Episode 10 How to Avoid Leadership Burnout

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Welcome to Unstuck and Unstoppable,

the podcast for ambitious female

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leaders who want to create more impact,

income, and influence in their careers.

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feel connected to their passion

and purpose, but without

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selling out or burning out.

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I'm Sarah Archer, a leadership coach

and career strategist, helping women

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like you thrive in leadership roles

while staying true to your values.

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I'm the founder of CareerTree

Coaching and have over 15 years of

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coaching experience and significant HR

leadership experience to share with you.

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I know as a female leader it can

be hard to find time to focus

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on your career aspirations.

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The day job can be all consuming.

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Plus, no matter how senior you are,

there are always going to be times

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when you feel stuck, when you have

self doubt, or feel like an imposter.

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And that's where unstuck

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strategies, insightful interviews and

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inspiring stories to help you boost

your confidence, lead with purpose

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and achieve sustainable success.

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If you're ready to stop playing

small and unlock the incredible

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potential you have within you and feel

unstoppable, you're in the right place.

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Let's get started.

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The topic we're talking today about

is how to avoid leadership burnout.

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What I'm going to do today is cover a

little bit around, What it looks like and

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what some of the causes are, the triggers

and some practical things that you can

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do to put things in place to avoid it.

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If you are feeling that you are burnt

out right now, then, I would encourage

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you to start to talk to somebody about

how you're feeling, because by talking

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to somebody, whether that's a friend, a

colleague, partner, or a professional, it

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can help you understand what's happening.

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Come up with some solutions and you might

need to get some professional support

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For that because sometimes when you're in

burnout, it's hard to find the solutions.

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You need to get help with that But

the reason I wanted to talk about

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this is because I am seeing in

some of my clients that i'm working

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with at the moment , definitely

signs of heading towards burnout.

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Not being in burnout

heading towards burnout.

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So I felt like it would be a good topic

to talk about . And because when you're

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working as a leader, , there are

additional pressures, you're expected

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to just handle anything, everything

that comes at you, , that you can be

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resilient, you can just deal with it.

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You're also expected to shield your team

to be a buffer for them, your department

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from some of the stresses, some of

the difficulties that the organization

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might be facing, and still deliver

high performance both for yourself,

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but also for your team or department.

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, And as a leader, you might find that

you are the repository for your team's

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problems, and that, , you are having to

absorb some of what's going on for them,

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, or within the backdrop of change in most

organization, there's some sort of change

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going on, whether that's, organizational

change, restructuring, whether it's

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growth, whether it's pivoting, whether

it's, change of leadership, new

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CEO, , whatever it might be, there's

usually some sort of change going on.

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So you're having to manage all

those leadership expectations

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and deal with change.

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And that is, challenging to deal with.

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, and what I found quite worrying, cause I

was, when I was looking into this, I was

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looking at some research from McKinsey,

which I am going to pop , the link to

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the research, which showed that from

their research, leadership burnout is

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more prevalent amongst female managers.

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In their research, , more than half

the women in management that they

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surveyed consistently felt burnt out.

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And, we can't deny that women still have

the brunt of caring responsibilities.

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even when they're in

a, senior leadership role.

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, we've got that to add into it,

whether that's child care, caring

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for dependents, caring for elderly

parents, whatever it might be.

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often there's an another, job attached

to the day, once you've, finished work.

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Let's just think about, , what

leadership burnout actually is.

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And, it's a psychological condition caused

by chronic stress, , often associated

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with long term workplace stressors.

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. So it's, as a result of those long

term workplace stresses, which we're

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going to talk about in a minute.

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Also exacerbated by

certain personality traits.

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Things like perfectionism, where

you're setting high standards,

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high expectations of yourself,

conscientiousness, where you just want

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to get everything finished and you want

to do it to a really high standard.

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People pleasing, where

you feel you can't say no.

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or, not wanting to let people down.

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Those kind of personality traits, while,

incredibly useful at contributing to high

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performance, when it's combined with those

long term workplace stressors, are, more

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of a contributory factor to burnout.

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, if you know that you have those

personality traits, then you're going to

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be more susceptible to burnout if there's

workplace stressors, in place as well.

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The World Health Organization definition

of burnout is low energy, exhaustion,

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both physical and mental, , increasingly

negative feelings about work and

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reduced professional effectiveness.

