Burnout Epidemic

Burnout.

In 2018, Forbes conducted a survey that concluded 100% of entrepreneurs experience burnout. This phenomenon expanded beyond entrepreneurs as more of us took on tasks and roles we weren’t expecting starting in 2020 and beyond...

Identification Burnout may be a word on many of our lips, from the grocery store clerk to the executive suite, but what is it? Occupational burnout is a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress characterized by:*

• feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;

• increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and

• reduced professional efficacy.

Symptoms Even when you’re working in-person, burnout isn’t easy to see. Humans aren’t like toast, where the longer we endure stress or heat, we see smoke rising from the toaster or smell the bread burning! Joking aside, as we live in a stressful global context with limited in-person social interaction, burnout can appear more abruptly. Without regular in-person informal work interactions, colleagues and managers can’t see the signs of burnout as easily behind the screen. It may be after several weeks and even months of symptoms that we start to notice these effects in ourselves:

• difficulty focusing and lower productivity

• lower morale and motivation

• lack of creativity

• repeated illness or overall decline in health

Prevention Building resilience allows us to experience less stress, prevent and relieve the symptoms of burnout.

Resilience requires proficiency in 5 key areas and at LARASAH we focus on building resilience by addressing the 2 key reasons why burnout occurs: rickety structures and suboptimal strategies.

Building Resilient Structures Structure. When we work at a company in a physical location, we have many structures in place that support us, without even realizing it. When in 2020 there was a global shift to remote work, this allowed employees more freedom to create their own structures for the workday. For some, this was intentional, but for most, structures were developed “on the go,” particularly as other societal structures broke down with the advent of homeschooling, multiple people working remotely under the same roof, social distancing, and loss of in-person community support networks. Some structures allow us to survive, but long-term, more resilient structures are required to thrive. The key to creating resilient structures is to create a structure that aligns with sustainable growth and our personal needs for replenishing. The greater our output, the greater the need to replenish. Without these resilient structures, burnout is not just likely, it’s only a matter of time.

Catalyzing Resilient Strategies Strategies that allowed for success at in-person workplaces don’t often translate well to the new all remote work dynamic. Even without the consideration of remote work, the dynamic state of world affairs and our global interconnectedness means that our business environment is evolving and changing at a rapid pace.

So what strategies am I referring to? How we deal with stress and adversity, how we make decisions, how we manage difficult conversations, who we hire, when we invest: our strategies for these matters and more have a greater impact as we take on more challenging roles and work environments. These roles and a remote work environment require more discipline, higher EQ, and greater discernment.

The good news is that structures and strategies are not fixed. If we want to have more success and sustainable growth without burnout, we can develop more resilient structures and strategies. It’s not easy, but there is a practical way out! In order to experience success without burnout, we: 1) Build a sustainable foundation by strengthening the 5 pillars of resilience. This creates a structure that is adapted to support our role, personal goals, and our mission. 2) From that foundation, it’s possible to review our current strategies through the lens of the challenges we’re currently experiencing (high turnover, low engagement, low productivity, analysis paralysis, rocky personal relationships, increase in team conflicts and communication challenges, low creativity, and innovation).

Recovery Want to know more about how to strengthen resilience? We’ve made the process simple and practical with the creation of the Five to Align System.

• Assess your current unique stress profile along with your current level of burnout. You’ll uncover which of the five key areas will unlock your resilience and decrease your stress levels most quickly

• Discover the five key areas along with quick, practical tools to reduce your stress. These are explained in Part I of the Five to Align Journal.

• Practice the tools that match with your resilience key and feel the difference in your daily life. The system makes it easy to keep the habits you want to make.

Discover the Five to Align system HERE.

• As you build structural resilience with the Five to Align System, you have the opportunity to Explore our Community memberships, building mastery in the 5 key areas through our Masterclasses and Live Q&As including: Making Difficult Decisions Easier with Aligned Purpose and The Power of Emotional Fluency.

• Leaders can catalyze strategic resilience through our Integrated Leadership system. In the Integrated Leadership Community, members discover, learn and integrate 7 key strategies that increase productivity, influence, and confidence.

Become a member today HERE.

Take care!

Lara, CEO, and Founder of LARASAH

LinkedIn

* WHO definition 2019