Why are we seeing more leaders talking about burnout? Burnout is affecting more leaders than ever before. Leaders in the last 5 years have had to adapt fast. They have had to make an increasing number of decisions and make them at all hours of the day.
Increased workload
Many leaders are facing increasing demands and responsibilities in today’s fast-paced business environment. In the last couple of years, there have been big seismic shifts happening which we need to adapt to and adapt to fast. As I reflected here is a short list of influences that are making long-term strategic planning a thing of the past.
COVID and having to make and understand changing health policies about what is appropriate and what is not and under what circumstances. With changing legislation about this issue.
Flexible / Hybrid working whether we like it or not it’s here and we need to adapt how to run organisations differently.
Cybersecurity we now also need to understand the threats to our organisations from unseen and unknown people that are moving at a pace that no leader could have understood 5-10 years ago.
AI is yet another disruption to the way in which we work. No idea what this means or how to adapt
Staff shortages across so many sectors are impacting what we can do and how we do it.
Staff expectations of the employee and employer relationship have changed. The expectation is that staff can bring their whole self to the workplace and be accommodated and more importantly embraced.
With technology allowing us to be available 24/7, it can be very difficult to disconnect from work and take time for rest and rejuvenation. It’s also increasingly difficult to carve out the necessary time for deep thinking with the constant availability.
Pressure to perform
Leaders are often under pressure to meet high expectations and deliver results quickly. This can create a culture of “always on” and lead to burnout if leaders don’t take time to recharge.
Lack of support
Leaders may not have the necessary support or resources to manage their workload effectively. This can include a lack of support staff, inadequate training, or insufficient resources to complete tasks. Keeping pace with IT changes and HR requirements alone requires leaders to think differently.
Personal factors
Leaders may also experience burnout due to personal factors such as relationship problems, financial stress, or health issues.
What can you do?
It’s important to note that burnout is not a sign of weakness or failure. It is a very real and common issue that affects many leaders, and it can have serious consequences on both their personal and professional lives. By recognizing the signs of burnout and taking steps to prevent it, leaders can maintain their well-being and effectiveness over the long-term.
You need to look after yourself first!
Prioritise self-care
As a leader, it’s easy to get caught up in work and neglect your own needs. However, it’s important to prioritise self-care to avoid burnout. Make time for activities that bring you joy and relaxation, such as exercise, reading, or spending time with loved ones.
Delegate tasks
You don’t have to do everything yourself! Delegating tasks to others can help lighten your workload and free up time for other important things in your life. Make sure you trust your team and communicate clearly to ensure that tasks are completed to your satisfaction.
Set boundaries
It’s important to set boundaries to prevent burnout. This includes setting limits on your work hours, prioritizing your own needs, and learning to say “no” when necessary.
Get support
Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. Talk to a trusted friend, family member, or professional counselor about your struggles with burnout. You don’t have to go through it alone.
Reflect on your values
Burnout can be a sign that you are not aligned with your values or goals. Take some time to reflect on what is most important to you and make adjustments in your life as needed to ensure that you are living in alignment with your values.
Remember, as a leader, taking care of yourself is not only important for your own well-being, but also for the well-being of those around you. By prioritising self-care and setting boundaries, you can prevent burnout and be a more effective leader in the long run.
Sitting with colleagues I have heard it so many times. It’s a common saying among CEOs “it’s lonely at the top.” But why? This really got me thinking. From the outside looking in a CEO has it made, the great car, house, amazing job, meeting incredible people, great salary and everyone looks up to them, and they are celebrated.
As it turns out that the vast majority of CEOs feel isolated and alone in their role. According to the Harvard Business Review, over half of CEOs express feelings of loneliness, 61% of which believe loneliness hinders their job performance. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, as the CEO you are ultimately responsible for everything that happens. This is a lot of pressure, and it’s easy to feel like you’re the only one who can solve the problem or the only one who cares about the organisation and the livelihoods of those who work for you. The position at the top is a 24/7 job, there is no off. The number of times I tried to take a holiday only for a media issue or a confidential legal matter to arise. I could almost guarantee on the first or second day of my leave would be the dreaded phone call.
