Burnout is not ok, stress shouldn't be your default setting

Join us now at Integrity Leaders: Community membership and learning, for new leaders, learner-managers, or first-time founders. First things first, you will notice a paired back format this month; intended to make the newsletter a bit more readable, and (hopefully) make the key points more focused. Some headings are gone, some are staying - let me know what you think!

Leadership Thought of the Month

Monthly thoughts, musings, random ideas, or occasionally something I’ve read that I thought you might like to hear about - all relevant to leadership of course!

This month I’ve been talking (and mostly listening) about burnout. It’s a problem that seems to be growing more common, perhaps as a result of the blurring lines between work and home life resulting from the pandemic, perhaps because of more demanding jobs, or less certain economic times.

Having had a couple of run-ins with burnout and plenty more with stress myself, it’s a topic I’m quite keen on getting to the bottom of; especially from the angle of recovery, or more preferably prevention, as well as the point of view of a leader.

The question is, what can leaders do about burnout in their teams, and what should they do?

The bottom half of this edition includes a list of the mini-series of episodes that have been released this month on Leading with integrity, all four of which have great, practical advice from burnout, stress, and anxiety experts on how to recognise, address, and prevent these issues - or at least minimise their harmful impacts.

As a leader, the short answer is: it starts with you. If your people or team are routinely stressed out, if burnout rates are high, and you don’t know why or what to do about it, then the first step is to take a look in the mirror.

Are you setting the right example?
Does your leadership provide clear boundaries?
Are you constantly stressing yourself out?
Have you been through burnout yourself this year?

The chances are that your own relationship to stress and burnout are setting a poor benchmark for the entire team, probably without you even realising. Because people emulate their leaders’ behaviour.

It’s easy to say “that’s just how it is, this is a high stress environment”, we’ve all done it, we’ve all thought it. However, that’s an excuse falling short of real leadership. It’s also worth remembering that high stress and burnout tend to mean low engagement, a lower standard of work/outcomes, and higher turnover of people.

So there’s plenty of business reasons to address the problem too.

Just sayin’.

Celebrating Great Leaders

In each newsletter, I’ll drop a quick paragraph or two about a great leader who deserves a bit of celebrating.

Today I’d like to applaud the quiet leaders. Have you worked with one before? The type of person who leads not with hyperbolic speech, or chest thumping, or even charisma and their inspirational vision, but instead through their actions and good works, through their quiet but steadfast support of others, and through doing the right things instead of the easy things.

If you have been fortunate enough to encounter such a person, then you’ll know the impact they can have - quite (or quiet!) literally changing the fate of the team and organisation around them, usually without remark, recognition, or reward. This is humble leadership, leading through service first, these people are the type of leader who tends to be incredibly memorable to those lives they touch.

One such leader I’d like to celebrate - and I’ll not use his real name because I haven’t seen him in 20 years and he’s no doubt far too humble to want me to - is ‘Jim’.

Many moons ago, I spent some time as a Cadet Forces Adult Volunteer. For part of that time, I was responsible for managing Jim, and on several occasions my colleagues and I attempted to promote him.

And each time, he turned it down. He wasn’t interested in the responsibility, he said. He didn’t see himself as a leader.

Which was a bit of a puzzle to me at the time because a BIG reason why we offered him the recognition of promotion in the first place was his clear, existing leadership behaviours. He was nearly always the rock holding his team together, usually taking the role of a quiet, calm, capable voice of reason and experience guiding them through tough tasks. He routinely checked in with teammates, helped out with things they were stuck on, offered encouraging words and advice, listened to their problems and concerns, supported them through it, and found them the help or extra resources they needed to get the job done.

All this without the title or role of leader, without the explicit ‘authority’ which many in that environment demanded before they would follow you.

Humility is a much underrated skill of leadership, and I hope you can see why this particular example of it has stuck in my memory for so long, and that you too can recognise a quietly capable leader worthy of celebrating.

Every leader should be more Jim.

Podcast News

ICYMI: This Month On The Leading with integrity Podcast

A quick round up of recent episodes, catch up on ones you missed by visiting the podcast website here.

• Ep.123: How to Disagree Without Disrespect, and Why it Matters, with Philip Blackett
  Have you put much thought into the way leaders and colleagues should disagree, or how to do so without disrespecting each other? Central to this episode is an idea that is too easily forgotten in the heat of the moment with all of the modern context and stresses: it’s ok to disagree with someone. Disagreement doesn’t have to mean animosity, disrespect isn’t necessary to explain an opposing view. And perhaps most importantly, the role of conflict or disagreement isn't necessarily about bringing the other person to 'your side' or persuading them they are wrong. Getting it right is important for leadership and life alike.
  

