How managers spot burnout signs early for team wellbeing

Jimmy: with your team, if you're seeing them unmotivated, try and get to the root cause of what's unmotivating them. Are they feeling like it's just not worth it? Or are they feeling maybe unchallenged and you can give them some opportunities to learn and grow, which will help you reduce your overwhelm because you've got so many things going on that they could potentially step up and they can get a fresh challenge? Equally, unmotivation could be because they're don't getting any feedback or they don't feel recognised or even that you care. And so getting to the root cause of what's their unmotivation can really help.
Welcome back to this week's episode of The High Performance Leader, the podcast for leaders working in complex, challenging environments to gain insights and ideas which help you increase your impact without burning out and to help you build a high performance culture in your team. I'm your host, Jimmy Burroughes, and if you're new to The High Performance Leader, make sure you subscribe or follow so you don't miss any of our upcoming episodes before you put down your device.
Hello, and welcome back to this week's episode of The High Performance Leader, where we're going a little bit deeper on one of the topics that seems to keep coming up in conversations here, there, and everywhere while we're working with teams all over the world. Now, last time in our solo episode, we talked all about the habits that might be keeping you stuck in that cycle of burnout. And it was so interesting, some of the comments that came back around the realisation that, maybe I was just stressed out, or I didn't realise I was burned out, and some of the things you said made me think I was. And so this week, what I thought we would do is just talk through what are the signs and symptoms of burnout, so you can differentiate that from being tired out, stressed out, and worn out. And what are some of the things that also you can look for in your team and do to help yourself and them overcome that scourge of burnout, the cycle, the whirlpool that you can get into that can feel like it's really difficult to get out of. And to make it nice and easy, we've just used five signs and symptoms that you can look out for. And to make them even easier to remember, they are the vowels: A, E, I, O, and U. So we're going to work through them, one by one, and just give you a little bit of a dip toe in the water to what that might look like.
Now, as we know, and we've talked about many times, one of the things that probably everybody on this podcast is looking for is high performance tips, high performance insights, because you want to be a high performance leader. But imagine if you were trying to run a race, and you kept on training, but while you were training, you were wearing this heavy jacket made with lead, or you were carrying and dragging an anchor behind you. That's what some of the things that we see can do to your performance. They drag your performance down, or they slow you down, because you've got this anchor that you're trying to drag along with you. And my team's job, and myself, and what we do when we're facilitating Ways of Working sessions with leaders and teams all over the world, is we help you to get rid of that anchor. We start talking about the habits, and the practices, and the ways that you're doing things that are not serving you, and some alternatives that can help you to find a new path.
So let's look for some of the things now that you might notice in yourself or others that are made up by the A, E, I, O, and U, and they're very simple. First one, A, is all about anxiety. Now anxiety is where we are in that fear response. It's where we're worrying about the things that might happen. We might be anxious about the things that have happened. Maybe I didn't handle that meeting very well. Maybe I didn't take care of that member of my team very well. Maybe I made a mistake. Or I'd say, worrying about the things that might happen. I'm worried about that meeting. I'm worried about that presentation. I'm worried about this restructure. They can make it really hard to focus and concentrate, and the reason for that is that your brain is essentially going from being a supersmart executive to a lizard. We call it wizard brain to lizard brain, because the piece of your brain that manages anxiety is right at the back here. It's a piece of your reptilian brain, hence lizard brain, and it's not very good at being an executive. Whereas the piece of your brain that sits behind your forehead, your prefrontal cortex, is your wizard brain. It's responsible for all that higher function, and unfortunately, when you become anxious, it shuts that piece down. You know, you can probably think back to when you're a kid, and the headmaster would say, "I need to see you in my office." Or maybe now, when your boss says, "I need to see you in my office," and that fear that runs through you, the tight stomach, the clammy hands, the dry tongue, you find it hard to speak and focus, that is anxiety kicking in. Now the difference between that short-term anxiety and what we would see as burnout anxiety is where this is almost a constant factor in your life.