There is pressure to be on and to perform all the time and now there is a blurring with social media channels and your personal life is also your professional life. So you feel like you are constantly under pressure to perform at the highest level and maintain your position. And heaven forbid if you make a mistake, it’s often magnified because you’re in the spotlight. There is no room for error or to be human at the top.
I know that while you have worked incredibly hard to get where you are, so why is it then, it’s also likely that you feel incredibly lonely at the top. No one truly understands this unique position unless you have been at the top.
Why CEO Loneliness Matters
Loneliness costs Australia an estimated $2.7bn each year due to adverse health outcomes and has worsened throughout the Covid pandemic, according to a new report measuring social connectedness. Loneliness can make you physically sick. I am sure if you think hard enough you will know of a CEO whose job made them unwell. For some of them, it was simply loneliness. How many of them had a position at the top and then you saw their health decline or saw how the position aged them? There is a lot of evidence that loneliness is a significant health concern but also it affects our ability to make good decisions. Social isolation and loneliness affect mental health, behaviours, sleep patterns, physical health and our ability to deal with stress. So why are our boards and CEOs not talking about this topic? Why is not just part of the CEO’s salary to have the support that they need to do their job well? There is a feeling of shame about feeling lonely.
If we want thriving organisations, looking after and supporting CEOs to perform at their peak, should be a priority. In reality, we expect CEOs to be strong and resilient and we want them to be able to cope with significant amounts of pressure. It’s not fair or reasonable to expect those around the CEOs like our boards and management to be that support as they don’t really want to have a conversation about their vulnerabilities and that they are feeling lonely.
Yes CEOs Are Resilient
They got to the top because they are emotionally resilient and often able to play their cards close to their chest. CEOs can often handle stress better and for longer, meaning we have a tendency to bend under pressure rather than break. And then we bounce back. This is why people in senior leadership roles managed to be a CEO in the first place. However, the research is clear that they are feeling lonely and this has a significant impact on their health and their ability to perform at their peak. CEOs need a constant deep well of resilience and ongoing ability to cope. Issues that come to the CEO are often too complex or difficult for anyone else in the organisation to solve. So these decisions have consequences. Yes, CEOs have resilience but they are also human too.
The Perks
There are many perks to being the CEO as some of them are just simply heady. The salary, the title, the ability to make decisions and to be recognised for them, to really make a difference and to build something. You have access to information and to people. The position allows those around you to look up to you because of the important role you hold. There are many reasons that CEOs work as hard as they do for the recognition and the power that comes with the position. It is important to understand that there is another side to this and it comes with a price.
CEOs Need a Support System
If I have learned anything from COVID it is that social connections matter. Our relationships matter whether it’s family or friends they are all critical to our ability to cope and succeed.
As a CEO, it can be easy to think we’re supposed to be able to do everything ourselves, but the truth is, no one can. And the sooner we can tap into a broad support system, the sooner we reduce the sense of isolation and loneliness. Not one person needs to be everything to you in your support network for example your romantic partner shouldn’t be your only support. But you need people around you that can be trusted.
Suggestions
Your board of directors and the chairperson should provide you with opportunities to debrief and to understand what is keeping you awake at night
Your management team should also be a team to support you
Your romantic partner probably knows you better than anyone else
A close friend and or family know you outside of work
A coach, mentor or paid professional to support you personally
A mental health professional to help you deal with the stress
CEO Network or group
This is not an exhaustive list but you need a team around you to support you when you need it. I personally found having a CEO network, (2020 exchange) of like minded people incredibly valuable. We were in different industries but often faced similar issues. There was no judgement and ability to share and learn from each other.
It is important that you use different people in your support network for different things. My close friends and family are for my silly moments and letting loose, lets be honest not everyone needs to see that. What ever you use your support network for it is essential for your wellbeing, happiness and success. Being at the top comes with a lot of advantages but it also comes with some unique challenges.
Get connected and dont be afraid to admit your lonely at the top because you are not alone.
Recently I was at a leadership forum and casually asked a colleague, “Have you got any plans over Christmas? Are you going away?” and he simply said, “I am resting hard”.
