Do you feel that there are never enough hours in the day? Sadly this is the reality for so many leaders right now - and this ongoing feeling of overwhelm can result in burnout.

Another question for you.

How often do you find yourself feeling like you don’t have enough hours in the day… and what impact is that having?

Just pause for a moment on that.

Because, it’s the impact it’s having that’s key. We know a certain degree of stress is normal and actually helpful, as the stress bell curve we all know well reminds us. However, the demands on leaders today, push stress levels all too frequently into the too much stress zone and on into the burnout phase.

So, what can you do?

Here are three areas to pause and reflect on; to help you and your team/s steer clear from burnout.

Work-life balance

Hybrid working is now part of working life for most organisations – but is said to be contributing to a lack of boundaries; with work often creeping into evenings and weekends. As a leader should you be trying to stop yourself or your team from working in the evenings and weekends?

There is some interesting research Simon Sinek references conducted by Watercooler.ai that shows that the best, happiest, and most engaged employees actually like to do some work on the occasional evening or weekend – for the simple reason: they care. They want to do the little extra to help themselves and their colleagues and company. Enforcing people not to work outside of standard office hours, is essentially telling them to stop caring.

Quick word of caution though. The research does highlight that employees that do too much in the evening or weekends are at higher risk of burnout.

What this suggests, is that at the right level, some extra work is ok; and showing appreciation for this can do more to boost morale and good will than trying to force people to stop doing any work in their spare time.

Consider, what does this look like for you and your team at the moment?

Spend time wisely

Let me start with a story.

There were two lumberjacks, who both started and finished work everyday at the same time as each other. The only difference was that one left the forest for an hour in the middle of the day, while the other didn’t stop and continued to work all day. This continued, and yet the one who took the hour away each day consistently cut down more trees than the other lumberjack. After a while the lumberjack working through, asked the other what he did in the hour when he was away. The response was, ‘I go home to sharpen my axe’.

There’s lots we can take from this short story. Pausing and giving ourselves time often feels like it’s going to make us less productive when in fact it’s the opposite – it makes us more productive in the long term. There are many equivalents to the lumberjack sharpening his axe, for example resting and revitalising your mind, delegating or learning new technology.

Give some thought to how you can spend your time more wisely to maintain peak performance?

Stay connected

It’s a well-known phrase: ‘it’s lonely at the top’. And it’s not uncommon for leaders to feel isolated and lonely, despite their back to back schedule. But loneliness and isolation shouldn’t be shrugged off as part of the job of leadership as it negatively impacts performance, creativity, reasoning, and decision making. All of which can very quickly increase stress levels and lead to burnout.

Staying connected applies externally as well as internally. Not only is it important to ensure you have people around you that you can talk to, feel comfortable and confide in; it’s also important to listen and take note of your own emotions, taking action to address and tend to them when needed.

Take some time to consider your support system, who do you have to talk to, and how often do you give yourself the space to do this? Options to consider are mentors, coaches, peer networking groups and staying connected with your team.

How can Amelore help?

At Amelore we can help you and your team with development, training, and team building. We can help you and your leadership teams understand what good looks like and then help them find ways to communicate this to their teams.
The working environment is growing in complexity and managing stress is a vital aspect of maintaining performance and creating a healthy workplace culture.

Tired, exhausted, and worried you might soon burnout? Pausing for five minutes to read this could make all the difference