Combating Burnout: What we learned from Executive Coaching

After the Great Resignation, the job market is tight, and many of my clients are short-staffed. Faced with more work and fewer people to do it, many leaders buckle down and work harder. This might work in the short term, but over time it leads to burnout. Currently, I am working with several leadership teams, helping them figure out how they can combat burnout by letting go of some things. Here is what we are learning.

1.    Meetings represent a great opportunity for finding more time. Most people go to meetings they don’t need to go to. One client set a goal of reducing the meetings they attend by 25 percent. Another realized that four different meetings have similar themes and could be combined, saving two and a half hours a week. 

2.    Some reoccurring meetings outlive their usefulness. Put an end date on all reoccurring meetings and occasionally assess if they are still useful.

3.    If other people schedule your time, protect some of it by scheduling work time for yourself. If this won’t be honored, make this time “private” so others can’t see what is scheduled.

4.    Invest in meeting facilitation skills training. This can help make meetings more efficient. Part of this training should be clarifying meetings’ purpose, expectations, and etiquette.

5.    Don’t schedule all meetings for 60 minutes if you don’t need this much time. Standing and walking meetings can also ensure they are brief and get you some exercise.

6.    Assess who attends which meetings. If multiple leaders are attending, see if you can free some of them up.

7.    Make a list of other work you can let go of. If your organization has a strategic plan, prioritize work that is a part of the organization’s strategy. 

8.    Think about work you can delegate. Sometimes leaders are more involved than they need to be in decision-making. Ideally, decisions are made at the lowest level of competence. When leaders delegate responsibility for a task, they should ideally also give authority to make decisions.

9.    Look at work you can do more efficiently. While process improvement efforts are often time-consuming themselves, sometimes there is low-hanging fruit for improving efficiency. 

10. Managers do things right, but leaders do the right things. Remember that you can’t do everything and just say “no”. Work to get better at setting boundaries and taking vacations.