So if you're dealing with high anxiety all the time, constantly worrying about restructures, losing your job, failing, not getting the work done, too much to do, being overwhelmed. Um, if you're starting to experience fatigue, headaches, muscle tension, maybe that stiff neck, um, that is really some warning signs to start paying attention to that you are really anxious. And there's some things you can do to help, obviously, but they often tend to be focused on the symptoms, not the cause. So, you know, you might have thought about meditation, or mindfulness, or going for exercise. They're good, they're great, but what we need to do is try and work out what's the source of your anxiety, and how can you start to resolve that? Now we talked last time about habits and changing some of your habits, and often those habits, they require a new conversation to start taking place with those people around you. It could be, if it's overwhelm, it could be handing some stuff off or prioritising better. If it is anxiety through fear of restructure, then maybe you need to go and have a conversation with the person about the restructure and see if you can work with them, or help them, and support them to restructure the team in a meaningful way. Certainly at senior levels of a business, often it's a very collaborative and co-operative effort to design the new structures.
So we really want to help to reduce that anxiety as much as possible. That also doesn't mean you need to put a fake face on or a brave face, because that doesn't help. That's just masking the problem. If you're feeling anxious, you need to get to the root cause, and you need to work out why you're feeling anxious, what's causing it, and how you can then start to resolve it. And you'll see there's a pattern here with all of these things that we talk about, you've got to get to root cause, not symptoms. You can't put an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. It's much better to put a guard rail and a warning sign away from that danger. If you're also struggling beyond the point where you can cope, or you have nobody to talk to, then reach out to a coach, reach out to a mentor, or seek some professional help, because anxiety can really cloud your judgment. It can make it hard to function and operate, and we don't want to see you stuck there.
If you're starting to notice some people in your team who are showing some of those telltale symptoms of anxiety, maybe they're a bit stressed, a bit snappy, a bit short, they're looking exhausted, they're always worrying, they're fretting, they're biting their nails, then start to think about how you can approach them in a really gentle, empathetic way, and understand what's going on for them to create a more supportive working environment for them. You can also start to encourage them to take a break from some of those stressors. You know, if they can possibly take just a day off, or have a late start, or manage their workload in a different way, or maybe it's they've got some other responsibilities that are starting to get on top of them, can you help them look at those? And one of the things we see in anxiety is people don't think clearly. So if you can think clearly, and they're struggling, then you can be their professional help. You can be the one that says, "Okay, I'm seeing this. Maybe if we dial this down a little bit, it'll help you." It can be challenging to sit through that with somebody who is extremely anxious, because they might also be defensive. They might not want your help. They might not have enough trust in you. So it's up to you as a leader to try and take the lead and to make some initial steps to show them that you really do care about supporting them. Again, if you are beyond the point of no return, and they are really struggling with anxiety, if it's a collective thing, then it can often be useful to invite a facilitator in, such as myself or one of my team, or a coach, or a mentor, or to seek some professional services help in terms of EAP, or counsellors who can come in and just help you understand what the some of the causes are if you can't see them, and support you and your team through it.
So that's anxiety. Our next one is around exhaustion, and it is exactly what it says on the tin. The difference between being tired out and burned out exhausted is when you just can't get out of bed anymore, and you don't see the point in carrying on. You know, it might be that you lack the energy to even think and solve basic problems. I think back to when I was burned out, until I'd had at least a bottle of Coke in the morning—Coke Zero, mind, not the fatty version—but until I had had that Coke Zero in the morning, really stimulated myself with caffeine, I struggled to even function, to have a conversation, to be articulate. And so if you're the one who's leaning on caffeine and stimulants and and what, and whatever other substances might be out there that you are using to help you just get through the day, then, again, you're stealing from that overdraft of energy, you're robbing Peter to pay Paul. And unfortunately, the time will come where there is no energy left in the tank. This means that you are operating slower than you think you are, as well. One of the great pieces of research that we see around productivity is how your productivity drops about every 40 minutes unless you take a recharge break. And so even though you think you might be being productive by working those six, or seven, or eight, or 12, or 16 straight hours, you're probably not.
