How Failed Leadership Leads to Burnout
Strong leaders want to win. Strong leaders want to win the best people for the best position to fulfill the best mission. This is straight up not going to happen if leaders are not investing in the individuals on the team in the ways most needed.
Strong leaders value who others are, not just what they do. Healthy leaders spend the time to connect, mentor, train, and call up others to their next level of extraordinary. Burnout, brownout, whatever you want to call it, is a direct reflection of failing leadership. The impact of this phenomenon goes far beyond the workplace, and if someone dares to minimize it, I encourage you to share this article.
In a sense, it should be a win-win situation. Leaders are investing in their team members and growing their value. In return, individuals are adding value to the business. When leaders spend the time to connect with individuals, they can identify strengths and weaknesses of team members. They can fight for their greatest possible good by challenging them, encouraging them, and calling them up to their next level of extraordinary. In doing so, leaders build confidence in others to efficiently accomplish the mission.
Leaders gain respect by seeing legitimate value in others. Win-win.
A practical way of showing someone how much you value them is not consuming their time with busy work. As leaders call others up and add value to individuals, others experience a greater sense of fulfillment because they aren’t being strangled with busy work. I am convinced one of the major contributors to burnout, brownout, or whatever you want to call it – is leaders who are dictating team members’ schedules, micromanaging, and interrupting others from operating at their highest level of excellence with their greatest efficiency.
What if we allowed individuals and teams a bit more freedom to accomplish the same work in a new way? What if their new style would elevate the organization to a higher standard of excellence?
When highly valuable team members are suffocated with busy work and not given opportunity to contribute their highest value, guess what happens. THEY. ARE. DONE. Leaders would be naive to think it won’t directly impact the way teams show up at work, and this article details the significance. Of course, the busy work still needs to be completed. Of course, there are tasks that individuals don’t necessarily love.
However, when team members’ schedules are overloaded with busy work and space is not created for them to explore new projects that can serve as an outlet for their greatest strengths, burnout happens. Burnout, brown out, whatever you want to call it.
On the other hand, when leaders invite others to their next level of extraordinary, they can focus on the work that adds value instead of their time being consumed with busy work.
Do you know what happens?
The busy work gets done, the leaders gain trust, burnout is squashed, and individuals are motivated and inspired to accomplish huge wins. When team members feel valued for who they are, it’s a game changer. They aren’t swallowed by busy work, but instead, are also given opportunity to make a difference through contributing value to the bigger picture. They are challenged, called up to their next level of extraordinary, and inspired to fulfill the mission of the organization.
So what does this look like on a practical level?
One way of stimulating talent is simply inviting others’ ideas. How much responsibility can you give to those you have empowered? What new strategies might they suggest in the process of fulfilling the mission? How could you call others up by assigning a new project without overloading them? How can you delegate more to others and trust them to execute with excellence? How could you mature others’ talent to the next level and challenge the weaknesses of the team? As you challenge others, you offer opportunities for them to build confidence and gain self-awareness.
Then comes the call for celebration! Recognizing the value others contribute can be motivational. How can you specifically celebrate the wins? How do you celebrate moving the mission forward as individuals and as a team? Sometimes recognizing the need to connect, challenge, and celebrate can be enough to preserve innovation and inspiration among the team.
How will you invest greater value in your team today? As leaders, let’s create an environment in which there is no room for burnout.
Learn more about Melissa and Royal Coaching Colorado here.
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