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It's definitely something we don't

want to be tipping into, isn't it?

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We want to be avoiding

burnout, where we can.

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It's, , thinking about proactively,

, how can we make sure that we're

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not gonna slip into burnout.

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burnout.

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It's definitely paying attention

to what you know about yourself in

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terms of what are the signals to

you that you are maybe not coping

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with work as well as you would like.

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Let's just think about the causes

specific to leadership burnout.

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some of that is isolation.

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Not having meaningful connections

often you don't want to burden

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your team with how you're feeling

or what you're experiencing.

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Maybe you don't want to share it

with your boss because you feel they

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might judge you in terms of what

your capacity is, your capability.

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Maybe, your peers feel like it's

competitive and you can't share things.

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, so it can feel isolating being a leader.

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Also, that lack of support going back

to, that sense of you just got to

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get on with it as a leader, coping

with those day to day challenges,

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some of which you might never have

experienced before, but not wanting

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to say, , I don't know how to do that.

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Just feeling like you've

got to get on with it.

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, obviously high workload, , a lot

of organizations are experiencing,

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, pressures to deliver, , pressures to,

, operate with lower resources potentially,

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, and, , those unrealistic expectations

about delivering on those high workloads.

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, someone I've been working with recently,,

was telling me about four to five major

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projects they have to deliver in the next

six to 12 months, which are huge projects.

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And , , that is so much

to deliver as a leader.

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Plus multitasking and

constant partial attention.

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, the research shows that we

are not good at multitasking.

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We're not really designed to multitask.

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And that sense of constantly having

to move your attention on to different

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things and not really engaging

deeply can be incredibly frustrating.

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And more so at a leadership level , and

then that sense of work life imbalance

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where you're having to work longer

hours than you perhaps would like, and

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that you don't have that cognitive

space, you're feeling that cognitive.

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overwhelm, and power stress,

which we can't underestimate.

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when you're in a position of power and

you're having to make tough decisions

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that affect the lives of people, that

can contribute to your stress levels too.

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, there's lots of factors that

can go into Leadership burnout.

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So it is about understanding

what your burnout indicators are.

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Knowing, as I said before, the factors

that will mean that you are, , needing

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to address something or, , put

something in place to support yourself.

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It's not ignoring those, not ignoring

the things that you know about yourself,

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, that indicate that you're not coping,

that you need some support in some way.

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For me, I know that I

tend to,, feel my burnout.

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I feel physically exhausted.

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I know that's a sign for me that I

need to do some kind of readjustment.

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I also know when I feel negative

emotion, I start to get really grumpy.

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I get short with my partner, my family.

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I know that's a trigger for me.

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That means I need to do some readjustment.

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You know yourself really well.

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So it's looking out for some

of those indicators, that you

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need to do some adjustments.

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I'm just going to give you a few

ideas about things that you can do.

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None of this is new or rocket science.

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It's just to act as a reminder

to think about what you

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could do to support yourself.

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If you know, Either you're going

to go into say the next six months,

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are going to be quite stressful

because of what's going on in the

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business or in your team department.

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Or you know, , you've had a rough

six months and you're beginning

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to feel that, , you're not sure

you can cope with much more.

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Some things to think about doing.

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One of them, which is quite simple,

is to create a routine, which is to

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try and reduce decision, , fatigue.

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So you might remember, Barack Obama, when

he was president, he only wore gray suits.

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So he didn't have to, in the morning,

make a decision about what to wear.

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He was just reducing some of the

decisions he had to make in his day.

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Now, I'm not suggesting that you

wear the same thing every day.

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I certainly would find that really boring.

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, but it is about thinking in your

working day, what could you put

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onto almost automatic pilot?

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So you don't have to

make decisions about it.

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That could be about

how you start your day.

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What's the first half an

hour of every day look like?

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Can you create a routine

where you just do X?

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, you know, as you start your day, um,

This is it all finishing your day.

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So you just know you've got a routine

that stops you having to think,

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should I start answering emails?

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Should I make a call?

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Should I, you know, you can

just go, no, this is what I do

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every day and stick to that.

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, setting some boundaries around

work is incredibly important.

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making sure you're taking holidays,

making sure you're not, , Logging on

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after hours, that you're not sending

emails at 10 o'clock at night.

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, I had a client I was working with

recently where she was logging on Sunday

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evening, and two or three times a week and

doing a couple of hours in the evening.

