The Burnout

In Motorsports the burnout is one of the most exciting parts and one that everyone looks forward to watching.

It is truly fun to watch. When a driver in NASCAR has won a race, they celebrate by spinning the tires and doing an amazing burnout. In Drag racing before a driver gets ready to make their run down the track, they burnout to warm the tires, and make them stick.

As fun as it is to watch a burnout in NASCAR or drag racing there is another type of burnout that is not fun to watch. That type is burnout in the business world. Even though they are very similar when you think about it, one is very positive while the other is not.

See when a driver does a burnout, they press the accelerator to cause the tires to spin extremely fast. They break traction and the car stays in place while an extreme amount of energy is used to make the tires spin. You see a lot of work is being done but no progress is being made, no recognition of effort.

In the business world what causes burnout is the same thing. Some may say that if you work too hard you will burnout, that you need to slow down. I recently heard Liz Wiseman say that what really causes burnout at work isn’t working too hard but actually working hard while never seeing the impact of your hard work. It is when you work hard while never being shown the results of your work or receiving proper recognition, this is what causes burnout.

You see it is like the race car. When it is going around the track it is expending tremendous energy and the tires are spinning extremely fast, but it isn’t burning out, it is moving forward, advancing to a goal and you can see the result of all the work being done. Getting closer to the goal, the finish line.

In the business world, it is no different. If, we as leaders can show our team members what the impact of their hard work is, how valuable it is, and that it is important in reaching our goal they will not feel that they are spinning their wheels. They will see that their effort is important and that their work has a purpose.

So as leaders of professionals remember we don’t need to celebrate with a burnout, we need to celebrate, communicate, and recognize our employee's hard work so we can prevent the burnout.