‘If you are not sleeping well. If you don’t have the time to help support others. If you are not sure what to do to support yourself and others, you are not alone! With more than 30 years’ of experience as a psychologist working with leaders, teams and staff, I experienced the onset of burnout during December 2020, and I am still recovering from it’
Mary Mangos, Psychologist, Coachuwellness
If you are not sleeping well. If you don’t have the time to help support others. If you are not sure what to do to support yourself and others, you are not alone! With more than 30 years’ of experience as a psychologist working with leaders, teams and staff, I experienced the onset of burnout during December 2020, and I am still recovering from it.
If you or your team members are reporting increased job dissatisfaction, difficulty concentrating, lower productivity, fatigue and feeling easily frustrated, then you may be feeling signs of burnout. Burnout’s fundamental cause is unresolvable stress that is both chronic in frequency and intensity . It can be caused by a multitude of factors, including, problems at work, our experience of constant change and in 2020 and 2021, and the impact of restrictions as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Managing teams remotely, taking care of family members, with the current restrictions is taking its toll. Even normally optimistic individuals are feeling the effects.
There are many ways to help support each other and ourselves through burnout, but what are the fundamental core areas we should be paying more attention to?
Sleep habits, taking short breaks throughout the day, self-compassion that ‘it is okay to not be okay’, and knowing how and when to ask questions such as ‘are you ok?’ when checking in on others.
I recommend these five essential practices to support yourself and your team members right now:
Cultivate good sleep habits and rituals. Limit your media exposure during the day and focus on getting outside to walk or exercise. Limit your daily alcohol intake and caffeine in the afternoon. Start your day getting outside in daylight, first thing in the morning, to reset your body clock. Create a ritual before sleep that helps you unwind. Consider, drinking herbal tea, having a shower or bath, reading a book and avoiding electronic devices, two hours before sleep. Staying well rested will support your energy and clarity of mind, and it can help you to make better choices for yourself and your team.
Take a short break every hour or at least every 90 minutes. Encourage your team to do the same by finishing meetings 5-10 minutes before the hour. Those who take brief breaks consistently across the day report higher focus (28% higher), health and wellbeing (30% higher) and are more likely to stay with their company (81%). Prioritise getting outside and walking during one of your breaks, or before your day begins.
Lead with compassion. Validate for yourself and others that it is ‘okay to not be okay’. You and your team may not feel a lot of positive emotions, especially during these stressful and uncertain times. Normalise concerns when listening to your team, to support their resilience. In your one-on-ones, address emotions by saying: “You don’t sound like yourself today. Would you like to have a chat?” When listening, be present and pay attention to the person without judgment. During the conversation, normalise their emotional reactions with statements like: ‘It makes sense that you would be feeling anxious at the moment’.
Go beyond ‘How are you?’. Asking ‘how are you today?’ often results in reflexive responses such as ‘I am okay’ or ‘Good’. We miss opportunities with this question to have deeper conversations and build a stronger connection. Some alternatives that you can ask team members and that you can use to reflect on for yourself include: ‘how are you taking care of yourself today?’; ‘what times of the day or the week are the hardest?’; ‘what’s one funny thing that happened this week?’; and ‘what is giving you hope right now?’.
Practice mindfulness meditation. Meditation is great for strengthening mindfulness and awareness. Studies have shown regular meditation strengthens the parts of the brain responsible for emotional processing, giving you more control over your own emotional responses to the world. It can support you and your team to turn down mental chatter, create more mental space to observe and take action. Importantly, it can help you to cultivate a relaxed, emotionally open state of mind by mitigating your stress response. Consider beginning your day with a short meditation or sharing a meditation at the beginning your team meetings, to support yourself and others. Here is a resource to explore some short meditations: https://www.coachuwellness.com.au/meditations/
Mary Mangos is a registered psychologist and coach, located in Melbourne. Her book Finding Your Well-BEing: The Path to Happiness, Clarity and Peace combines her personal life experiences with her 30 years’ experience as a psychologist, and 20+ years as a leadership organisational development specialist. It is due for release in October 2021.