Managing Burnout - a practical guide

Managing Burnout: A practical guide to supporting your teams: from Prevention to Reignition 

Everyday on my LinkedIn I get posts and stories about ‘burnout’. It is a relatively new term and our ‘new way of working’, particularly in a digital world, perhaps explains its extraordinary rise in the workplace. Having been there myself, and having supported many colleagues through their own difficult journeys, I thought it might be helpful to put down on paper some practical tips that might help other leaders who are facing these issues.  

I know prevention is better than cure but this isn’t a perfect world, and for so many reasons, burnout is such an individual outcome that prevention mechanisms are never a one-size-fits-all solution. Therefore, as a leader, no matter how hard you try, you have to expect to deal with all stages of it in your workforce, and here is the real secret: 

How you deal with it can help to create a culture that prevents others from the same fate, and that is the magic bullet: support one person; help everyone. 

What follows is a brief guide, based entirely on my own experience, that might help. I don’t pretend to be an expert but when it comes to managing humans, (who always find new ways to surprise you), I question anyone who claims to be an ‘expert’.  

A - Prevention 

I suppose we might as well start with prevention, so let’s play to our strengths as leaders. Here are 3 of the lessons I have learnt that might help you. There are many more, and the situation is infinitely complex, but these three always seemed to be ones that had the biggest impact. 

1. Understand the pressures 

You know the cycles that drive your organisation, the ebb and flow that only experience can teach you. You know the pinch points, the deadlines, and the times of year that people feel the most pressure.  

And if we know all this already, then there is no reason why we can’t be proactive.  

Action – sit on your own, and then with your senior team, and brainstorm these wider perspectives and make a list of all these pressured times. Once you have your list, start researching the people who work for you and then do something about it. For example, if you identify that five of your middle leaders are hit with 3 deadlines at once each February, ask them if they need support. Ask them if you can take anything off them to allow them to hit their deadlines. You will be amazed how just asking can make an enormous difference; they will feel seen and often that is a big part of burnout; feeling like you are suffering in silence. Acknowledge that you know it is hard for them right now. Empathy is incredibly powerful at preventing burnout. 

2. Listen and keep listening 

You overhear talk from the staff room that people are overworked, tired, fed up…etc. etc. 

This isn’t unusual for any workplace and, let’s be honest, all colleagues like to moan now and again. You did it, and perhaps still do, just to different people now. So allow it to happen: it is not personal. It can be quite healthy and help to bond a staff body together. But don’t ignore it. As you gain more experience, listen and keep listening. You will learn when to act.You have one pair of ears, your senior team together have several pairs and there are times when you will need to act. As you get to know your staff more and more, you may create ‘indicator species’, a term I have used from my biology teaching days: those staff who, if they are feeling the strain, you know it is time to act.  

Action - Spot it early and connect with your line managers to seek out what is wrong and what can be done about it. Then ask, is it on my list from the first Action exercise? If not, add it, so that you can see it coming again next year. 

3. Know your people 

It’s never ‘just’ about the job. ‘Burnout’, ‘overwhelm’ or whatever term you want to use, is created by a collection of life events, personal and professional, but also (and perhaps most importantly) by the way in which our minds are temporarily framing it all. And so it helps if you have some understanding of your employees’ personal situations. Therefore, knowing your people is vital: are you aware of things other than what they do for your business? Kim Scott, in her groundbreaking book ‘Radical Candor’, talks about how only after this stage of ‘knowing’ can we be brave enough to be candid with people at work. The same lesson can apply here. Ensure that, if not you, someone in the line management structure is aware of a bigger picture if there is one.   Again, you are one person; your team together can cover everyone 

Action – At the first sign of problems, speak with direct line managers and ask them what they know that might help widen the spotlight to reveal the bigger picture. Don’t assume anything: it may just be about work, and that’s fine too. But try and be informed without being invasive; a careful balance. 

