What do you do if your marketing professional is showing signs of burnout?

Rest is productive. Preventing burnout is easier than fixing it. So recognise if your team is taking on too much. See what workloads can we managed by who. Then figure out a plan of action. Let them take a mental health day. Let them work from home more. Let them tell you what they need. A healthy team is a happy team. And a happy team is one that succeeds.

Burnout is common in every workplace, even if it involves something you enjoy doing the most. It's important to take immediate action whenever you feel signs of burnout. I encourage meditation, yoga, mental exercises, and relaxation techniques to help manage stress and improve well-being. Work leaves were designed specifically for this purpose, I usually advise people to take advantage of them as much as possible. It's also up to the team leaders to create a supportive environment where team members feel comfortable taking breaks and seeking help can prevent burnout from escalating.

If a marketing professional is showing signs of burnout, take proactive steps to address the situation. Encourage open communication to understand their challenges and workload. Offer support through workload adjustment, time off, or resources for stress management. Foster a culture of work-life balance and prioritize mental health initiatives to prevent burnout in the future.

Prioritize their well-being immediately! Giving them some time off can work wonders. Long time back one of my top performer started losing creativity and enthusiasm. We arranged a week-long break, and he returned recharged. Also, fostering a supportive environment with regular check-ins can help. I've implemented flexible schedules and team-building activities to reduce stress. Investing in mental health resources, like counseling or workshops, also makes a significant difference. Remember, a happy, healthy team is essential for long-term success.

Here are some key signs of burnout to watch for in your marketing professionals: Decreased productivity: A noticeable drop in output or quality of work can be a sign of burnout. Reduced enthusiasm: If once-exciting projects are now met with indifference, it could be a red flag. Detachment: A general sense of withdrawal or lack of connection to their work can signal burnout. Increased Absenteeism: More frequent call-ins or a rise in sick leave might be cause for concern. Shift in communication: A change in their usual communication style, like becoming withdrawn or short-tempered, could indicate burnout.

Communication is always crucial. I believe that if communication is consistently open from the outset, the signs of impending burnout will also be recognized relatively quickly. In this communication, it's important not to make accusations or immediately try to solve problems, but rather to listen first.

When burnout is recognised, it is critical to take preventive measures as soon as possible. During times of excessive stress, provide mental health supports and think about reducing workloads. Creating a welcoming, compassionate atmosphere can also be quite beneficial. The secret is to ultimately support resilience and work-life balance in the team. Some extra activities like sessions and outings with team will also give a new prospect. Sharing personal experiences and setting an example will be very helpful. Giving the team these resources will boost their productivity as well as their well-being.

Understand the problems, adjust demands, renegotiate deadlines...... you cannot work in an environment that harms the physical or mental health of employees. There are always ways to fix these problems.

Identify the root cause. Consider the content and not just the output, is it amount of work, repetition, timelines. Once the core challenge is identified you can design an intervention to shift the experience. Reducing workload doesn't solve for boredom, changing assignments doesn't solve for tight turnarounds.

Launch 'Meeting-Free Wednesdays' to provide uninterrupted focus time—our team saw productivity soar, and it became a cherished mid-week breather. We also incorporated 'Mindfulness Minutes' using apps like Headspace, before team calls to center ourselves — this practice noticeably reduced stress and sparked more creative campaign ideas!

Personally, I would offer support from the beginning if I notice that the individual is at a loss. We've all experienced moments of being stuck and unable to find a way out on our own. An outside perspective can sometimes be very helpful in these situations.

Creative projects will always require collaboration, it’s never a one persons task. From the onset, my first task is to have the individual/s use a whiteboard for brainstorming and unpacking their thoughts. I also challenge everyone to share ideas no matter how wild they might seem or sound, there is always an opportunity somewhere within the idea. I also remind myself and the team that there is never such a thing as a stupid idea.

The most important way that you can support your team in preventing or addressing burnout is teaching them the signs. Are they unusually exhausted? Are they feeling very negative and cynical about their work? Do they no longer feel that they have what it takes to do their job well? That's the first sign. From there, you can teach them some simple ways to implement a lifestyle and some preventative measures that help manage stress. Lastly, as you regulate your nervous system, you can begin to identify if there is, in fact a deeper root cause. Poor boundaries? Unreasonable workloads? Lack of control of the job? Unfair work environment? Then, having a difficult but much needed conversation can help improve the situation.

Many teams, especially here in Kenya, often don’t have a good working relationship with their team members. You’d find it’s just work and as soon as the clock hits 5pm, off they go to their other lives. Trust is one of the major factors that most teams do not have within the workplace, you’d find people thinking that their job might be at risk if so and so knew one or two things about them, social class discrimination, or just incompetence. Organizations and team leads should encourage more out of office engagements for people to develop new perspectives about their team members and develop a better workplace culture.

Once you have made adjustments, check in on how its going and be prepared to iterate further. Burnout is a slow chipping away, its not easily fixed overnight. You will have to stay engaged and monitor progress.

It is well recognized that stress precedes burnout, and those who work in the digital marketing industry frequently experience stress related to their jobs. Burnout can result in a drop in creativity, a lower level of social connection, and worse job satisfaction. It's essential to replenish your physical and emotional energy, along with your capacity to focus, by prioritizing good sleep habits, nutrition, exercise, social connection, and practices that promote equanimity and well-being, like meditating, journaling, and enjoying nature.

Burnout begins in our mind. 25% of our bodies energy is directed at our brain everyday. So we have to begin looking at the thoughts that are creating burnout and then apply the proper amount of care to treat it. Burnout exacerbates when we don’t acknowledge it and we just “push through”. So if you find yourself mentally, emotionally and physically fatigued to the point that no amount of naps offer you relief, we have to treat this from the inside out beginning in your mind. Burnout is cured in the brain. It is prevented with care.