Mentors,sponsors,coaches and colleagues help with burnout

Physician burnout is pervasive and appears to be worsening. In fact, in some specialties, residents are burned out even before they have spent their first day in practice. But, they are not alone since burnout happens in many industries other than medicine.

COVID has made thing worse.

Burnout is considered to have a range of symptoms . There is no agreement which of those are part of it and which ones are not. But all definitions given so far have in common that the symptoms are regarded as being the consequence of stressful activities in or outside the job. One possible source of stress outside the job is caring for a family member, for example.

Three main areas of symptoms are considered to be signs of burnout syndrome:

• Emotional exhaustion: People affected feel drained and exhausted, overloaded, tired and low, and do not have enough energy. Physical symptoms include pain or problems with the stomach or bowel .
• Alienation from (job-related) activities: People affected find their jobs increasingly negative and frustrating. They may develop a cynical attitude towards their work environment and their colleagues. They may, at the same time, increasingly distance themselves emotionally, and disengage themselves from their work.
• Reduced performance: Burnout mainly affects everyday tasks at work, at home or when caring for family members. People with burnout regard their activities very negatively, find it hard to concentrate, are listless and experience a lack of creativity.

Burnout can also be described as “the extinction of motivation or incentive, especially where one's devotion to a cause or relationship fails to produce the desired results,” and is a stress-related state and there are multiple causes.

Burn out interventions and prevention programs both at the personal and organizational level are successful 80% of the time. However, both personal and organizational interventions are better than either alone, and the results tend to fatigue over time.

Mentors, coaches, sponsors and colleagues might help , but , you need to understand the roles each one plays and when and how to engage them. Here is what to do when your boss refuses to be your sponsor.

Mentors are accountability partners who help you stay on track to meet your goals. They are hard to find and the lack of a mentor is an oft quoted reason for entrepreneurial failure. Many entrepreneurs have a hard time finding the right mentor for various reasons. Mentors help your personal development.

There are a few things you can do to find a mentor and build a strong relationship: define your goals and specific needs; write a “job description” for your ideal mentor; search for mentors through your second-degree network; make the ask (and keep it simple); have a first meeting; create a mentorship agreement; and follow up to say thank you over the long term.

Here are some tips on being a good mentor. It starts with building a genuine relationship.

Here are 4 tips on how to build that relationship.

Here is how to onboard a mentee.

Sponsors are different from mentors. Their job is to run cover for you in your organization and help you find the scarce resources intrapreneurs need to succeed. They are making an investment in your idea, and, like every investor, they expect a return within a defined time.

They are also called "rabbis" and you should find and be one yourself. Many who consider themselves to be sponsors are acting more like mentors. To claim the title of sponsor, a senior leader should be an active advocate for their protégé — a more junior professional who the sponsor sees as a top performer, with tons of potential, who deserves to move up in their career. A sponsor has three primary responsibilities: to believe in and go out on a limb for their protégé; to use their organizational capital, both publicly and behind closed doors, to push for their protégé’s promotion; and to provide their protégé with “air cover” for risk-taking. Here are some tips on what to do when your boss lacks what it takes to be a good sponsor.

Sponsorship initiatives are increasingly popular today, but few sponsors are given any guidance about how best to work with the people they’ve been asked to work with, and as a result the relationships often don’t develop as productively as they should. Aspiring sponsors need more practical guidance. In this article, drawing on their long experience with sponsorship, the authors describe six important steps all sponsors should take.

Colleagues are people you work with that you admire and can emulate. They are not friends, but rather a honest sounding board. They set an example by their actions. There are many reasons why colleagues make good mentors or confidantes.

Coaches The goal of the coach is to facilitate learning, focus, and results.?Coaches are trained in the strategies for achieving the results specific to their domain of coaching.? Although they?may ?not have experience generating the results you are looking for in themselves, they should have experience generating these results in other people or organizations. Coaches teach you a skill. Here are some benefits of peer group coaching.

Here's what startup coaches do.

Teachers Teaching is focused on the acquisition of new knowledge and skills.?Coaching is focused on refining and developing knowledge and skills. For example, you may teach a new employee organizational systems and processes, but you may coach them through improving the processes or working on their efficiency.

Or maybe you just need a friend other than your dog.

In 2008, Cleveland Clinic instituted a peer-based coaching and mentoring program for physicians and scientists to promote a proactive approach to clinician well-being for allcomers, which officials estimate has saved the health system at least $133 million in physician retention alone in 2020.?

The Center for Excellence in Coaching and Mentoring runs two physician and scientist peer coaching programs, and the Mandel Global Leadership & Learning Institute provides coaching opportunities to all caregivers at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. The two groups partner closely to ensure programming is complementary.?

But, that only works if you are ready, willing and able to be coached.

A health coach is?someone trained in behavior change , who primarily uses an interview style called “motivational interviewing ” to help patients see their ability to make change. While some may have clinical training in fields like nursing or medicine,?they hail from a wide variety of disciplines ?or train in health coaching as a secondary career.

A career or executive coach helps you eliminate destructive behaviors and develop constructive ones.

Here are the differences between mentors and sponsors and what makes the interaction work.

Entrepreneurship coaching tends to be outcome-oriented, whereas executive coaching is mostly process-oriented. In entrepreneurship coaching, the client often wants the measures to be applied immediately. In executive coaching, we require progression in the application of changes since we are keen on lasting impact. This does not mean that in entrepreneurship coaching there is no lasting impact.

Many of you who are reading this don't have a mentor. But, here are some ways to change that. Intergenerational mentoring and coaching is another way to go.

Here are some best practices for mentors and mentees. For businesses, economies, and people to get the demonstrated dividend that comes from gender-balanced leadership teams, we have to eliminate inaccurate, persistent perceptions about women as leaders.?One way to do that is to observe and tell stories about how women leaders benefit men.

Here is how to find and build a relationship with a mentor.

You might be a member of the miserable professional class. Whether you are an employed physician, a community practitioner, a budding CEO of a biomedical or health startup or an intrapreneur, you need help as an antidote to the stress. Take the time to cultivate the right relationship with the right person in the right role and thank your lucky stars you found them.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack