#54: A Practical Approach to Avoiding Burnout and Overwhelm

Are you too busy to do the things that will create the space you need? Do you feel you do not have enough time in a day? Do you constantly work so late that you could be mistaken for an early riser? If you answered "Yes" to any of these questions, please block an hour - to read and implement the practices.

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When "Saying No" is NOT an Option

Burnout and overwhelm are realities in any leadership role. We face them at different times; even seasoned leaders cannot avoid them entirely. In most situations, the advice "Say No" is not an option (at least initially), as leaders are responsible for everything in their areas.

Most successful leaders will have a way to manage their workload based on practices they have learned, tried, and modified to suit them. Some overwhelm is to be expected at various points in time.

Consistently working to the point of burnout and overworking affects us and the teams we manage and disrupts the work of our peers and others in leadership.

Additionally, if not contained, frequent burnout can derail our careers, affect our families, demotivate teams, and cause wasted efforts across the company.

We must learn to manage them better.

Understanding and implementing the following three approaches has worked well for me.

1. Our view of time and activity

Most of our early professional years are focused on doing tasks. Our efficiency or productivity is measured in terms of time and activity in those periods. Agile and scrum practices brought everyone closer to the factory shop floor culture.

The problem is that not everything we do as a leader can be measured in activity chunks. Much of what we do requires large blocks of time, spread over a period and scattered with gaps, a.k.a nothingness.

I was challenged to handle these gaps while transitioning from an expert to a leader. I was so used to being in meetings, planning programs, doing analysis, architecture, or other related work. When I started managing teams, and my leads handled everything perfectly, I had days with gaps in them. I didn't know what to do. I would seek out detailed activities and add them to my list.

Without a doubt, this did two things. It made me the bottleneck in some areas as now I was leading and also had a list of items I was responsible for delivering. Juggling the two became a problem.

More importantly, I had people on my team who could do these activities better than me. To grow and be a better leader, I had to let go, and that meant becoming comfortable with the gaps and nothing-to-do-ness.

Soon, I started facing the gaps and using them for better things. I would go for a walk alone to enjoy the outdoors and contemplate, along with a colleague, when I get to know them better as a person.

I would meet with other leaders within the company, learn something new, read up on industry stuff, or participate as a fly-on-the-wall in architecture discussions (I still can't leave that alone) without actively driving or deciding anything.

All this was also possible because my view of time had changed.

I was not tracking my use of 40 hours. Still, my attention turned to being an enabler to ensure we were focused on the work that mattered for the company, developing leaders, and delivering quality projects on time that made our stakeholders successful.

With this approach, even when some weeks were 50-60 hours occasionally, I was also comfortable with the 32-hour weeks. I stopped counting time and activities. It made it possible to pursue better opportunities and impactful challenges. But to do all this effectively, a system of handling all that comes at you and your team is needed (see pt.3)

Now that we have addressed the importance of reorienting how we view time and activity let's move to step 2, which is about understanding capacity elasticity.

2. Zone of Freedom and Creativity

Cramming our schedules with back-to-back meetings and a long list of to-dos that we never finish is a counterproductive way to be an effective leader. Being very busy has several drawbacks besides causing burnout and overwhelm.

1. Working that way signals to your management that you are an incompetent leader. If you cannot manage your time, how do you expect your company leaders to trust you with a larger team and more critical, impactful responsibilities?
2. Anyone who always carries a full plate overworks their team members, losing the best talent.
3. This is precisely why some people are better left as doers/experts. They can get the work done by themselves or collaborate with others on teams, but managing the work of others requires a different level of self-discipline. When companies make the mistake of promoting such individuals, they quickly cause mayhem across the organization, and the morale dives.
4. Additionally, no executive wants to give more to a person who always appears to be super busy and scrambling to get things done with what they already have. So, leaders who appear very busy lose out on getting high-impact projects or high-leverage work for their teams, hurting their career growth.
5. While scrambling from one task to another, there is no time for creative work. But we need those gaps to take a realistic view of what's working and not, identify new opportunities, anticipate potential hurdles, and plan alternate paths.

Do you see the vicious cycle? You may also know someone like this. Probably someone very familiar (whom you see in the mirror.)

So what must be a good range of "Busyness"?

It depends from person to person, based on their level in the company, work complexity, autonomy with planning their schedule, how their manager views their team, and the company culture.

Over the years, keeping my schedule filled has worked for me, ranging from 70-105%. It sometimes goes to 125%, but that is not a healthy range to maintain consistently over time.

I rarely go below the lower threshold (except for vacations or when balancing work and personal during travel, etc.). Focusing on those next-level items is easy whenever I can create free time.

This process is cyclical - you take on more when your team is ready for it, push it down, free up your time, and identify the next layer of problems, opportunities, improvements, or areas to innovate.

3. Manage Your Queue

I use a 7-step process that I have followed for several years to grow my career to a CDO and how I now manage client work, marketing, writing, coaching/mentoring, develop our leaders, and increase our company.

I want to show how I process my queue's numerous priorities, requests, tasks, and expectations. You may have a system similar to the one shown in the picture. But if you need one or still need to include a few pieces of the approach below, I strongly encourage you to try it. This approach has worked well for me and many clients I have coached. Like with any approach, I would like you to take it and modify it to what works in your situation.

The process consists of the following seven decision points.

1. Define:

The first step is defining what you must do, which should go directly to your team leaders, and which items should not hit your team's queue. Most of it is expectation setting and communication.

2. (re) Direct / Deflect

Expect some items to come to you even if we try to communicate the boundaries effectively. When that happens, redirect if you know where it can be addressed faster and better.

3. Delegate:

If you think someone in your team has the capacity, you can use this as a learning opportunity or step in if you already have too much; see if it can be delegated effectively. Make sure you don't overload another team member while doing this activity.

4. Delete

If, upon early analysis or evaluation, this is something that you don't have to do (yes, there are always many in this queue, and they stay because we don't ask, "What will happen if I don't do this?"), then delete it.

5. Defer

If you know this must be done, and only you can do it, and if you already have a lot on your plate, see if it MUST be done NOW. If the answer is no, then Defer it.

6. Do:

If the decision tree has taken you this far, it is a priority; only you can do it. So, please do it.

7. Develop

Influential and effective leaders create the capacity to take on more while developing the leaders in their teams. What part of your job can you chip away and push it down? Don't just push down the tasks that take time. Push down decision-making and authority with the relevant training and development.

I have met many executives who want to pursue an ambitious vision, move fast, and deliver rapid results. Without a plan for enabling the people in their team, they find winning hard in the long run, and it doesn't have to be that way.

Enabling autonomy and decision-making at several organizational levels is how to grow your function and build a successful leadership talent bench.

In Closing

There is a level of responsibility that comes with any role. With leadership roles, it is even more. So many very talented and well-meaning leaders struggle because when moving from expert (doer) to enabler (leader), they fail to learn and make the necessary changes in their approach to working. As a result, team members are overworked, structure and process are lacking, and constant tension is combined with shifting priorities and resulting chaos.

Some of this is good. We need it to ensure that the proper efficiency levels are established, we continuously find ways to innovate and improve, and we deliver more with less. But it is a challenge when this becomes a way of working. That's when we see talented employees quit even when they like the company, the business, and the team. It becomes a case of "I love you, but I do not like you."

Wishing you most and more...

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