In Managing Yourself Beating Burnout Monique Valcour (HBR Nov 2016) has the following advice for us and to assist our teams and colleagues.
- Heavy workloads and deadline pressures are a fact of life for a leader so who doesn't feel overwhelmed or stretched thin sometimes
- But when unrelenting hustle work pushes you into the debilitating state called burnout it is a serious problem because it affects your performance both at work and at home
- Don't try and do a marathon at a sprint pace or you will burnout
- Burnout is a three component syndrome that arises in response to chronic stressors on the job
- Exhaustion which is the central symptom and is comprised of profound physical, cognitive and emotional fatigue
- You find you are unable to concentrate or see the big picture and even previous enjoyable tasks seem arduous and it become more difficulty to drag yourself to work
- Cynicism which is the erosion of engagement and the feeling of detached, negative and perhaps callous feelings
- Can result from high workload but most likely occurs in the presence of high conflict, unfairness, and lack of participation in decision making
- Inefficacy which refers to feelings of incompetence and a lack of achievement and productivity
- Feel your skills are slipping and worry you won’t be able to succeed in certain situations or accomplish certain tasks
- May come from lacking the resources and support you need to do your job well including adequate time, information, clear expectations, autonomy and good relationships with those whose involvement you need to succeed
- In the absence of feedback and meaningful recognition, which leaves you wondering about the quality of your work and feeling that it’s unappreciated, can also activate this component
- Recovery and prevention
- Try and identify your specific causes and make appropriate adjustments
- Prioritize self-care which is essential to replenish your physical and emotional energy and your capacity to focus
- Good sleep habits, nutrition, exercise, social connection and practices that promote equanimity and well being like meditating, journaling and enjoying nature
- Assess how you are using your time and who can schedule it
- Actually schedule exercise and things that are positive such as teaching or precepting
- Shift your perspective by taking a close look at your mindset and assumptions
- Are you trying to be the pharmacist perfectionist in your leadership. Remember leadership is an art and pharmacy a science so very different mindset and assumptions are needed or you will drive yourself crazy
- What could you delegate to free up time to think and plan
- Are there ways to reshape your job to gain more control or focus on fulfilling aspects
- Can you shield or minimize yourself from parts of the organization that frustrate you
- Could you build some positive, supportive relationships to counteract those that drain you such as you find in professional organization leadership involvement or community/church contributions
- Reduce exposure to job stressors
- Resetting expectations of how much you are willing to take on as well as the ground rules for working together such as being copied on all emails, having to approve all decisions
- Remember even if you worked 24/7 you would still never get all your work done so don't die trying
- Focus on your top 3 priorities and only get to the rest if time allows
- Set up a Not Now Or Later List that gets things off your mind so you can focus on your priorities
- Know when saying no is the right answer. Suggesting someone else can make it easier to say no.
- Seek out connections such as rich interpersonal interactions and continual personal and professional development.
- Find mentors, coaches and sponsors who can assist you
- Have something that consumes you after you leave work to switch your thinking away from work
- Help prevent burnout on your team (colleagues, students, residents)
- Burnout is rarely an individual phenomenon thus fixing and preventing it requires leadership
- Watch for warning signs as in some people they may be subtle
- Tiredness, lack of focus, depressed mood, hostility and expressions of hopelessness
- Regularly check in with your team members to gauge their physical, cognitive and emotional energy levels
- Set limits on workloads
- Talk to your team about its collective capacity and ensure that assignments and deadlines don't exceed it
- Get people other than in drug therapy to let go of perfectionism
- Shield your team from external pressures, including unreasonable or unclear demands
- Insist on renewal
- Communicate that rest and renewal are essential
- Encourage people to set sensible limits on work hours and set the example yourself as the role model
- Make sure your team members take their full vacation time
- Boost control
- Clarify expectations, grant flexibility on where, when and how people get work done
- Advocate for the resources your team needs
- Create uninterrupted time for people to make progress
- Make recognition meaningful
- Regularly highlight wins and successes
- Recognize and reward people for helping others and note the positive impact your team’s work has on patients and the organization
- Emphasize learning
- Routinely ask about their development goals and assist them in working towards them
- Share what you are learning and how you are learning
- Utilizing the organizations development programs and the profession’s
- Facilitate mutual support
- Talk regularly about progress toward team goals. Don't assume everyone sees the progress
- At meetings ask what assistance people need and can offer each other
- Perhaps start meetings with the good things that happened since the last meeting or what people appreciate about working with each other
- Build community
- Don't tolerate incivility on your team by setting an example for respectful, compassionate behavior toward others
- Encourage people to share what’s happening in their lives outside of work
- Frequently celebrate progress and wins
Please share your experiences and what works for you