Well my first response was to burst out laughing and then the more I thought about this statement the more I thought that this is genius!
We all work hard, we play hard, we wear this like a badge of honour. Our exhaustion is seen as a status symbol. When you ask someone how are you, how often do you hear the response “busy”.
What COVID has brought home to me is burnout is real and so many people I know have got major health issues from not resting. It is simply not a great culture where we take pride in our hustle and collective fatigue. It’s not ok, and we shouldn’t keep on soldiering on through our exhaustion.
Resting
“Resting” is a simple concept that can take some time to master. It’s the art of disconnecting from your work, friends, and whatever else so you can relax and rejuvenate. If you don’t rest, you’ll burn out.
We see resting as a soft option and feel guilty for resting because we have been told if we are not busy, we are failing. But the opposite is so true. Resting more will actually give you more energy and make you feel better and perform better.
Sleep is the best performance-enhancing drug ever!! I have experienced extreme ends of the rest continuum. Ask any new mum with an unsettled child what lack of sleep does to you. Any parent who is sleep-deprived will tell you emphatically how much better he/she feels with a decent nights sleep.
But it isn’t just sleep that is important for rest. You need to create habits that allow you to switch off. The first step to resting more is getting into a habit of resting every day. This will prevent you from being overworked and burnt out. The second step to rest is using exercises like yoga and meditation to help you relax and reset your mind. They are beneficial to both physical and mental health, but also help us enjoy life more.
Resting and recharging your batteries is about ensuring you take time to do the things that give you energy and fill you up. Everyone has a place, hobby or exercise which gives them joy. Mindfulness comes to people in so many different ways. It could be as simple as a walk around the block with the dog.
Leaders Need Rest Too
Even the most hard-charging business leaders need time to recharge their batteries. We all know that leading a company requires long hours and tons of energy, but it takes much more than that to stay sharp and motivated.
Just as a machine needs maintenance, so does the human body. Our bodies require rest and relaxation in order to function at the highest level. Some people take a lot of time off, while others prefer to get away from their daily grind by getting outdoors and exercising with friends. Some people prefer to take an hour to reflect on their goals with a quiet walk around the block. Or maybe it is scheduling your regular yoga session.
Without rest, you cannot find the creativity and mental function required to solve complex problems. You will find you have more capacity to help and support everyone around you if you help yourself first.
Rest Guilt-Free
Today, most people feel guilty when they take time off. It’s as if the world is going to stop spinning and explode if they aren’t working. They have an underlying belief that time spent away from work is wasted time, which only causes more stress. But what if I told you that taking a break actually makes you more productive? That’s right! When you take time off, your mind is more relaxed and ready for work. And there’s more good news! Taking regular breaks will eventually make you more productive and allow you to get more done in less time
Work at Resting
Imagine if we put as much time and effort into learning how to rest as we did learning a new skill. Resting Hard is a concept that requires effort, it requires conscious time, put it in the diary. Prioritise it. Your body and mind will thank you. Your family will thank you. But also your staff will thank you for bringing your best version to work. We are not built to squeeze more into our days. Even God had to take a day off. So if it is good enough for him then I might just work on doing it too.
So for now I am going to work on simply “resting hard”.
My recent learning experiences have all highlighted the power and importance of the pause. It feels like a lesson I’m still trying to figure out. When you think about it, a pause is so important it is everywhere.
Recently I was at a conference, listening to some incredible speakers. I was learning more about horses and equine-assisted learning. One of the speakers was talking about the power of taking time off. She was using the example of her own small business and simply shutting it for a year. The thought seemed horrifying to me until I really started to listen and reflect. With the power of the pause, it is OK to stop and pause, because often in the silence is when the magic happens.
Ever had your best ideas at 2 am in the morning or in the shower when you are simply not thinking about anything else. It is in the still moments when our creativity happens.
COVID Pause
Fit your own oxygen mask
For me one of those moments was in the exhaustion. In the first wave of COVID, I got a chance to stop and think and really look for answers. One of the questions I continued to grapple with is what can I learn from this experience. If this was a life lesson I wanted to make sure I got from it what I could. The message was “fit your own oxygen mask first”.
