What do you do if you and your team are showing signs of burnout?

Burnout can sneak up on you and your team like a shadow, gradually dimming the spark that once drove your collective success. It's a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. As the stress continues, you begin to lose the interest and motivation that led you to take on a certain role in the first place. Recognizing the signs early on is crucial to prevent a full-blown burnout. Symptoms may include chronic fatigue, insomnia, forgetfulness, increased illness, loss of appetite, anxiety, and detachment.

Key takeaways from this article

Open dialogue:

Create a safe space for your team to express concerns and feelings. One-on-one chats or group discussions can foster trust, making everyone feel heard and paving the way for solutions to burnout.
Self-analysis first:

Encourage personal reflection within the team. Understanding individual stress triggers and habits helps in creating a tailored approach to managing workload and expectations, preventing burnout.

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1 Recognize Signs

To effectively address burnout, you must first be adept at recognizing its signs. These can manifest as persistent tiredness, a sense of dread about work, or a noticeable decrease in performance. Your team might start to seem disengaged, show less enthusiasm for collaborative projects, or miss deadlines more frequently. Pay attention to these red flags and acknowledge them openly. This is not about assigning blame but about creating a supportive environment where these issues can be addressed without stigma.

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Mai Gamal Abdou

Speaker Relations and Communications Manager | Google Mentor | Trainer | E-commerce Advisor (World Bank) | ex Intel
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Having known that there are signs for recognizing burnout, you have to put yourself on other peopleâ€™s shoes, what may cause burnout for you may be so different than others! I had a manager that thought working anytime in the day is ok! And I saw this very irritating and made me easily burnout ! So recognizing the reasons are very important and talking about it is more important

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Marion BrandÃ£o Carion

ðŸ“£ Top Internal Communications Voice in LinkedIn | Brand Advisor | LATAM Communication | Marketing | Well-Being | Human Resources | Quadrilingual
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I think most of the people donâ€™t know what burnout is and maybe they donâ€™t understand what theyâ€™re having. I recommend first explaining what it means and create this first self reflection.

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Indranil Mukherjee

Manager - Brand, Communications & Marketing
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Yes. First, understand the root cause. That is super important. These may include high workloads, tight deadlines, lack of resources, poor work-life balance, or a lack of recognition and support. Understanding the underlying factors will help you.

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2 Open Dialogue

Initiating an open dialogue is a key step in combating team burnout. Encourage your team to share their feelings and experiences in a safe space. This can be done through one-on-one meetings or group discussions where everyone feels comfortable voicing their concerns. Transparency about workload, expectations, and personal limits is essential. By fostering open communication, you create an environment of trust where team members feel heard and supported.

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3 Reassess Workloads

One common source of burnout is an unrealistic workload. Take time to reassess the distribution of tasks within your team. Are there opportunities to delegate or prioritize work more effectively? Sometimes, it's not about working harder but smarter. Implementing more efficient processes or providing additional resources can alleviate pressure and help prevent burnout. Remember, every team member's capacity is different, and workloads should be adjusted to reflect that.

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Mai Gamal Abdou

Speaker Relations and Communications Manager | Google Mentor | Trainer | E-commerce Advisor (World Bank) | ex Intel
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Work load should be reassessed or reassigned to other team mates or simply organized! Sometimes its the management style that causes the burnout not the load of work! The demotivation, the accusation of lateness or incompetence, or micromanagement

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Indranil Mukherjee

Manager - Brand, Communications & Marketing
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Review the workload and deadlines of your team members to ensure they are realistic and manageable. Consider redistributing tasks, adjusting priorities, or extending deadlines as needed to alleviate pressure and prevent burnout.

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4 Encourage Breaks

Regular breaks are vital for preventing burnout. Encourage your team to step away from their desks, take walks, or engage in activities that help them recharge during the workday. Promote a culture where taking time off is not only accepted but encouraged. Time away from work can lead to improved mental health, increased creativity, and better productivity in the long run. Respect for personal time and boundaries is a cornerstone of a healthy work environment.

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Marion BrandÃ£o Carion

ðŸ“£ Top Internal Communications Voice in LinkedIn | Brand Advisor | LATAM Communication | Marketing | Well-Being | Human Resources | Quadrilingual
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To encourage you have to owner that. Create meetings with 15 minutes between each one. Think about all the meetings, each one itâ€™s necessary? Can be solve in a message or by email?

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Indranil Mukherjee

Manager - Brand, Communications & Marketing
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Schedule regular breaks throughout the day to rest and recharge. Taking short breaks can help prevent burnout and improve overall focus and productivity.

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5 Support Wellness

Investing in your team's overall wellness can have a profound impact on combating burnout. Consider implementing wellness programs or activities that promote physical health, mental well-being, and relaxation. This could range from offering yoga classes to providing access to mental health resources. When your team feels cared for on a holistic level, they are more likely to perform at their best and less likely to experience burnout.

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Shreyash Siddhant

Management Consultant | MBA (Marketing & IT), IMT G | CSE, University of Birmingham | BGS Scholar
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Wellness is not a destination, it's a journey, you can't achieve it in a day or two. There should be an authentic and continuous effort to improve and support the wellbeing of your team. It can be done through multiple ways and since each team is unique one method may not work for all the teams so instead of running behind the methods, follow the process and you would build your own method. For starters try and understand what is causing the burnout within the team, what are the small changes that you can make to enhance your team culture, identify some low effort high reward elements and implement them first and then follow up with high effort high rewards elements in the long term. This should be a continuous effort.

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6 Adjust Expectations

Finally, it's important to adjust expectations to align with reality. High expectations can be motivating, but when they're unattainable, they contribute to burnout. Work with your team to set realistic goals and celebrate the milestones along the way. Acknowledge that perfection is not the goalâ€”progress and well-being are. When expectations are reasonable, your team can find satisfaction in their achievements without the constant pressure of unrealistic demands.

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7 Hereâ€™s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that donâ€™t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Marion BrandÃ£o Carion

ðŸ“£ Top Internal Communications Voice in LinkedIn | Brand Advisor | LATAM Communication | Marketing | Well-Being | Human Resources | Quadrilingual
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The problem of having burnout itâ€™s not one way fault. The person and the company have their responsibility. To make sure it will work well, both sides have to find ways of making sure that will get better. But in my opinion, it begins at analyzing yourself.

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Directory

What do you do if you and your team are showing signs of burnout?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Recognize Signs

2 Open Dialogue

3 Reassess Workloads

4 Encourage Breaks

5 Support Wellness

6 Adjust Expectations

7 Hereâ€™s what else to consider

Internal Communications

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Directory

What do you do if you and your team are showing signs of burnout?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Recognize Signs

2 Open Dialogue

3 Reassess Workloads

4 Encourage Breaks

5 Support Wellness

6 Adjust Expectations

7 Hereâ€™s what else to consider

Internal Communications

Rate this article

Thanks for your feedback

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