B - Managing an absence 

If you aren’t able to prevent it, it is likely that the person in question will need time away from work. This usually begins with a GP letter providing a 2-week absence. DO NOT BELIEVE that this will fix the problem. More about that later. But for now, you have to deal with the absence, so here are 3 more tips to help: 

1. Workload shuffle 

Quickly, but without panic, determine where the work and responsibilities of the absent employee will now lie. What can you put on the back burner and what needs to be prioritized? Most importantly, where will the work go? A common mistake at this stage is to just dish it out to other members of the team and expect the same deadlines to be met at the same high standards. Step back a moment and realise that there are two issues with this: first, it’s a ridiculous expectation, and second, all it will lead to is further burnout from others in the team. But things will need to be shuffled and the team will have to be managed, so perhaps see this as an opportunity to spot talent succession within the team: who can take ownership of the issues and who behaves like a future leader? Who has capacity? Who does not? Not having capacity is not a sign that they are not capable or able to be a future leader; that is not fair. But, nevertheless, this could be a golden opportunity to ‘know your people’ even more.  As part of risk management have you thought through beforehand what would happen if a key member of staff is away for a prolonged time? If not, now is the time to give this thought. 

2. Don’t assume they will be back in 2 weeks 

It is common to tell team members the absentee workmate will be back in 2 weeks. However, my experience shows that this is rarely the case and instead a prolonged period of absence follows. Alternatively, they do return but it is on a ‘return to work’ timetable with a reduced workload. Therefore, don’t make a ‘2-week plan’; make a plan that will work for the foreseeable future.  

3. Re-visit your plan 

Once you have made your plan, it is easy to step away and let it play out. Don’t! Keep an eye on it and meet again in a fortnight to review how things are going. Make changes if you need to. Watch carefully for any angry feelings towards the absent employee; it is normal but should be handled carefully. Returning to work will already be hard for them, and so they don’t need to return to a team that is resentful of them. Don’t be surprised if there is a decrease in empathy over time, particularly if workloads for everyone have increased. None of the team know what the future holds for them and they would hope for the same support, so perhaps making this (subtly) clear to them will be important.  

C – Reigniting 

Time off is not a cure. It treats one of the symptoms but often more professional help from a counsellor or others is required to truly support a burnt out individual. That is not your responsibility as a leader, although perhaps your workplace has access to support networks that can help. Instead, let’s focus on reigniting the employee when they return to work.  

1. What do they want? 

Burning out was not something they had control over. So first things first, give them back some control. Include them in how they return to work. Don’t assume they will just pick up where they left off. Why should 2 weeks away make any difference: all that will happen is that you sleepwalk back into the same situation as before. What needs to be changed? What is achievable in the short term? The long term? Include your colleague in this and give them ownership of designing it for themselves. Of course, you have to balance with ‘what the organisation needs’ and you may have to make it time-bound. Handled carefully, they will understand this. The job, after all, still needs doing. 

2. Offer them a coach 

To reignite fully, they need to explore what it is about their job that they loved to begin with and how to find it again. They need to understand the behaviours that got them to the point of burnout, and then how to avoid it. What are the ‘work hurdles’ as they see them and how can they better manage them? Coaching will help enormously with this and it should be found externally. I cannot emphasise that enough; don’t give them an internal coach! They need to be able to speak freely, with the addition of psychological safety that an external coach can provide in a confidential manner.  

3. Keep in touch with them 

Set up a regular check-in with them. Start looking back at all the things in section A and look out for certain times of year, when deadlines are looming, anniversaries are approaching and so on. Listen, and more importantly, hear and act. Most importantly, humanize the situation and play your part. It is not a ‘problem for HR to deal with’. Burnout will have taught them something important and perhaps they might be prepared to support another colleague in a similar situation?  

Perhaps this is the start of creating a truly special culture where everyone supports everyone else, and one where, over time, cases of burnout drop away completely. 

Good Luck!