It’s hard to find a modern human who doesn’t stress out almost every day. We have to juggle work, family, rest, meetings with friends, and time for ourselves. Which is extremely hard to do because we have only 24 hours every day and a limited amount of energy.
Trying to keep up with everything, especially playing a leading role at work, takes a lot of effort. Eventually, we feel empty and unwilling to move a limb, let alone managing and motivating the team. This condition is called a burnout, which is basically a result of poorly managed constant stress at work.
The worst thing about this condition is that it can jeopardize the success of your team since you have no energy to make the right decisions and maintain a productive workflow. But also, the burnout is easy to catch – if you’re suffering from it chances are your employees will suffer from it soon, too. Mostly because you won’t be able to manage their work properly creating more stress for them.
What to do?
You should remember that sometimes things go not as you planned them, and it’s ok. However, if you and your team go through a sequence of failures, it gets harder to concentrate, find motivation, and deal with issues. Then the whole team starts suffering from burnout.
The good news is that it is not that hard to get back to normal and heal yourself and your team from this condition.
Eliminate small things that stand in your way
There often are certain issues that slow down the work and create unnecessary obstacles for you and your team. It can be computers that are not as efficient as you need them to be or the environment that makes you feel uncomfortable and unproductive.
Try to notice these details throughout the day and write down every tiny detail that made you and your team less productive. Then fix them. Get new comfortable chairs, find antiviruses for PCs at work to make sure they have high performance, create a rest zone, etc. As you get rid of small annoying things, you will see that it is easier now to focus on the work.
Take care of yourself
Trying to help the team, we often forget about ourselves. But the way the leader feels impacts everyone else. Therefore, you need to focus on your mental and physical health. Take some time every day to work out, meditate, do things you enjoy. Once you go out of the office, do your best to disconnect from work and stop thinking about it. Don’t answer work-related calls and emails – your workday is over.
Also, don’t forget about the basics of good health like eating high-quality, healthy food, sleeping at least 7 hours every night, and taking a nice rest that allows you to unplug from everything.
Set an example for your employees
This step logically goes after the one about taking care of yourself. You want your team to be healthy and feel good, too. Because well-being impacts the productivity of the person. But you can’t demand from employees to take care of themselves. What you can do is to set the right example and inspire them to repeat after you. That’s what true leadership is.
Everyone is on social media today. Show off your workouts so that your team sees your progress and finds the motivation to work out. Encourage your employees to eat properly by ordering healthy food for everyone to the office. Tell them about the meditation technique you’ve discovered recently. Well, you got the point.
Celebrate every victory
Even the minor one. Your team deserves some appreciation, as well as you do. If the week went well, celebrate that organizing a party or doing some fun group activity together with your team. It will encourage everyone, including you, to be even more efficient the next week and achieve better results.
Talk to your team
Don’t shove all the annoyance and discontent down your throat. If you hate the habit of your employees to come to you with every minor issue they face – tell them about that. And give a solution – to gather everything into the list and hand you a scope of issues. If they’re not urgent, of course. Thus, they will not interrupt your workflow all the time, and become more organized.
Also, make your team understand that you want them to tell you if they don’t like something, too. If needed, teach them how to approach such situations peacefully and talk to you and each other about work problems they face. It is very important because keeping discontent inside we feel even more stressed and passively aggressive. That’s the last thing you need.
Reevaluate strengths of each employee now and then
Sometimes people get the job that doesn’t quite suit them. Monitor the work of each employee and talk to them if you feel like they’re not in the right place. Maybe, they should receive different tasks from you, or work in a different department altogether. Give them a chance – perhaps behind the humble developer hides a talented and natural project manager that will bring the results of the team to the next level.
Reevaluate the goals of the company
It might be that you’ve set goals that are not quite realistic. Such a situation happens often, and it’s perfectly fine to lower the bar a bit and aim for more attainable things. Or if you feel that the current goal is achievable, but too complex and creates a lot of frustration in your team, try to break it down in smaller, feasible goals.
To draw the bottom line, always remember that it is better to prevent the burnout than fighting with it. If you’re reading this being already burned out – try the tips and step back from the process to see the bigger picture. And if you’re reading it just in case – keep in mind our advice and do your best to stay healthy, energized, and motivated.