How to help burnout team at work, if you yourself burned out?

As a manager, you should take care of your employees and support them during periods of heavy workload so that they do not burn out at work. However, this can be a hard test if you yourself feel too much of a burden. How to take care of yourself so that you have enough time and energy to support your team? What steps to take to reduce stress? What can be done to improve the well-being of your team members?

What do experts say

It's hard to find the energy to help others when you are at the limit. Burnout, unlike typical work stress, can cause you to feel "empty," says Susan David, founder of the Harvard / MacLean Coaching Institute and author of Emotional Flexibility . And this state “can penetrate into all aspects of your life. You are overly tired and not doing enough exercise; you do not pay enough attention to food and nutrients; you are excluded from any relationship. " However, it is not only you who suffer from this. “Your team perceives your stress, and things get worse,” says Whitney Johnson, author of Building the Perfect Team: Use Their Strengths and lead them up the learning curve . So, both for your health and for the health of your subordinates, you need to summon all the resources that you have to improve the situation. And here is how to do it.

Give priority to your own health.

Before you help your team cope with stress, you need to cope with your own. “Instead of going deep and concentrating on work, you need to stop, look around, and understand how you are going to help your people get what they need,” says Johnson. A good starting point would be to take care of your own physical and mental health. Eat healthy and healthy food, exercise regularly, sleep a lot at night, “try meditation and find yourself someone who can play a breather” - and preferably “not your boss”. Self-care is not a whim and luxury, it is a matter of self-preservation. Johnson proposes to share his rituals and stress work with his team. "Say something like: This is how I cope with stress, how I live with it."
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Find a solution to the problem with the whole group.

Even if you are not fully capable of managing stress, your demonstration of a serious attitude to this problem can also help. You can even offer to take care of yourself with the whole team - study meditation together or share tips on how to reduce stress. “You can make teams control stress retention,” says David. “Tell your team: Even in the context of these changes, how can we control ourselves?” This will be useful for the group and will also take responsibility for you to take care of yourself. But do not force anyone to participate in this. A sense of autonomy can counteract the symptoms of burnout, so you need people to feel they are making a choice on their own.

Show empathy

No need to reproach yourself or your team. “Burnout can be felt as a personal failure,” says David. But this is certainly not the case. We are all subject to it - and moreover, “our environment accelerates its offensive”. We "live in a non-ideal world, but expect the ideal." Many organizations cultivate stress. “Ambiguity, complexity,” not to mention the round-the-clock nature of technology, takes many of us to “extremely high levels of stress.” Show empathy. Admit, both to yourself and to the public, "that we all do everything we can with the resources that we have." This does not mean that you can "be lazy and give yourself the slack." Instead, you "create a psychologically safe place for yourself and others." Johnson recommends that during particularly stressful periods to speak with his team honestly, but optimistically. Yes, the load is serious. Yes, large projects scare us with great importance. Tell the team: “We are all in the same boat, and I know that we can do it.”

Set a positive example.

You also need to “think about what kind of behavior you are giving” to your team, says David. “If you run from a meeting to a meeting, and you don’t have time for a breather,” what message does it send? Set a good example, giving priority to rest. Show the team that you do not always work to the fullest in the office. “Return humanism to the office,” she says. Johnson agrees. When “your people are overwhelmed with work,” you need to “encourage them to take breaks regularly,” she says. "They need time to rest, recuperate, disconnect from work." It is also important to set the limits of the invasion in the evening and weekend. Whatever you do, “don't send team members mail at midnight,” says Johnson. “You think: I need to speak out. However, you also throw a grenade into the peace of your employees. ” Instead, she recommends Boomerang or another program that allows you to send letters on a schedule.

Concentrate on the causes.

A typical symptom (and cause) of burnout at work is “the discrepancy between a person’s values” and his current work, says David. “You feel tense and tired, and still continue to work, work and work,” forgetting what attracted you to your career and organization. "It can be toxic." As a leader, you need to “develop a sense of reason shared by other employees” - for example, why do we want to implement our project? Your job as a boss is to motivate your team. Remind them of the goal and why it is important to the organization and its customers. When people share common values, they are more likely to be positive about work.

Defend the rights of your team

If you and your team are suffering from a big load, maybe it's time to ask your boss for a break. “Fighting for the rights of your team in the context of your organization’s goals falls under your responsibility,” says Johnson. She recommends talking to the boss about how stress affects morale and work efficiency. “Say: 'My team is committed to this project, but people are tired. And we all know the law of diminishing returns . ” Report the effects of burnout to the authorities and describe why it is in your boss’s interest to take action. “The team will make mistakes, and labor productivity will fall. And it will cost money. ” Explain why you are worried about losing valuable employees. Then ask, “is it possible to push the deadline away? Can you simplify the task? ”Think about what you can do to help your team, David says. It may be worth reducing or canceling some meetings. It is very important that the team leaders provide support "to their employees.

