for most creativity and adaptability to new projects.

Moving away from the status quo and looking at things differently is definitely challenging. A great example is the shift to virtual meetings we’ve experienced in the last couple of years. Leaders that chose not to update their skills with the latest technological tools have been left behind in this COVID-19 world. On the other hand, leaders that were excited to learn how to host engaging online events for their team have thrived.

3. Don’t be afraid to experiment

For many of us, cooking is an experimental experience. When you’re stumped on what to whip up for dinner and with just a few ingredients left in the fridge, you have no choice but to get creative. Sometimes, you may end up with a bland plate but there’s also the possibility of discovering your new favourite dish. You never know when experimenting in the kitchen could create a well-loved family recipe!

This art of experimenting in the kitchen can also be used in the workplace. We’re always so afraid of making mistakes and failing and it is exactly this mindset that’s killing our creativity. Taking risks can land you surprising results and while uncertainty will always be there, progress requires some experimenting!

4. Discover your interests away from the desk

While our jobs are an important part of our lives, we shouldn’t revolve our personalities around it. Humans are multifaceted beings and when we’re placed in a box, that’s when we start to lose creativity and the thirst for adventure, and leadership is definitely a creative adventure. When you’re consumed by work, you begin to lose touch with yourself, which is why we’re always encouraged to unwind from our desks to explore other hobbies.

Exercise is one habit that we can incorporate into our daily lives to boost endorphins and improve our moods. If you ever feel agitated in the workplace, step out for a run to clear your head! Taking up hobbies such as painting, gardening and cooking can also boost our creative juices whenever we find ourselves in a rut.

5. Channel anger for positive outcomes

As humans, it’s normal to get angry and heated in situations that have upset you. As leaders, you may sometimes suppress these feelings to avoid workplace conflict and animosity among your team. Bottling up feelings may actually do more harm as it encourages passive-aggressive behaviour, which can eventually hurt the psychological safety of the workplace.

Firstly, we need to understand that anger isn’t a bad thing that should be avoided. A lot of the time, internalising your anger can illuminate the core of the issue. Pay attention to the reason you’re angry — you could be lacking sleep, feeling hungry, or in need of a break. Once you have processed your emotions, take the next steps to fulfil your needs.

Instead of directing your anger to someone else with sarcasm and spiteful words, figure out what your anger is requiring from you. Anger is not a bad thing but learning to manage it can help you grow professionally and personally to create an overall healthy and productive work environment for your team.

INSIDER SECRET: EQ workshop for leaders dives into the neuroscience behind leading with clarity, which includes tapping into your emotional intelligence to strengthen relationships.

6. Lean on those you can trust

Leaders are expected to be on their top form at all times but stress and anxiety can get the better of them, just like all humans. Self-care is just as important for leaders to ensure they unwind from the pressures of work. However, some may react negatively to stress by keeping in their emotions as relying on others may seem like a sign of weakness. Sharing your feelings can be a vulnerable thing to do but letting your burdens off your chest can also be cathartic.

After a stressful day at work, try to wind down by meeting up with close friends or spending time with your family. Rather than closing your doors to everyone around you, open it to those you can trust. Surrounding yourself with a good support system can improve your emotional and mental well-being, and positively impact your work environment.

When we think about professional development for leaders, we may immediately assume it refers to increasing your knowledge of managing your external environment. However, a huge part of developing leadership skills also begins internally where you learn to access your emotions and mental well-being. Neglecting this part of the learning process can easily manifest into a burnout and if you do ever experience one, we hope these tips may come in handy.

References:

https://corp.smartbrief.com/original/2021/10/leadership-fatigue-thing-make-time-recharge

https://corp.smartbrief.com/original/2020/08/how-bust-3-anger-myths

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/smarter-living/the-difference-between-worry-stress-and-anxiety.html

https://www.ddiworld.com/global-leadership-forecast-2021

Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

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