Burnout - A call for action

More than 5 years have passed since I shared my view on burnout on this platform. 5 years down the road, a lot has changed in my life. I was able to follow my passion for personal development and became a coach (very intentionally) and a trainer (almost by accident).?

As a coach, next to other types of coaching, I had the privilege to accompany more than 100 people in the difficult situation that represents burnout. You can imagine that a lot of experience on this topic has accumulated over the years. And for some reason, the time feels ripe now to put this knowledge out there for the benefit of individuals, teams and corporations to literally get healthier to prevent burnout from happening in the first place.??

There are some key questions that I started asking myself, and I’m convinced the answers to those will be beneficial for all of us. What are the similarities in my clients’ stories? What was needed for them to overcome this crisis and return to work? What worked for them and what didn't? What are the unfavourable (sometimes toxic) work conditions and cultures some of them experienced??

Dispelling some myths

But let me start first by clarifying one thing - being confronted with burnout is no joke. We are talking about employees who take their work seriously and strive to do the best job they can. They take responsibility and expect others to do the same. Being told by their family doctor that they better stop working for a while is hard to accept and leads to feelings of guilt and even shame. One person told me they would rather have a broken leg, at least then people would understand.?

In the stage of burnout, toxic stress over a long period of time has led to body and mind being out of balance: the body is exhausted, tense, and the mind cannot help anymore. The part of the brain that thinks and the part that feels are disconnected from each other. Cognitive functions are impaired - concentration and memory suffer. Imagine not being able to control your emotions anymore and losing perspective. The total system is literally "out of order".?

Far from being on vacation, right? So what can we do for a person in that position? Whether you're the boss, in HR, life partner or a friend: just be there, listen to their story, give space, show you care. It can be that simple.?

So who's to blame?

Short answer: nobody. A burnout happens as a consequence of a complex interaction between an individual, their personality, education, beliefs, etc, and the environment they are in. The latter consists of work content, work conditions, work environment, work culture, but also their private situation. And it will not come as a surprise that the Covid crisis has made matters worse by consuming part of our resilience buffer.

Allow me to suggest a different question (I am a coach after all): what responsibility do the involved parties assume for themselves to learn from what has happened and evolve, as a person and as an organisation? My biggest insight from witnessing my clients' journeys is this: clients who assume responsibility to learn from their crisis and use it for their self-development are able, with time, to successfully return to work (whether at the same employer or elsewhere) while increasing their resilience at the same time. Is this an easy task? Far from it. A difficult but ultimately rewarding journey. My conviction of 5 years ago has been confirmed in practice: burnout is a chance.?

This should in no way absolve corporations and in a larger sense society from assuming their share of the responsibility.?Healthy teams and healthy company cultures in which there is a high level of trust, solidarity and yes, humanity, are key to success.?

A call for action

Right now, you are probably thinking "I get this, but what do you suggest concretely?". Well, I’m a pragmatic person so let me suggest 2 large levers that will already go a long way in reducing the likelihood of people burning out. One on an individual level and one on a team/ organisational level. Allow me to use the analogy of a vaccine that we are all too familiar with now: what I'm suggesting may not make us immune, but the likelihood of falling sick with burnout will be greatly reduced.?

Vaccine #1: Overcome perfectionism

In the vast majority of cases, perfectionism plays a major role, if not is single-handedly responsible for making a person vulnerable to burnout. In the right context (or rather, the wrong one), this vulnerability can result in burnout.?

Perfectionism is a rather complex pattern that in most cases gets installed at a young age. In a nutshell, it is characterised by an unhealthy striving for high and oftentimes unattainable expectations regarding oneself and others. Imagine the energy that goes into pursuing this strategy towards perfection and the regular disappointment that entails because the world and the people in it just simply do not work that way.?

In my experience, perfectionism can catch up with you at any point in your life. And the damage on body and mind can be severe. Perfectionists can literally carry the weight of the world on their shoulders for quite a long time, but there are limits on how much a person can take.?

Don’t let it come to that, get coached to transform this unhealthy pattern and turn yourself into a healthier version 2.0.?

Vaccine #2: Invest in leadership and team development

This would be the call for action for organisations and companies. It will come as no surprise that leadership skills and the health of the individual teams determine the quality of an organisational culture as a whole. Regarding leadership, there are two important facts to remember: (1) Only very few of us are naturally born leaders (you can quickly check by counting the ones you know). (2) Leadership is something that can be learned (which is really great news).?

I had the pleasure to be involved in various leadership programmes in companies over the years, as a coach and as a trainer. I guess I don’t have to convince anyone that this is an investment that pays large dividends in terms of company results. But beyond that, whenever coaching leadership is adopted as an attitude and a style, the level of trust, empathy and solidarity that emerge in a team and in the larger organisation simply leaves less room for burnout infections.?

In summary

• Burnout is no joke. Be there, give space, show you care.?
• Burnout is a chance. Best to take it with both hands and come out more resilient.?
• Perfectionism is an ideal breeding ground for burnout. Stop it in its tracks.?
• Leadership and team development go a long way. Make it a priority in your organisation.?

Will this solve the problem? Hey, we gotta start somewhere!?

Chris Markens