Be a source of optimism

When work is boiling and raging, try to spread the positive, says Johnson. It's hard to do when you're under stress, but “look for the good,” she says. "Smile at people, be kinder." Make sure you regularly notice people's work and thank them for it. “Say: I noticed that you did this. Thank you, I appreciate it. ” Cultivate a sense of community and social support. When your team reaches an intermediate goal or ends a segment of hard work, celebrate this fact. Express appreciation for the achievements - your own and teams. "

What you need to remember

Need to:

• Encourage the team to take regular breaks and search for opportunities to recuperate.
• Support the team with inspirational vocabulary. You must inform everyone that "we work on it all together."
• Join the team. If the load is too large, ask the boss to push the deadline or simplify the task.

Not necessary:

• Neglect health and well-being. Take care of yourself and share your favorite stress reduction strategies with the team.
• Consider burnout a personal fault. Admit yourself and publicly acknowledge that people do everything they can with the resources they have.
• Bind in the negative. Be a source of optimism and try to cultivate positive in the ranks.

Case Study # 1: Be an example for a team and celebrate achievements.

A couple of years ago, Peter Sena, CEO and Creative Director of Digital Surgeons, a marketing and design company, was in a state of great workload.

“We quickly expanded in all directions,” he says. - We doubled the size of the team, added customers and built new offices. We worked an insane amount of hours per day. Leadership team was approaching burnout. ”

Stress took his and his team. “I saw my team getting tired,” he says. “People felt uneasy and annoyed.”

Another important sign of impending burnout: employees make mistakes.

Peter knew he had to do something. He began by improving his own habits. “I wanted to set a good example for my team,” he says. “When you have stress, you usually work too much and sleep a little and also don’t eat properly.” It needed to be changed. In addition to adding exercise and regular energy sleep, Peter began to meditate. “It helped me become more aware and in the present,” he says.

Meditation helped him so much that he introduced his team to it. “We invited a meditation expert to teach people 10-15 minute awareness exercises,” he says. “It makes people pause in the middle of the day.”

Peter also took steps to ensure that the team did not feel an urgent need to be constantly in touch. “We use Slack, and I encourage people to use its do not disturb function in the evenings,” he says. “It has helped us become more efficient in using email.”

Finally, he encouraged the team to take regular breaks if necessary. For example, one of his employees wanted to leave work once a week early in order to do yoga. Peter supported him. When people have stress, it's important to “give them a level of control,” he says. “The more freedom and flexibility you give people to plan their own way, the more they are committed to the goals of the enterprise.”

Peter likes how he and his team coped — and continue to cope — with stress and burnout. “In this industry, they often work until 20 hours and later, as well as on weekends,” he says. “But I wanted to create a more relaxed corporate culture.”

Digital Surgeons recently conducted another hectic quarter of rapid growth. To celebrate its end, one of the teams on Friday afternoon will go to the co-op, where he will play laser tag. “The message here is the following: We worked a lot last month. Let's pause and enjoy it, he says. “These little things mean a lot.”

Case Study # 2: Take Care of Yourself and Concentrate on Large Organizational Objectives.

Magdalena Muck, director of the International Federation of Coaches (ICF), the largest non-profit organization of professional coaches, says that when she begins to feel signs of impending burnout, she reminds herself that her employees are “watching” her.

“The team takes an example from the leader,” she says. “They absorb my nervousness energy, and this affects their effectiveness.”

She says that she has learned to “develop self-awareness” in order not to show tension and excitement. “Leaders are role models,” she says.

Yet, at difficult work, periods of extreme stress occur. For example, the ICF holds annual conferences for division leaders. This event, which took place last year in Vancouver, requires extensive and complex logistic planning.

“We need to work many hours a day because we work with people from all over the globe,” says Magdalena. “We also had a meeting of the board of directors on the eve of the event, which added even more stress.”

Needless to say, on the eve of the conference, among its staff "emotions are raging," she adds.

To cope with this, Magdalena decided to engage in any type of physical activity daily. This helped her relieve stress. "Exercises clear the mind and give me time to think."

She also tried to focus her reports on the more general objectives of the organization, and not on the items in the list of short-term tasks. “We all felt overwhelmed by this sense of responsibility,” she says. “We gathered our leaders for a holiday, and wanted them to not waste time in vain.”

Magdalena says she reminded her team of the mission of their organization. She wanted her team members to feel that they were "part of something bigger."

“We believe that coaching is an integral part of the community,” she says. “We need to remember that in difficult times this fact relieves our burden, which is aggravated by long working days and occasional frustration.”

At the end of the conference, Magdalena took time to celebrate her team’s achievements. She appreciated the hard work done by the team and thanked its participants. “We relaxed a bit and drank champagne for a good job,” she says. - The expression of gratitude is worth a lot.