Now, how do you get away with this when you might have a boss who's overlooking you or paying attention to all the things you're doing? I can't take a break. I can't leave my desk. Well, it's about managing your workload, so you do demanding tasks when your energy is high, and less demanding tasks when your energy is lower. So maybe it's your admin, or your emails, or some catch up on expenses, is when you're lower energy. And when you're full energy, or you're feeling a little bit better, attack the really crunchy, challenging tasks. You've obviously got to try and get enough sleep. That can be really hard when you're busy. I lived on four hours sleep for many years, and it took its toll over time. So trying to get that seven to eight hours means you need to make some priority calls. Maybe it isn't sitting in front of the TV watching Netflix. Maybe it is sharing with your partner the workload that you've got for your caregiver responsibilities, whether that's kids, or parents, or whoever else might be living with you. Maybe it's not going out of an evening down the pub to try and calm your mind down. There are many things that we do that can make us more exhausted. Alcohol consumption definitely makes you more exhausted. So start to think about how you can manage your workload, how you can manage your sleep. And if you're feeling that constant exhaustion, like, I wake up in the morning and I feel like I haven't even slept, then it is worth talking to a medical professional to get some support.
Hey, Jimmy here. Just wanted to drop in to this episode and let you know that we're so grateful for all those reviews that you as listeners leave on our podcast. We put our hearts and souls into the podcast, and the guests we invite are absolutely fantastic. I wanted to share one review with you from a recent episode from Kelly. "Jimmy's experience and thoughtful dialogue provide a phenomenal canvas of learning opportunities from thought leaders in the industry. It was a pleasure both listening and participating. What a great resource to learn valuable tips and tricks to navigating impactful leadership capabilities." So not only are we thrilled to have incredible guests on the show, but we're also absolutely overjoyed that it's having a positive impact on our listeners, like you, on the Ways of Working podcast. Speak soon.
Equally, your team may be showing some of these signs and symptoms, and so it's up to you as a leader to make sure that their workload is manageable. What can we prioritise, deprioritise? What can we stop doing? What can be pushed out for a quarter? What are the nice to have things versus the the must have things? And one of the things we often see with organisations when we go in there and they are exhausted is because they're trying to do too much, because they believe that everything has to happen now, right now, importantly. And the reality is they achieve very little because they're so tired. So actually, focusing down on one, or two, or just three things for that quarter, big things, is where you can start to recover your energy levels. Encourage your team to get out of the office. Encourage them to go for walks. Encourage them to get sunshine. All of those things can make a difference to their energy levels. Encourage them also to be really focused on how they're managing their responsibilities at home. It can be important. If you have any influence on how they're exercising, eating, and working, many organisations that we work with in the US, they provide lunches for their staff. And just by some small shifts in the type of food they're serving, that can make an enormous difference to the people that they're working with. So that is our E, exhaustion.
Let's now focus on I, isolation. In the book, we talk about chapter three is all about the idea of connection. Isolation is the opposite to connection. When people feel isolated, they feel anxious. When they're anxious, they can't perform as well. When they feel isolated, maybe they haven't got people around them who they can lean on, trust, can help them solve problems, so they feel like they have to do it all alone. Is that you? Do you feel like you're the only one responsible for all the answers, solving all the problems, making all the difference? If it is, you might be creating yourself into a little island of isolation, and that can also mean that when things get really hard, you've got nobody to lean on to help you. You've got nobody to support your thinking and your emotions, and so we feel even more isolated because nobody cares. And care is a really, really key tipping point for for burnout.
