Burnout is something that can creep in very slowly, without you even realizing it.  It doesn’t matter what sector you work in – be it nonprofit, corporate, or as an entrepreneur; if you are in a demanding and high-stress position for a long enough period of time, you are at risk of burning out.

As someone who has experienced burnout firsthand (involving experiences working at nonprofit organizations, where I’ve never worked harder in my life), and now coaching some of my clients through severe burnout, I wanted to share some of the strategies and steps you can take in your work and life to recognize and prevent burnout from occurring in your leadership. 

1.  Make your actions purposeful

Reflect in order to learn.  If an action is purposeful and if there is learning in between, there is less of a chance that that action will lead to burn out.  So in your company or organization, for example, if you wonder why you are doing the same thing over and over again, this may be a sign that you’re headed for burnout.  But if you know that what you are doing is growing you and your organization in some way, you are much more willing to do it.  This is equally true for your employees.  Connect the action of the employees to the greater purpose of the organization – remind them why they are doing it and what their role is.  Have them reflect on it. 

There was a point in my leadership where I would just do.  There was very little time for reflection.  There was just “stuff” that needed to get done.  I said yes to things that came my way without really thinking through their purpose and how they related back to the bottom line impact I was trying to make.  This included setting up unnecessary recurring meetings with teams that I did not realize were an inefficient use of my time.

I’ve since changed how I work.  Each morning, as part of my practice, I write a list of the 6 things that will make me most happy and most productive in my business.  Those become my targets for the day.  Because I am such a “doer” and love the sense of accomplishment, it is important for me to be strategic about what it is I get done in a day.   And sometimes, I make sure I reflect and do a little journaling at night.  I don’t just DO.  I have a purpose and I reflect so my actions seem less like they are coming out of a loose cannon and more like they are strategic darts. 

2.  Have walking meetings

One of the things that leadership often does to you is pin you to your desk, or to meeting after meeting, or to eating out a great deal.  Many leaders I talk to have trouble figuring out how to build self-care into their work lives.

One of the best things to do is to try going on a walking meeting.  When we are up and moving, different parts of our brain are active than when we are idle.  We may think of new ideas and even become more creative.

Give yourself to a different environment and the opportunity for other parts of your brain to ignite.  Walking meetings have become such a staple in my life that when I set up meetings with people, I usually recommend we meet and walk somewhere instead of meeting somewhere to get a coffee.  I have also integrated walking into my coaching sessions for my local clients.

One of my friends and thought leader, Nilofer Merchant, gave a Tedx talk on this very topic.  She is a staunch advocate of the walking meeting.  Check it out here. 

3.  Do not multitask

There are several studies that have come out proving how detrimental multitasking is to our brains because it can overload our working memory.  Check out this article for more on that topic.  I remember years ago listening to women’s leadership talks about how women are better leaders and have an innate ability to multitask.  It was always positioned as a good skill to have. 

Undoubtedly, the ability to multitask can come in handy.  However, this means you are overloading your brain’s circuitry, and not fully in concentration on one thing.  You might make mistakes, you may not be thinking things through fully, and believe it or not, you’re probably going to burn yourself out over time. 

4.  Work smarter

Pacing and working smarter is the name of the game.  And a big part of working smarter is working more strategically.  Ask yourself, do I have to have this meeting NOW?  Ask yourself, do I have to check my e-mail NOW?  One of the recommendations I have is to read e-mails as they come but to schedule time twice daily to respond to them.  (And please, do not make responding e-mail a first thing in the morning priority.  Use the morning time to do more creative, expansive work). 

For me personally, I decided to only link my personal e-mail account to my phone, and to disconnect my work e-mails from my phone.  I understand that may be difficult for some of you to do given your line of work, but try reading your e-mails during the day and picking strategic times to answer them.  (You can check out this article for more tips on managing e-mail). 

Also, remember that we have attention spans that last about 20 minutes.  So, taking frequent breaks is a great way to rest and keep you going, as is sectioning off uninterrupted bouts of time (90 minutes) to get your work done – no e-mails, calls or meetings during those 90 minutes; just work!

5.  Celebrate!

Often, as leaders, we forget to look back and celebrate our accomplishments.  I remember one of the greatest exercises an executive coach did with me was having me and my board list all the things we had accomplished in the past year.  The list just kept going on and on, and I hadn’t even realized we had done so much and at what pace we were running.  It almost gave me license to slow down a bit and pace myself.  It was also a great exercise because it made the board see how far we had come as a team as well. 

6.  Set boundaries with regularly scheduled activities

Having a regularly scheduled activity can be a great regulator for managing burnout.  One of my colleagues who is the CEO of a renowned national nonprofit told me once that she always left the office around 4 or 4:30 every day to get her kids from school.  She made the choice to be that type of mom.  She had a boundary in place yet I’m sure she could have easily found reasons to work more. 

When I was running my organization in the early years (when I was working all the time), I used to leave the office early on Tuesdays and Thursdays to get to dance class.  It was just the right break I needed, and it kept me motivated throughout the day because I was equally as passionate about dance as I was about the work I was doing.

