The concept of organizational burnout likely doesn’t surprise you due to the changes that everyone has experienced in the last 3+ years. If people weren’t burnt out before the pandemic started, they likely are now due to the compounding flux that seems never-ending.
Endless Ocean Coaching has chosen to work in leadership development, helping companies that want to rise from the pandemic to a level playing ground once again. Here are 3 signs that might signal it’s time to proactively seek leadership development for your organization.
The Employee Experience
Rarely do we ask our staff what they are experiencing in their work environment. However, by utilizing the coaching process to understand their experiences and the feelings surrounding these experiences, we can help leaders recover from burnout. We can also aid their understanding of what causes their burnout, so that they can be more proactive in the future if burnout creeps up on them.
Here are some very specific signs of burnout that your staff and leaders may recognize:
· Exhaustion
· Lack of engagement with others, projects and creative input
· Loss of purpose
· Higher absenteeism
· Turnover
· Increasingly cynical views of the company and its projects
· Work stress is disrupting sleep patterns
· Anxiety about going to work
· Small stressors are escalating into bigger issues
· Reduced performance and productivity
If any of these trends sound familiar, your staff is experiencing burnout.
Sales, Project Outcomes and Excitement are Taking a Nose Dive
You probably are wondering why I would put sales, projects and excitement all in the same category. Besides the uncontrollable factors that go into businesses like the ability to supply necessary goods, there are also people.
People are often the greatest resource a company possesses to manifest change and grow new avenues of revenue. However, when people are experiencing burnout—especially now, after these challenging few years—they often do not have the energy to take projects to new heights or possess the vision to perceive new avenues of revenue that can be developed in the coming years.
Through the coaching process we help people remove the mental and emotional blocks that drain one’s energy—while also helping them find the vision of what they could be building and how good it will feel to do that. This is why we specifically target leaders’ values—these are a prime motivator of one’s sense of purpose. We also address thought patterns within the leader that might not be serving them and the company.
Company Stagnation and Low Accountability
The last sign of organizational burnout is an overall feeling that there is no real movement within the company. This can come to light in many ways. It can been seen through sales, the employee experience and the experience of those who have interactions with your organization. Since every human being has feelings—and feelings are often the reason someone chooses to spend money, time and resources—understanding the patterns that impact how people feel is setting companies apart in this climate of burnout and change. If people are not feeling empowering and exciting energy from your organization and its staff, they are likely going to seek services elsewhere or build contracts with other people.
When there is company stagnation there is also an underlying theme of low accountability. When a person is burnt out, they are no longer in a place of being fully accountable for their work or their performance. They no longer have the energy physically, mentally or emotionally do so.
So, what does an organization do when the leaders and staff there are burnt out? After first coming to grips with the impact of burnout on their staff (burnout is currently an epidemic in the business world, so you are not alone), the organization needs to get ready to make a change. In many ways this condition is no one’s fault—but the choices an organization makes in response to burnout will clearly define its future.
While old leadership paradigms might ignore the issues facing its staff, others are being proactive by caring for their leaders and teams by investing in leadership development work that helps the individuals rediscover their most valuable qualities. Instead of just idly hoping things will change, they are investing in the happiness and health of their leaders. Our small and mighty team at Endless Ocean Coaching specializes in the return of leaders to their best operating systems. In this climate of constant change, we believe that burnout is clearing the way for better days to come. A free consultation on our leadership development is only a click away.