Understanding and Managing Work-Related Stress
The delicate fine line between peak performance and burnout is often blurred in the high pressure hustle of business. As leaders and professionals, understanding the 'Burnout Spectrum'—from initial engagement to potential burnout—is crucial for sustaining productivity, but more importantly, our well-being and that of our teams.
The Burnout Spectrum Defined
In my experience, burnout is not something you wake up with one day. It's a slow creep, gradually seeping into every part of your being until at some point you find yourself in the toilet so strung out that you can't remember what order to do things in (oh yeah, true story).
When I work with clients on the edge of burnout, or working with high pressure high performing teams, I like to do a little check of a thing I call the 'Burnout Spectrum'. I like to think of it like the speedometer in my car - are we idling (under-engagement) and getting us nowhere, or we over-revving and red-lining ourselves into burnout?
The burnout spectrum delineates the stages from healthy work engagement to the critical state of burnout. Beginning with positive engagement, where employees feel energised and productive, it transitions through stages of increased pressure and stress, culminating in burnout, characterised by severe emotional and physical exhaustion.
Stage & Strategies
Stages | Characteristics | Management Strategies |
Under-engagement | Characterised by a lack of enthusiasm, minimal effort, and general disinterest. | Realign the employee’s work with their skills and interests, enhance job satisfaction through job redesign, career development opportunities, improved management communication, and fostering a motivating workplace culture. |
Engagement and In Flow | Challenge and skill perfectly align, resulting in high productivity and satisfaction. | Encourage regular skill upgrades and introduce new challenges. Regular brainstorming sessions to keep team members creatively charged and engaged. |
Comfort Zone | Safe, engaged, and stable; can lead to complacency. | Push boundaries gently to prevent stagnation; set personal growth goals quarterly for continuous development. |
Work Pressure to Work Stress | Shift from healthy work pressure to overwhelming stress as demands exceed coping capacity. | Implement clear priorities and boundaries, focusing on the 'top three' rule where only the most crucial tasks are prioritized each day to manage stress and avoid overwhelming situations. |
Over-Engagement | Excessive immersion in work that encroaches on personal life. | Cultivate a work-life balance through initiatives like regular 'digital detoxes' and ensuring personal time is respected to reduce over-engagement. |
Work Exhaustion and Burnout | Prolonged stress leads to emotional and physical exhaustion, resulting in burnout. | Proactive recovery strategies such as taking extended time off, seeking professional counselling, and reassessing workloads to aid recovery from work exhaustion and prevent burnout. |
Organisational Support
It goes without saying that as leaders, we play a pivotal role in shaping the work culture that influences the burnout spectrum. As role models we need to be setting expectations and demonstrating healthy work practices.
Take a moment to think about your working style -
where would you sit on the spectrum?
Do you set healthy boundaries and working style?
Many of my clients believe that the hustle will bring success, they believe to be successful you must always be 'on', always busy, always stressed, always looking for the next bright shiny object and always on the hustle.
This is often paired with a side serving of unhealthy lifestyle choices (did someone say over caffeinated, substance abuse, unhealthy food management and poor sleep)Â and difficult personal relationships (any of this sound familiar?).
This hustle mentality just leads to overwork and burnout. It creates high turnover, high error rates, poor service and low productivity. This negative working style leaks back into our communities.
Team members spend their days off trying to recover, have diminished energy and emotional availability for their families, are less inclined to engage in sport and volunteer activities, and sadly due to the constant stress are more likely to experience relationship breakdowns.
In my own personal experience, backed by more than a few studies - the opposite is true: work smart not hard.
We need to create an environment for ourselves and out teams that values well-being as much as achievements.
This healthy positive approach to work mitigates the risks associated with work-related stress and creates an engaged and high performance team. Plus our teams go home feeling valued, respected and purposeful.
Engaged staff enjoy family activities, are more active in their communities, are at the forefront of volunteer groups. Relationships flourish, health levels increase, work performance is higher and more productive.
I am a big believer in the 'triple bottom line' philosophy: people, profit and planet (John Elkington, 1994). Avoiding burnout and creating a positive work environment plays directly to this ethos of sustainable business strategy.
What's the work environment like for you team?
Are they under implied pressure to work out of standard hours? Is there unrealistic workloads and performance expectations?
What adjustments could you make to create a healthier, balanced workplace?
Some solutions could include: offering flexible working arrangements, healthy break routines, encourage walking meetings or lunch walks, regular workload check in, robust support systems, managers are trained to recognise signs of burnout and provide the necessary support.
What are some options you could offer in your business?
Wrap up
Understanding and navigating the burnout spectrum is not just about preventing burnout - it's about creating a sustainable work environment where employees thrive without risking their health.
What's happening in your team right now - can you identify where each person is on the burnout spectrum? where are you?
What can you do to reduce burnout risk? What can you do to create a healthy balanced high performance team?
Drop a comment or DM with your thoughts. I'm keen to hear strategies that you have implemented or developing to support your team.
Linda x