7.  Know when your time has come

This is not an easy thing for many leaders.  Some people are starters, implementers, maintainers, or growers.  Know where you are at, and when the lifecycle of the position no longer warrants your skill, so you can move on.  It’s more important for your company or organization to have fresh thinking and leadership, vs. someone who is tired and at the helm.  I realize this deserves its own post at some point, so I will come back to it. 

What have you done to manage burnout in your work or life?  I touched on some strategies, but know there are many more from the trenches.  I’d like to hear from you!

I asked this question to a recent client of mine who was feeling very stuck with what she wanted to do regarding a major life decision.  She couldn’t answer it on the spot; it was meant to be thought over with some amount of time.  It makes you think, even if you don’t have a lie.  I do.  Let me tell you a little about mine. 

For 11 years I worked to build a non-profit organization in service to helping immigrant and refugee women start their own businesses.  They faced systemic challenges in getting their businesses up and running - mostly due to language and economic barriers.  In 2010, I took a sabbatical from my organization to recover from burnout, and to figure out what was next for me.  I took a break from the everyday hustle and bustle of fundraising life and burning the candle at both ends.  I was relatively free of stress during my sabbatical; it gave me the opportunity to really experience life in a way I had never been able to in my adult career, and to really realign my passions with my work.

What became clear to me was my commitment and support to women’s empowerment.  I also valued freedom and independence greatly.  (Yes, I was the type of kid who would look at our shed outside my suburban NJ home and wish I could live in it by myself.)  I wanted to empower and work with women, regardless of whether or not they were immigrants.  When I came back from sabbatical, I realized my lie was that deep inside, I believed I was not the one who should be running this organization.  Somewhere in me I felt that it should be led by the people it sought to serve – by fellow immigrant women in the community.  Only they really knew and understood their circumstances and challenges and could organize and represent themselves in a way where they shared power and were the ones making change; not in a model where they were receiving “charity”.   

We had developed an innovative curriculum in the process, and I believed that could be spearheaded independently of the organization, by a motivated entrepreneur who could build it to its next level.  At first, I thought that entrepreneur was me.  Upon further reflection, the thought of raising capital and driving forward another start-up, which would take everything I had in me, made me cringe.

This realization only came to me after stepping away from what I was doing, and giving myself a break.  I actually had no idea about the amount of financial stress I had been under all those years to run the organization.  Don’t get me wrong; we did AWESOME work.  The team was even more AWESOME, and our clients – amazing. 

When I started working with low-income women entrepreneurs and was thinking of starting the organization, the focus on immigrant women initially came from the suggestion of an early donor, who herself was an immigrant.  With that suggestion came a donation.  She hadn’t seen anything substantial being done for the community in this way.  In some way, it had felt as if I had been partially carrying someone else’s agenda all these years, and not one in which I felt my full authenticity.  There were elements I felt I owned, but in the spirit of a non-profit, at the end of the day, I worked on behalf of the interests of donors and institutional funders.  I never felt stuck, per se.  The year upon returning from my sabbatical, I knew it was time for a change.  I knew what my “lie” was and what the right decision for the organization was. 

Getting clear with myself on what I really wanted to do was key.  It took time and space to figure this out.  But when I figured it out, everything seemed to flow like a river.  No more getting sick.  No more stress.  No more feeling like I was pushing a boulder up a hill.  I could just flow, knowing I was set forth on a path to live my truth.  That truth was to work deeply one-on-one with successful women and leaders, in service to their personal and professional transformations, and to guide them to use their success toward making positive social impact on individuals and the planet.  Whereas all these years I had dedicated myself to working on behalf of women with few resources, I knew my calling was to somehow work with women who had resources, in service to adding value to the planet. 

Sometimes we do good work, and it is not exactly the path that we know will most fulfill us.  Sometimes we do work that sucks the life out of us.  It’s what Greg Levoy, author of Callings calls a parallel path.  It’s like the dancer who becomes the dance critic, or the novelist who instead ends up in journalism.  Don’t get me wrong -  sometimes parallel paths are very necessary.  But what is your truth that keeps popping up in the process?  What are you avoiding that keeps showing up? What parallel paths do you keep creating for yourself to avoid your real path?   You have to give yourself space and reflection to ask yourself if you are living your truth.  When you don’t, it leads to feelings of stuckness, lack of motivation, and even sadness. 

I was fortunate to have the time and space to figure this out.  I was able to explore and make so many different discoveries about my next steps.  If you cannot make physical space, or take time off, it’s critical to make mental space.  Journaling and adding a self-reflective process to your regime will help immensely with this. 

If you are feeling stuck, take the time to reflect on this question: What’s your lie? Really mull it over, and journal on this point.  See what comes to you.  You may be surprised at what pops up and how this bit of information can help ignite momentum for your next big leap, whether it is a career change, or new business idea.  The other way to explore this (also great advice from Greg Levoy) is to have someone ask you over and over: “What do you KNOW to be true?”  Have them keep asking it, and see what it uncovers in you.