The World Health Organisation defines burnout as “A syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic stress that has not been successfully managed.” Improving employee well-being has also become a central focus for many workplace leaders, as the issue of burnout negatively affects productivity, engagement and talent retention.
Harvard Business Review has estimated that burnout-related healthcare spending “cost an estimated US$125 billion to US$190 billion a year in healthcare spending in the US”. Gallup has also projected a US$47.6 billion per year from the dip in productivity due to missed workdays in the US workforce alone.
People’s ability to deal with pressure seems to be variable across generations. For instance, baby boomers seem to be dealing with it better, with only 31 per cent reporting burnout compared to 59 per cent of Millennials, 58 per cent of Generation Z and 54 per cent of Gen X, according to the Business Health Institute.
While the reasons why each generation responds differently to pressure vary, one thing is clear. For the majority of the working class today, burnout is a severe threat that needs to be addressed. Everyone in the ecosystem, leaders, employers and individuals, can do something about it together.
The reality is burnout does not happen overnight, so picking up the signs early and examining your habits and mindset will go a long way to help you become anti-burnout.
Watching out for early signs of burnout
One of the issues I have observed among working professionals is their tendency to ignore or overlook their emotions. Conditioned to suppress emotions, especially negative ones, for they believe these are either temporary or unprofessional, prevents people from paying attention to the signals and doing something about them.
This becomes an issue as the earliest signs of burnout are often emotional, like feeling negative, pessimistic and irritable constantly. Some major symptoms might include fatigue, isolation, and declining performance. When chronic stress is left unchecked, it could escalate into severe cases of burnout, leading to depression and anxiety, according to research.
Also Read: 5 signs of burnout you might be missing
Ignoring emotions is ineffective. So is the second category of leaders who grow to accept that undesirable reality as the norm. To thrive under pressure and become anti-burnout, there are strategies all leaders can take to improve the situation, making challenging work both meaningful and energising.
Developing an anti-burnout mindset and skillset
While it’s easy to point the finger at external factors like bad managers, hostile cultures, and overwhelming workload, in my opinion, it is far more productive and constructive to focus on matters within our locus of control.
This is aligned with one of the habits in Stephen Covey’s book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Focusing on matters within your locus of control will help you achieve better results over time.
Although you have no control over the external variables, growing a mindset that is resilient and agile will determine how you respond to pressure and keep burnout at bay.
Here are four strategies to help you become anti-burnout:
Pause for high performance
A cluttered mind cannot think strategically. When people are stressed, they tend to catastrophise—compounded over time, performance and total well-being dip.
To encourage strategic thinking and thrive under pressure, you need small pockets of space and time to decompress. Think of these as pit stops to refuel and reevaluate. While the idea of a pause is simple, it is anything but simple. This might have to do with one of the self-limiting beliefs I have seen among leaders: associating activity with productivity. By trapping themselves in activity, they often fail to realise they have gone off track, resulting in even greater levels of stress as they desperately attempt to correct the course.
So, invest your time wisely instead of filling all your time with activity.
Build a high-performance habit or routine that is repeatable and sustainable, whether it is taking a five-minute break in between meetings, walking, adequate rest, eating well, maintaining mental quality, or timeboxing your week’s involvements. Pressure is always present, and the more you catch the stressors, the more you can respond to and manage them successfully.
Be honest about your preferences and strengths
Develop wisdom and better allocate your time, energy, and effort to endeavours that are truly meaningful and energising to you. This can be done by observing what drains you, so you will be able to tap on existing resources, find complementary partners, or delegate appropriately.
Also Read: How Noodle Factory addresses educator burnout with its AI-powered teaching assistants
As you allocate most of your effort to projects that are meaningful and energising, you will naturally fill your inner resource of energy and positivity, keeping burnout at bay.
To start off, you can explore taking the Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment and discover your greatest talents.
Fail Forward
Many people I support have high self-expectations. But we all know that resources are finite while our targets always rise.
It is easy to beat yourself up or feel deflated when you constantly hold yourself against unrealistic yardsticks. While many people regard work as highly important, overdoing can result in unnecessary stress.
So, adopt a “learning for the future” approach to assessing your results and learnings when things go wrong. Some questions that could help:
- Which matters are within your control? Which ones are out of your control?
- What lessons can you learn and do better next time?
- What issues can you address immediately? What can be addressed later?
Develop resilience
The idea about preventing burnout is not to take away pressure but how to thrive and increase joy.
Increasing your resilience is then your best insurance in the fast-paced environment. When facing difficult situations, you want to develop the ability to be calm and thoughtful, evaluate your options, and then formulate the way forward.
Achieving a state of high resilience ensures you are not overwhelmed by unexpected circumstances, as you are mentally prepared for uncertainties and equipped with skills that will support you through challenges. The process, however, is not overnight and takes discipline and dedication. The good news is you can start building the skills and mindset that lead to resilience starting today.
Some areas you can consider:
- Develop an understanding of emerging trends in your field
- Pick some areas to go deep and learn about based on your interest and future career plans
- Set yourself up for success by regularly aligning your actions with your future goals
- Build a network of allies to expand perspectives, overcome challenges and find solutions
As we will constantly experience pressure in the hectic world, it is important to develop the mindset and skillset needed to continuously find joy in our work and lives. Everyone is susceptible to burnout at the end of the day; nobody is exempted.
The good news is there is something each one of us can start doing. These small steps, whether in the form of high-performance habits, learning something new, or being more in touch with our emotions, would go a long way in making you anti-burnout and constantly high-performing.
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