So how do you overcome that isolation? Well, making time to be connected is critical. You've got to work on your network. And indeed, one of the clients I worked with in the US, very large American retail business, said that the success or failure of their executives was entirely down to their network. It wasn't about the things they were doing on a daily basis, it was who they knew who could help them solve the problems they were working on. And a small network or an isolated leader very rarely was successful, and often they would burn out. So the key to high performance is to build your network of your team mates, your peers, the people above you, people in other business units who can help you solve the more complex problems, because your career will grow to the size of problems you can solve. And having more brains solving the problems is a really good one. Equally, if you're the isolated leader who's doing everything, solving everything, the answer for everything, you've isolated yourself from your team. They won't trust you, they might feel disconnected and disengaged, and that could lead to you having to do more work because you're the only one who can do the work.
So if you have a team around you, try and create opportunities to connect people. It could be a morning tea, something as small and insignificant as a morning tea. It could be just going away as a team once a month to talk about the most important things we need to do for next month. It could just be a social event. Whatever you choose to do, do it within the dynamic and the context of your team, but it can make a real difference to connect people, not positions. So you're not connecting the marketing guy with the IT guy, you're connecting Robert with Colin, and they have lives and they're people outside of their their roles, and you want to get to know them, and they want to get to know each other. That's how we become less isolated, is knowing people first.
Our O is around overwhelm. We talked a little bit about this with anxiety. We talked a little bit more about it with exhaustion, so we can go quicker now. But people who are overwhelmed can't keep up with the demands, and so they're constantly pushing, and pushing, and pushing. They're running around with their heads filled with a cloud of things to do, they can't articulate the priorities, they don't know what's going on, and this can make them super anxious, and stressed, and frustrated. And again, if you're overwhelmed for too long, you're trying to do too much, that's where you end up heading into burnout. So these overwhelmed people then start to make mistakes because they're cutting corners to try and catch up. They're trying to find the short route. They're missing SOPs, and maybe they're working longer hours trying to keep themselves on target, but they just get more and more tired. And this impairs performance. So if this is you, then you need to start thinking about: am I overwhelmed? Am I trying to do too much into little time? Am I constantly doing these things? Am I starting to make mistakes? Then you really need to prioritise.
One of the best ways to prioritise is to look at the purpose, the purpose of the thing you're doing. And if you can clearly articulate the purpose, the why are we doing this, and that why lines up to the strategy, or the goals, or the big pillars that you're working for in the organisation, and you have the capacity to do it, and it creates value, then it's something worth doing. But often what we see is, I can't see how it lines with the goals in the big picture, but I have to do it anyway; or I can see how it lines, but I don't have the capacity to do it, then we're just going to do a half measure of of effort, or we'll just do the best we can; or I can see how it lines up, and I do have the capacity to do it, but it's not going to create any value. Therefore, actually it's a moot point. Those three decisions can really help you to reduce overwhelm.
So start to think about how is this contributing to the big picture? Have I got the capacity to do it? And is it creating value? And when you get those equal, if you've got two things side by side, the one that creates the most value is the one you prioritise, and that's where you put your efforts first. So focusing on the important stuff that's aligned with the big picture, versus focusing on trivia. And again, one of the things we see with many, many leaders is they're overwhelmed because they're still doing pieces of their old job before they got promoted. Or maybe they like to do some of the things that they find easy, or made them famous, or that they're good at, and they're not doing, or they're trying to also do, the things that they're now responsible for, and that's where the overwhelmed source comes from. So going back to the purpose of your role is really key. What is your job here? Is it to do the doing, or is it to do the leading? And when you can answer that, then you can often look at some of the things you're doing and say, "They're not my responsibility anymore. I can let go of those to somebody else in my team to give them an opportunity."
So that's our overwhelm. How do we reduce that? Often you'll see your team members struggling with this, as well. There's too many things going on, they're working on too many projects, they've got too many priorities, and they're trying to cross a river by building 15 bridges at the same time. It'd be much better and much faster to cross that river if they just focus on one bridge. Get that done, move on to the next bridge, because you're also putting all their resources into doing things. And overcommitment, overwhelm is one of the key sources of burnout, because they can't see a way through. They just feel like a hamster on a wheel. Equally, if you've got managers who work for you, start teaching them how to delegate really effectively. This makes a massive difference to people. If they can delegate, and you show them the delegation mechanism that we use in Ways of Working: explain, demonstrate, imitate, practice, then it can really change the game for the amount of stuff they're carrying on their brains or on their minds. So give them some resources, give them some support, help them to prioritise, help them to reduce that overwhelm.
