Burnout – What are the Signs?

Lead proactively to avoid burnout

Burnout Defined

It’s been three and a half years since the world shut down for a time. Having led through such a disruptive time, you’ve seen the breadth of responses to such disruption. Oftentimes, we’ve talked about burnout. The term “burnout” might conjure images of frenzied workloads and chronic stress. It’s not the stressful inputs, but our responses to it, that determine burnout.

Burnout as a term was first introduced by Graham Greene in his novel, “A Burnt-Out Case” detailing the life of an architect who found no meaning in life or purpose in work. This term was introduced into psychology in 1974 and went through several iterations to eventually be distilled by Christine Maslach, Susan Jackson, and Michael Leiter into the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI).

This inventory identifies a syndrome with three evident states – emotional exhaustion (the feeling of being overextended and depleted of resources), detachment (a cynical and distant attitude towards one’s work and the people one works with), and reduced personal achievement (the tendency to evaluate one’s achievements at work negatively).

There seems to be a causal relationship between the first two states—exhaustion leads to detachment. In turn, higher detachment increases emotional exhaustion, and lower personal achievement, bringing about a downward spiral.

While burnout is the term that many use to describe their emotional state when they are exhausted, burnout carries with it associated health risks, including atrial fibrillation, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol that can lead to coronary artery disease.

In order to prevent burnout from happening to you or someone on your team, it is important to Identify the states of burnout in yourself or others, which may help you assess and arrest the downward spiral.

What to watch for

It has been said that comparison is the thief of joy. We consistently compare ourselves to others in order to understand appropriate social behavior in different settings. This is normal. Our mirror neurons push us in the direction of imitation constantly.

However, constant comparison to others is damaging and is the seed of constant discontentment. The key here is “to others.” We should constantly be comparing ourselves to ourselves to gauge our growth.

Because you and your team members will experience stressful situations differently depending upon each person’s strengths (contact me about the new, innovative, and practical strengths assessment, Genius Spark), you should answer the following questions, and then lead your team in this exercise to consider how each person responds to sustained periods of intense activity and disruption.

Fight – Do you engage in behavior that runs over people because “they’ll be fine we just need to keep moving”?

Flight – Do you “turtle” by detaching from your social network to give yourself thinking room?

Freeze – Do you do the bare minimum to just get by?

Each of these responses, if engaged for too long, will usher you or someone on your team into emotional exhaustion, detachment, and a reduction in personal achievement, and potentially into burnout.

What to do?

Do this yourself and encourage your team to take a moment to consider behavioral patterns when you are at your healthiest.

Diet

When you are at your healthiest:

• What is your diet like?
• How much fast food or take-out do you consume?
• Alcohol consumption?
• How many meals during the day?
• How much snacking?

Exercise

When you are at your healthiest:

• What kind of physical movement do you incorporate into your schedule?
• What is your resting heart rate?
• What kind of energy level do you have throughout the day?

Sleep

When you are at your healthiest:

• How many hours of sleep do you get?
• What kind of quality sleep do you get?

Relationships

When you are at your healthiest:

• How often do you talk with family and friends?
• What are your work relationships like?

After answering the above questions, ask the same questions of yourself in your current state.

If the answers are different, consider moving in the direction of your healthiest self by adjusting the behavioral patterns that you are currently using.

Burnout is not an abstract concept confined to the realms of literature or psychology. It’s a tangible, multifaceted experience. Understanding the components of burnout—emotional exhaustion, detachment, and reduced personal achievement—allows us to identify and address its presence in our lives. By shifting the lens of comparison inward and assessing our responses to stress, we can proactively mitigate our overwhelm before we get to burnout.