What to Do When Those You Lead and Love are Burning Out | Ctrl+Alt+Delete with Lisa Duerre: For Leaders In Tech Escaping Burnout and Rebooting Their Identity - a podcast by Lisa Duerre

I just finished an awesome two-hour team session with a group in tech and I wanted to share with you something that I found inspirational and scary. We spent a lot of time talking about high performing teams and optimizing how they work together, it was amazing. One of the things that kept showing up was, and I know this to be true, you know this to be true, people are burning out, right? The conversation was around, I take such pride in my work. I take such pride in my team results. I like supporting my customers and helping our customers and I also have people that I love outside of work. How do you get it all done? I had to come here and I might even rant a little bit right now, but I want to share what to do when you're feeling like that, because it feels hopeless. I have burnt out. I have been in the emergency room thinking I'm having a heart attack, and instead it was allergic reaction to antibiotics that I had taken for the third, I had switched my antibiotics the third time, because I had this chronic bronchitis.

Well, I had bronchitis because I was tired, because I was taking care of everything at work and doing my best at home, always. I wasn't taking care of myself and I wasn't honest with myself or reflecting enough back about what was compelling this to happen. Burnout is like a virus. It doesn't just impact the person burning out. It impacts the organization they're in, the people that they love, the people that they lead. It's a big damn deal, and mental health and priorities, it's essential right now, you guys. This is what's going on in the world today. What was shared today in that session while we did so much amazing stuff, there was absolutely a request for help me figure out how to manage my own self better so I don't burn out. So I wanted to come to you today with three things you can do today for those that you lead and love to help them as we all navigate what I'm honestly feeling as a collective burnout, right?

So the first thing is as much as you want to help everybody else, you have to start with yourself. I learned this the hard way. I know this with the execs that I coach and the trainings that I run and the friends that I have, right? If you're not okay, you can't help anybody else. So the advice I'm going to give to help others applies to you too, and I want to speak to you from my heart, and the first thing is you need to take a look at your definition of balance. Take a look at your definition of priorities and take a look at if your mindset is everything's important, because it's not. We are, as a society, conditioned to always look at things how to improve, look at things to lead better, look at things to be optimized always. You guys, it's just not possible right now.

One thing I can say for sure, for yourself and those that you lead and love, is to have a real conversation about how you're feeling. I know, feelings at work don't always feel good, right? People don't want to talk about feelings, but as a leader, I'm not going to say but, and, as a leader, you owe it to those that you lead and love to check in and ask them how they're doing. How are you holding up? How are you feeling? What's weighing you down? What are you concerned about? You owe it to yourself to have the same conversation with yourself, whether it's in a journal, with a good friend, typing it up in a notebook, right? Being clear on how it's going is the essential first step. You have to reflect and create the space for that honesty.

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Hey, leader in tech! Want to get kickass results, build a high-performing team, and be present for the moments that matter? Take your first step at rebootwithlisa.com.

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