This analogy was given to me at a leadership forum. It resonated with me as I was flying a lot at the time so visually and emotionally I understood it. We were talking about how as leaders in our own organisations we needed to be at our best so that we can support our teams. You cannot lead others if you are stressed out and not coping. You simply don’t make great decisions and have nothing left in the tank for everyone else. So take some time to do the things that make you stronger and fill your cup.
The rest and regeneration are essential, you need to be the one steering the ship. Now is not the time to do more, but, to be more present.
The Power of Pause in Horse Training
Sitting around doing nothing is the most important thing to do when you are training a horse. Horses learn in the pause. It’s called soaking. You can understand for a woman who is always on the go and trying to fit one more thing in my day, this concept has taken me years to get my head around.
My horse riding used to be on a schedule. Generally, I had 40 minutes before the sun sets and I have to run through a dressage test because I have a competition coming up. So for my poor horse, he just had to run through the movements, because practice makes perfect, right. This only satisfies one member of the team. It’s a lot how I explain the difference between management and leadership. I would give the instructions and my horse just needed to follow the instructions. If he got it wrong or got it right we would do it again.
horse training
In horse language, we were writing lines but he just wasn’t sure what he had done that he needed to write the lines.
For a horse, when they get something right the pressure needs to come off. The question was answered and so they understand they have done a good job they get to rest. You do this a few times and suddenly you are training your horse to try harder.
Their reward is in the pause. It is how they process what they learnt and how they know they got it right. If you don’t allow a horse to pause and “soak” they get frustrated and confused. You create behavioural problems. The power of the pause builds their confidence.
It is the same with people. If you don’t stop and recognise when they do something great they stop trying. Even worse when you continue to ask the same question and point out their mistakes soon they become disengaged or even develop mental health issues like anxiety and depression.
Pause in Public speaking
The Presentation Guru has a great article on the power of the pause in public speaking. You should pause before you start talking and command the attention of the room. Have you ever been to a talk and someone simply stands at the lectern and somehow the room starts to get quiet? Those that keep talking get hushed by others. That comes from the power of the pause. When you make a point in speaking then pause people have time to reflect on what you said and it emphasises that point.
Great orators defiantely know the power of the pause.
Music
The pause in music
“The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.” ― Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
A Moment in Argument
Have you ever taken just a moment of pause in a heated discussion? The short moment to pause and breathe allows your brain a moment to respond and not react. If you have children this is a powerful tool! No parent hasn’t had a moment where they have lost their rational thought process with their child.
In a moment of frustration, we all want to be able to replay that moment and do it differently. But if you can practise a pause and a breath you can “not sweat the small stuff”. Their room is a mess and they haven’t done the dishes as you asked them a million times already. Rather than lose your cool a pause may help you reframe the conversation and save your relationship. A simple pause can some of the most important relationships in our lives and stop us from saying something we can’t take back.
Negotiations
The pause in a complex discussion also allows you to hear and to really listen. One of my early bosses who was teaching about sales and negotiation used the phrase “he who speaks first loses” you need to get comfortable in the silence.
Stop Revive Survive
This was a national driving campaign encouraging drivers to take a break every 2 hours. Driving tired is equivalent to driving under the influence of alcohol. So if you shouldn’t trust your tired self behind the wheel of the car what else is your tired self in charge of that could be dangerous. The fatality rate of fatigue when driving is one of the 3 big killers on our roads. So, there are times where your life depends on the pause.
The Pause in Meditation
When meditating you are literally trying to find the silence and the pause. There is a lot of research about the health benefits of meditation and the power of that pause.
The research from Harvard explained the power of meditation in reducing stress in your nervous system.
There are two parts to our nervous system: the sympathetic and parasympathetic. These two parts perform different functions and each is important. The sympathetic nervous system prepares our body to react to stress (“fight or flight”) and the parasympathetic helps us recover from stress (“rest and digest”).