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That is not sustainable.

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So it's, noticing if you're

slipping into unhelpful patterns,

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that you want to set some boundaries

around your, working hours.

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, and remember this is good role

modeling as well for your team.

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And also thinking about boundaries

around, I'm going to term

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it emotional professionalism.

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I was listening to Brenny Brown's

podcast recently with Simon Sinek

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and, , Adam Grant, and they were

talking about emotional professionalism.

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And this is about setting boundaries

around what people can bring.

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How they show up and how they offload

because , if you're finding your team

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is offloading to you a lot you're going

to absorb that or if you've got members

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of the team or peers or your boss that

are indulging in negative behavior.

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If they're getting really angry or they're

letting out their frustration and moaning

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and , sharing emotion because emotion is

contagious, particularly negative emotion,

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that is going to increase people's stress.

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It's not about saying you

can't have those emotions.

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Emotions are important to experience,

but it's about emotional professionalism

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and recognizing it's not appropriate

to share that emotion at that moment,

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but taking it somewhere there that

can be, , held in a better way.

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It's thinking about your own emotional

professionalism and those people

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around you and setting those boundaries

around that emotional professionalism.

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, and then Things like prioritizing

your self care as well.

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, again, none of this is new, but

it's about thinking, okay, , making

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sure I'm taking breaks at work.

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It's a temptation when you're a

leader, you just work through.

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But actually, taking breaks to go make

a cup of tea, stretch, get away from

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your desk for five minutes, or making

sure you're taking a lunch break,

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going outside, getting some fresh air.

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Again, it's good role modeling, but also

it's helping you reset, get a bit of

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perspective on the day and, giving you

an opportunity to have a little bit of

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space to think about something that's not

attached to your laptop or not a meeting.

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Thinking also about making sure you're

having enough sleep, and thinking about

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how you can bring a bit more joy into

your day, your week, because it's

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important to look for ways to give

yourself energy and nourish yourself so

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that you're not feeling depleted because

obviously stress depletes our energy.

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It's looking for ways to get that balance,

that energetic balance, , in your day.

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being aware of your capacity,

, your capacity is going to be

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different on different days.

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It's thinking about what's

my capacity like today?

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What can I cope with?

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What actually do I need

to move or reschedule?

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Rather than feeling like you've

just got to push through.

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All the time.

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, talking to, people about how you're

feeling, doing check ins with yourself,

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check ins with your peers, check

ins with your employees as well.

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There's lots of other things we could

add in, but I don't want to overload you.

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I just want to , pick out some key

ones I think are really helpful.

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So first one is to , notice your

triggers, the things that tell you

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that you are getting stressed, that

you're maybe heading towards burnout,

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that you need to take some action.

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Really tuning into that, not

avoiding them or ignoring them.

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Creating a routine where you can,

setting boundaries, including emotional,

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professionalism and making sure you're

taking breaks and taking holidays and

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all those good things, looking for

ways you can nourish yourself, increase

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your self care, build your energy in,

thinking about your capacity, and,

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doing check ins regularly with yourself,

with your peers, with your staff.

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if you need support around any

of this, please do get in touch.

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I've also got a book about how

to boost your well being at work,

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which I'll put the link to as

well, , which gives you lots of ideas

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about how you can increase your well

being because that's what we want.

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We want to be not just reducing our

stress at work, but actually increasing

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our well being so they are places that

we are looking forward to going to And

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we feel They, engage and sustain us as

well as, us giving to our workplaces.

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Please do, look after yourselves

and make sure you're putting things

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in place, strategies in place to

support yourself so that you're not

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tipping into Leadership burnout.

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This episode is also available

to watch on LinkedIn live.

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And I'll put a link in

the show notes for you.

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And while you're over on LinkedIn,

do send me a connection request.

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If we're not connected already.

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I love to connect with you there.

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Thank you so much for listening

to this episode of the Unstuck

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and Unstoppable podcast.

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I have lots of free resources you

can access on my website, ww.career

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tree coaching.co uk, and I'll

also put links in the show notes.

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If you found this episode

helpful, then please subscribe

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so you don't miss the next one.

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friend and leave me a review

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and I will personally thank you.

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Remember, you're capable of more

than you know, shine brightly.

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Lead boldly and unlock the

extraordinary potential within you.

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Be unstoppable.