• Ep.124: Managing Conflict, Leading Change, & the Intersection of Leadership and Parenting, with Marcus A. Higgs
  What's the best way to create a culture of autonomy, empowerment, and independence among the people that you lead? I’m joined by guest Marcus Aurelius Higgs, a communication coach who works with parents of pre-teen age kids. He helps to help them to show up better, maintain a meaningful relationship with their children and this may sound like a bit of a departure from the topic of leadership... BUT if you think about those three words - autonomy, empowerment, independence - and the underlying importance of communication and relationships, suddenly the connection is more obvious! .
  

• Ep.125: Burnout Recovery and Prevention - How To Give Yourself Some Leeway, with Eugene Lee (Part 1)
  Are you suffering from burnout? Have you experienced it in the past? It’s a hot topic in the modern workplace, with good reason. So for the next few episodes we’re talking about burnout, stress, anxiety, and how they effect us at work. Starting with a two-part episode with Eugene Lee, in Part 1 , we hear all about Eugene’s own experiences with burnout, how that led him to becoming a Burnout Recovery Coach, starting his podcast, and making a few other changes, we’ll talk about recovery from and prevention of burnout, and what we can do as leaders to spot the signs.
  

• Ep.126: Burnout Recovery and Prevention - How To Give Yourself Some Leeway, with Eugene Lee (Part 2)
  Following on directly from Part 1, Eugene and I talk about leadership lessons learned, the wider leadership implications of burnout and its growing prevalence in the modern workplace, the impact of recent events like the pandemic, and more. Eugene shares some insights and educational leadership stories from his career so far, and we hear about his own experiences of great leaders.
  

• Ep.127: Walk In My Shoes - The Power of Reframing Stress, Anxiety, and Discrimination at Work, with Dr Frank Douglas PhD, MD
  Having a unique perspective on stress, burnout and discrimination as an immigrant to the USA during the 1960s, training as an Engineer and then later pivoting to medicine, Dr Frank Douglas talks with us about stress and anxiety at work, how this ultimately can result in burnout, and why issues like discrimination, bullying, and toxic cultures are often the unreported causes behind these increasingly common experiences. We discuss how key leadership practices like empathy, empowerment, leading by example, and accountability are the solution.

Coming Soon…

Next week Join me on Wednesday next week for the final part of our 4-episode mini series about burnout and stress at work, as I chat with Michael Levitt, ‘Chief Burnout Officer’, recognized global thought leader on burnout and workplace culture, and Certified NLP and CBT Therapist. We share our respective burnout experiences, the role of leadership in this area, how and why knowing yourself can make a big difference, the role of simple daily practices like getting the small tasks done, prioritisation or self-compassion in preventing stress and burnout, and Michael has some great tips on burnout recovery too. A great conclusion to our wider conversation this month.

Here’s that link again, check back every Wednesday to catch the latest episode (or subscribe/follow via your favourite Podcast Platform!)

Later in September On 11th September, I’ll be talking to more incredible, inspirational, and just generally awesome people including Author, Speaker, Certified Coach, and Consultant Sabine Gedeon about limiting beliefs, courageous leadership and confidence. The following week, I’m joined by Leadership Consultant Kisha Wynter, who will be sharing her experiences from navigating corporate America to finding her true purpose and the line between gratitude and advocating for equity. And to close out the month, Conflict to Growth Navigator and Change Architect Kat Newport and I talk conflict, its productive resolution, the place empathy should have in that conversation, and more!

Hope you can join me for one or more of those episodes, I know I aaaaalways say this but there’s some cracking conversations coming up and I truly loved recording them, I know you’ll get loads of useful stuff from them, and I hope you’ll love listening too.

That’s all for today, thanks as always for reading and I hope you’ve enjoyed it (any feedback always welcome).

I’ll be back in your inbox again next month, and until then:

Be a Leader, Not a Boss!

David

In case you don’t know me that well, I’m David Hatch and I’m here to help new managers and first-time founders with their leadership skills, so they can become leaders not bosses, lead with integrity, and build happier, higher performing teams, more effective organisations, and, ultimately: successful businesses.

If you’d like to join Integrity Leaders, my online leadership community and participate in live member-only workshops, sessions/events, and access an ever growing list of leadership resources as well as get early access to podcast episodes, you can be part of it now with a complimentary trial for 60 days - all I ask in return is your engagement and honest feedback. At the end of those 2 months, there’s a no-fee reduced-access membership option, or you can choose to become a paid member (£39/month).

Small announcement: At the end of summer (which in the UK is a moving goalpost so, let’s call it first week of September, being generous about it) the 60-day free trial will be closing. So if you’re on the fence, sign up soon or you’ll miss the two-months-for-free opportunity!

Here’s the link:
Integrity Leaders: Community membership and learning, for new leaders or first-time founders.