So when we are stressed or come into a stressful situation we need our body to release chemicals that temporarily improve performance. In some instances, these chemicals produce a high and allow us to perform at our peak. Cortisol, adrenaline, and other stress hormones increase heart rate, slow digestion, and increase blood pressure, all to allow greater blood flow to our muscles, heart, and brain to be able to think or act quickly. But we also need to switch off this response and put our body into the rest and digest mode.
Meditation allows our parasympathetic nervous system to engage and for us to recover. Meditation retreats are silent for days to not only rest your body and mind. They give you patience and clarity.
The Power of Prayer
Even the regular act of silence and prayer can physically change your brain. Neurological studies have shown that it changes the frontal lobe. In addition, there is also evidence that those who regularly use prayer to a loving God rather than a punitive God also reduces their anxiety, depression, and stress and increases feelings of security, compassion, and love.
When we are overstimulated we lose our creativity. We lose our energy and we lose ourselves. We need to learn to celebrate the pause, rather than the hustle. By fitting more in a day we are less effective, we have somewhere learned to wear with pride being busy. Try doing more by stopping and feel the power of the pause.
Everyone that isn’t happy wishes they were. Try these 20 ways to enhance yoru happiness. Event those that are already happy would like to be even happier. A life filled with happiness is a worthwhile goal and readily achievable. A life lacking happiness is a constant challenge. Happiness isn’t just about the big things. There are many small items that color your life and subtly add to or subtract from it.
If you’d like to add more happiness to your life, try these 20 tips:
1. Realize that money is great for solving problems, but does little to increase happiness
Need new tires on your car? Want to make a career change? Money is a great solution. However, once you have enough money to meet your basic needs, happiness is found elsewhere. More money doesn’t make you happier
4. Be mindful.
Let go of regret and worry. Your life is happening right now. You surely don’t want to miss anything
7. Be grateful
You probably have more good things in your life than you realize. Focus on those good things and your mood is sure to brighten
10. Focus on regular improvement instead of perfection
If being perfect is necessary to feel happy, you’re doomed to misery. Be happy with small, consistent improvement.
13. Get things done.
Procrastination is a happiness killer. Consider how much stress would be removed from your life if you got the essentials done on time.
16. Say “no.”
Avoiding agreeing to new obligations too quickly. If your plate is already full, piling on more responsibilities and commitments will only sour your mood.
19. Do something you’ve always wanted to do. Follow a dream or a passion.
Buy a cat or take piano lessons. Learn to speak French.
2. Sleep at least 7 hours each night
If you think you’re thriving on 5 hours of sleep, think again. Every study on the topic has shown that every measured performance metric improves when sleep is increased to a minimum of 7 hours.
5. Eat a healthy breakfast
Feel good about yourself by getting the day off on the right foot. You’ll also be more likely to eat a healthy lunch
8. Get out of the house
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut when you see and experience the same things consistently. See what else is going on in the world.
11. Try something new.
You probably haven’t read your favorite book, eaten in your favorite restaurant, or met your favorite person yet.
14. Spend time with those you love.
Few things can enhance your happiness more than spending quality time with those you love.
17. Smile.
Even if you don’t feel like it, smile. It’s free and you’ll feel just a little happier.
20. Introduce yourself to someone new.
The people in your life have a significant impact on your happiness. The person you meet today may become your best friend tomorrow.
3. Give at least one sincere compliment each day
Focus on the positive in others. You’ll feel better and receive the same consideration.
6. Spend regular time on a hobby you love
Work is required for most of us. Hobbies are optional. Spend part of your free time on activities you do just for fun
9. Find middle ground
Happiness is rarely found at the extremes. The middle path is the sweet spot.
12. Take a 10-minute break each hour.
Not only will you get more done each day, you’ll have more energy at the end of the day to enjoy yourself.
15. Say “yes.”
Some of us are too quick to say “no” to any new opportunity. Make it a point to say yes to new opportunities.
18. Pause.
Poor choices can create challenging situations. Before saying something unkind or making a major purchase, take a moment and calm yourself first.
Who wouldn’t want to experience a greater level of happiness on a regular basis? It’s much easier to be happier than you think. There are many simple things you can do each day to enhance your level of happiness.