And then our fifth sign or symptom that we might have around burnout is unmotivation, unmotivation. So, you know, when you're really in the depths of burnout, you struggle to see the point. Either I don't see the point in this at all, or I don't think whatever I'm going to do is making enough difference or going to make a difference because maybe it'll change again in five minutes, or the priorities will shift, or it's not enough. You know, it's like a drop in the ocean. And so this can lead you to burnout because you start to not see the point. We need to understand this. We need to get to the root cause of what is the unmotivation, and start to deal with it. So maybe if you're feeling like it's just not going to make enough of a difference, whatever I do, even if I put my best effort in, it's meaningless, then you want to talk to your manager around the value that they see and the purpose that they see in whatever you're working on.
Equally, the same thing for you to your team. You really want them to be clear on the why of what it is that they're working on. Equally, if you're not feeling challenged, you're like, well, I'm unmotivated because everything is really easy. I'm just treading water, or I'm just standing where I am. I don't have the challenges, I'm not overwhelmed, I'm not, all the other signs and symptoms, I'm just not really feeling it anymore, then maybe it's time for you to look for a fresh challenge. One of the things we saw in the in the book, chapter four, is all around exploration. We want to be trying and learning new things to solve new problems in different ways. And so if you're feeling like you're unmotivated because you just haven't got anything that's demanding of you, then maybe it's time to look at the next opportunity, whether that's a step up, a step across, or a step into a different area completely, and to give you that challenge back, to get you motivated. I know personally that when I'm feeling unmotivated, often it's because I don't feel useful or I don't feel like I'm achieving, and so I'll go and find something that is going to help me feel like I've achieved something, hence this podcast and the book that we did.
Equally, with your team, if you're seeing them unmotivated, try and get to the root cause of what's unmotivating them. Are they feeling like it's just not worth it? Or are they feeling maybe unchallenged, and you can give them some opportunities to learn and grow, which will help you reduce your overwhelm because you've got so many things going on that they could potentially step up and they can get a fresh challenge? Equally, unmotivation could be because they're don't getting any feedback or they don't feel recognised, or even that you care. And so getting to the root cause of what's their unmotivation can really help.
So in 20 minutes there, we've covered the five really big signs and symptoms of burnout. Now if you've got one of them, chances are you're probably not burning out. If you've got three or more, chances are that burnout could be a cause for concern, and I recommend that you either grab a copy of Beat Burnout, Ignite Performance and learn how to fix it, or you reach out directly and then we can have a chat. One of my team, or myself, would love to hop on a call with you, understand some of that, what's going on, and how to solve and resolve it.
So that's a very short episode this week on what is an extremely big topic, but it's just clarifying what are those signs and symptoms of burnout: three or more, let's talk, let's have a conversation, let's see how we can help; two or less, then just try and make sure that you're resolving them, and make sure that they don't start to spiral out of control.
Thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, please do leave a review. It really helps to bring new listeners to the podcast. We'd really appreciate it. And I'm really enjoying doing these solo episodes, but if you've got a topic you'd like us to talk about, anything to do with beating burnout to gaining high performance, that's what we love to talk about, please do send recommendations either to [email protected], or [email protected] to the team, or just drop me a note through LinkedIn. I'd love to hear from you, and we really do want to do the topics that are topical and important to you. Speak soon.
That's it for this week's episode of The High Performance Leader. If you enjoyed this episode, please drop a review on whichever platform you listened on. We really appreciate it, and it helps us to connect with new listeners. Also, if you haven't already, head to jimmyburroughes.com and download a copy of my latest best seller, Beat Burnout, Ignite Performance. It's the leader's playbook for building a high-performance culture, and is packed with practical action tips to get you started. Stay tuned for next week's episode of game-changing insights and ideas on The High Performance Leader.