Karen Natzel, BridgeTower Media Newswires
The concept of burnout is not new, but the experience has been amplified with the heightened sense of uncertainty in our complex, hyper-wired world. Chronic stress takes its toll on one’s physical, emotional, and mental well-being. To be clear, it is not just an individual phenomenon, but a collective societal ailment.
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Can we care too much?
“We suffer from an overdeveloped sense of responsibility for others.” This insight came from a member of a client’s leadership team during our retreat. Her astute observation bubbled up when we were discussing how to achieve better work-life balance in an organization stretched thin. It seemed more than elusive; it seemed implausible.
When leaders are empathetic and caring, people feel seen and heard. This uncomplicated human act fuels loyalty. Leaders understandably want to support their teams, and often go to great lengths to protect them. By caring too much, it is easy for leaders to overextend themselves – giving too much of their time and emotional energy. Well-intended boundaries dissolve into late nights and weekend emails, lest leaders drop the ball and fail their teams.
Many leaders have told me that they do not expect their staff to put in the hours they do. Yet what staff believe is what they witness and not what they are told. Consider your beliefs, words, and actions – are you a role model for burnout?
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Are we doing too much?
While remote work has created flexibility, it has also blurred the lines of work time and personal time. Some people would argue that the various times of correspondence is the cost of increased flexibility that allows for more work-life integration. It’s a plausible argument, if we create and live by cultural norms that foster healthy work dynamics and boundaries that stick. But all too often, it perpetuates an “always on” expectation, consciously or not. In a hyperactive, burnout-inducing culture, productivity and profit are valued over people. Juggling, stress, busyness, back-to-back meetings, demanding deadlines, and shrinking resources have become normal.
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State of perpetual reactivity
Another source of chronic stress is getting caught in the cycle of reactivity. It is an easy path to follow, as there is a plethora of demands on our time. During true crisis, the capacity to be agile and responsive is invaluable. Somehow, somewhere along the way, we have started using that skill as a knee-jerk norm – the standard rather than the exception.
As a client once told me, “Karen, I think I might need to change my title from vice president of operations to organizational firefighter.” If you are in firefighting mode too often, you are perpetuating a work environment primed for burnout. It is stressful, inefficient, chaotic, and expensive.
“The key is to not prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities,” Stephen Covey wrote. If we have clear and compelling priorities for which we have unwavering commitments, how we spend our time should reflect it. Our calendars would include blocks of uninterrupted time dedicated to sustainable growth.
If we don’t dedicate (and honor) time for thoughtful strategizing, proactive problem-solving, improving processes, and investing in relationships, we run the risk of exhausting our resiliency tank. “If you don’t want to burn out, quit living like you’re on fire” (“The Great Resignation – A Call for Change in Organizational Culture” – Nonprofit Quarterly).
You might thrive on the adrenaline rush of deadline pressures; you might feel valued by being the go-to person to solve problems; however, your organization could be suffering as a result. While teams will need to pivot and execute to unanticipated demands from time to time, if it becomes the norm, it generates more volatility – and less sustainability.
You might find you are working only on what is urgent, and not what is most vital for your organization to thrive. The deep, intentional work of leading the business is on the back burner. If there are people in your organization that hold most of the decision-making power, you may have bottlenecks that impact not only efficiency but also morale by withholding autonomy and growth opportunities.
How do you know if you’ve fallen into the rut of reactivity? Are your actions frenzied? Are your decisions rushed? Is power concentrated in a small group of people? Are people waiting for you to tell them what to do? Have initiatives languished?
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What can be done to break the cycle?
• Get clear on what changes your organization needs. Those caught in reactivity cycles rarely advance because they’re busy putting out fires – reacting to the most pressing issue of the moment. When you have clarity of where you are leading, you will have more sustaining impact on progress.
• Stop trying to “get it all done” and start getting the right things done. Make sure there are resources to meet the priorities. Be disciplined about making achievable commitments.
• Take small steps toward the big picture. As financial advisor Carl Richards explains, “Once you’ve identified the scary thing you want to do, don’t obsess over all the reasons you can’t do it. Get quiet and ask yourself one simple question: What needs to be done next? Then look for the next smallest action you can take. Do that thing. Ask again. Repeat.”
• Don’t be the bottleneck. Stop solving other people’s problems. Teach and empower them to make decisions – and report their results.
• Connect to purpose. Know your organization’s “why” – and your people’s! Inspire your team to contribute in a way that leverages their strengths and makes an impact.
• Create space for “microflow.” Sally Anne Carroll of Whole Life Strategies suggests we make room for brief and simple moments that trigger a feeling of being in the flow.
If burnout is a byproduct of your culture’s current norms, you can correct the course. Every organization has its patterns of behaviors – fueled by beliefs and habits. Perhaps it is time to re-examine yours to see what you may have outgrown.
Fuel your organization’s good health!
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Karen Natzel is a business therapist who helps leaders create healthy, vibrant and high-performing organizations. Contact her at 503-806-4361 or karen@natzel.net.
