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Emotional resilience and burnout in leadership

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Re: Emotional resilience and burnout in leadership

#11

Post by jonnymiller »

LeonW wrote: post #2

I wish every leader gets access to these frameworks and takeaways. The #1 issue I face with every single client I've worked with over the years as an executive coach is exactly what they are pointing out here: that dealing with our emotions and inner worlds is the biggest challenge of all. Learning to deal with that has the highest ROI on both success and fulfillment/happiness compared to any other activity for a lea…

Thanks Leo, we have you to thank for introducing us to the concept of 'emotional debt'. I totally agree that for the majority of us, navigating the inner-world + increasing self-awareness has an absurdly high ROI on success/fulfillment.

What I also find fascinating is how running a company or leading a team appear to be an incredibly efficient vehicle for surfacing one's own sh*t—and once this new perspective is adopted—it becomes more potent than any self-help program out there for one's own personal growth.

Re: Emotional resilience and burnout in leadership

#12

Post by jonnymiller »

haswell wrote: post #10
jonnymiller wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jonny (one of the report co-authors) here, thanks for sharing this—I entirely agree that normalising this conversation around mental health is essential, yet often requires courage to do so, especially in a work context. Yet, as our research illustrated, you are very much not alone in experiencing pre-existing mental health challenges that were amplified by the events of 2020. re: 'telling the difference between work…

Thank you so much for the thoughtful reply. I had not noticed the Resilience Wiki. This looks excellent, and I will be exploring it thoroughly. > I entirely agree that normalising this conversation around mental health is essential, yet often requires courage to do so, especially in a work context Broaching this topic and some of the reasons behind the extended break were terrifying in the work context. I've grown in…

> "Like it would somehow undo my years of professional progress. I'm grateful that my upper leadership was actually quite receptive, and others have shared that they feel more empowered to address their own issues when they see other people willing to share more about their own struggles."

This is a powerful reflection. Vulnerability often feels like weakness to us but looks like courage to others. IMO real change is contingent on a deeper cultural shift that begins with leaders like yourself being willing to step into honest conversations about their inner + outer struggles.

And really great to hear that you have someone experienced working with you to help navigate the coming weeks. Please do reach out if you have curiosities or further questions about any of the emotional regulation activities listed in the wiki (or wish to contribute suggestions of your own).

Re: Emotional resilience and burnout in leadership

#16

Post by Aqua »

davesque wrote: post #6

While I see that this research is aimed at leadership positions and this must surely be a problem, I feel obligated to point out that the issue of burnout could be an even worse problem in non-leadership positions. It seems that a lot of the suggested solutions (take time off, be more honest about your emotions, etc.) are necessarily things that are difficult to do for people who are not in management positions. Requ…

While I understand the intention to highlight the other side of the problem, all these issues are significantly more severe for people in leadership positions.

I can't imagine taking more than 2 weeks off from work. These solutions aren't really solutions unless the person in question decides to quit their job. There is no snowballs chance in hell that a company will tolerate absence of their management staff that is longer than 4 weeks. A replacement or substituion would be required fairly soon.

Being open about one's emotion in a leadership position is a ridiculous advice, it's obvious that the authors have no idea what they're recommending.

Re: Emotional resilience and burnout in leadership

#17

Post by haswell »

pmiller2 wrote: post #4
haswell wrote: post #3

As someone who has just started a 4 week break spurred on by a burnout-induced breakdown at work, this is very timely. I do wonder if it’s reasonable to think that 4 weeks is enough. I’ve struggled with mental health issues for most of my life due to complex developmental trauma during childhood, and in 2020, I’ve found that it’s very difficult to tell the difference between work burnout, residual issues due to my tr…

Hey, I've gone through a very similar situation recently, and my history is similar to what you describe here, as well. My email is in my profile, and I'd love to chat with you about it -- just put something in the subject to identify that you're haswell@HN.

Thank you for the reply and offer to chat! I'm also very interested in chatting about this and I sent an email.

Re: Emotional resilience and burnout in leadership

#18

Post by alexanderdou »

LeonW wrote: post #2

I wish every leader gets access to these frameworks and takeaways. The #1 issue I face with every single client I've worked with over the years as an executive coach is exactly what they are pointing out here: that dealing with our emotions and inner worlds is the biggest challenge of all. Learning to deal with that has the highest ROI on both success and fulfillment/happiness compared to any other activity for a lea…

I'm very early in my career, but I've noticed that being able to sense, reflect on, and grapple with one's emotions to be so lacking at work.

It's also been one of the biggest invisible skills in my own career:

    it helps me navigate disagreements with colleagues by "getting us on the same side of the problem, rather than on opposite sides";
    it helps me avoid self-sabotage by creating narratives in my head and falling into the cognitive distortions of mind reading and fortune telling that I know I'm particularly prone to;
    it helps me interface with customers and graciously accept feedback, even if it's not delivered in the kindest way
But nobody teaches it. It was never in a training. I never learned it in school. It's almost like nobody knows it exists!

Anyway, btw, thanks for your work. I recently signed up for your newsletter and it's been really wonderful. I really enjoy the kindness you bring to your writing.

Re: Emotional resilience and burnout in leadership

#19

Post by comprev »

haswell wrote: post #3

As someone who has just started a 4 week break spurred on by a burnout-induced breakdown at work, this is very timely. I do wonder if it’s reasonable to think that 4 weeks is enough. I’ve struggled with mental health issues for most of my life due to complex developmental trauma during childhood, and in 2020, I’ve found that it’s very difficult to tell the difference between work burnout, residual issues due to my tr…

I know a handful of people who needed time off to recover from burnout - it ranged between 8 weeks to 2 years - depending on if they could convince their Doctor to officially recognise it for government support.

Re: Emotional resilience and burnout in leadership

#20

Post by waynesonfire »

davesque wrote: post #6

While I see that this research is aimed at leadership positions and this must surely be a problem, I feel obligated to point out that the issue of burnout could be an even worse problem in non-leadership positions. It seems that a lot of the suggested solutions (take time off, be more honest about your emotions, etc.) are necessarily things that are difficult to do for people who are not in management positions. Requ…

of course! however, this demographic most likely doesn't have as much disposable income and thus is not the target audience of the authors coaching program.
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