Here's how you can navigate burnout's impact on relationships and interactions with clients and stakeholders.

Recognize signs of burnout early: decreased motivation, irritability, and poor performance. Communicate openly with clients about your workload and limitations. Set realistic expectations and boundaries to maintain healthy relationships. Prioritize self-care to prevent burnout and preserve professional connections.

- Communicate openly with clients/stakeholders about challenges. - Set realistic expectations and boundaries. - Prioritize self-care and delegate tasks. - Seek support from colleagues or mentors. - Remember, maintaining well-being is key to healthy relationships.

Navigate burnout's impact on relationships and interactions with clients and stakeholders by first communicating openly and honestly about any challenges you may be facing. Set realistic expectations and boundaries to manage workload and deadlines effectively. Prioritize active listening and empathy in client interactions to foster understanding and trust. Delegate tasks when possible to avoid overextending yourself and maintain quality of work. Take proactive steps to address burnout, such as seeking support from colleagues or professional counseling, to ensure you can continue to engage positively with clients and stakeholders.

I remember having an executive mentor tell me once "if you don't block your calendar, your calendar will become O.P.P. - other people's problems" and once I heard that I glanced over to my calendar and they were right! There was barely anything on my calendar for my deep work, my creativity or my needs. This is when I knew I needed to create more boundaries around my time and calendar at work. So after that day, I started blocking my calendars for lunch, for movement breaks, for breathwork and even play! You are a creative so you NEED to unplug and be inspired. You can't be inspired if you are stressed, overworked and your calendar is O.P.P.

In a recent rabbit hole on boundaries I discovered how we can uplevel our boundaries. Some of us may start out with a boundary that sounds like this “don’t reach out to me after 6pm because that time is family time for me.” For folks new to boundaries, kudos for getting started. However, you might quickly find yourself angry when people intrude on those boundaries. A recommended small yet very impactful shift might sound like “I put my phone in a different room between 6 and 8 to spend time with family, I won’t read any incoming communications.” It puts you in full control, and folks will figure a way to self-solution. It changes the dynamic, upholds your values, and mitigated resentment.

It is so much kinder to set expectations early, both for yourself and for your client/team. Most of us know, at project takes as much time as the project needs. Unless we’re willing to change scope or resources the quality of the end product will be effect or the timeline will need to be pushed out, and when your are close to target date when emotions are running high, the risk of disappointment and anger is so much higher with larger repercussions. It is better to be realistic, and set expectations and patterns of expectations early and often.