When you’re the leader, your people want to impress you. They want to show you they can take on everything and are committed to their career, the team, and the organization.
However, pretending to be invulnerable doesn’t help anyone in the long run. Three in four workers say they experience burnout symptoms and one in four say they feel the impact of these symptoms “often” or “always.” Hybrid or remote work can also hide or exacerbate the energy and performance challenges employees face.
As leaders, it’s our job to be attentive to our people and to support them, even when they don’t want to admit they’re in a survival state or headed toward burnout.
We’ve identified some of the most common burnout signs we’ve seen in employee populations, as well as important strategies we coach leaders on to help them support their employees through these issues.
Changes in Engagement
What it looks like: There’s a difference in the way your employees react and engage. Instead of coming to you with proactive ideas, they’re easily frustrated or quietly withdrawn when a new project is added to their list of responsibilities.
They still do what’s asked but the spark is gone. They only speak up when you push them for ideas; in meetings, they’re withdrawn or quiet.
What to do: Sometimes a small adjustment can make a big change. The best way to figure out what’s going on with them is to approach with empathy. Ask them open-ended questions like “What’s on your mind?” or “How are you managing?”
These questions only work if you’ve put in the time to build trust with the people on your team. Otherwise, they may see your actions as self-interested which leads to them feeling marginalized. If you aren’t at a place where you can ask them honestly how you can support them, you have some groundwork to lay.
I’ve also had some coaching clients ask me about whether remote workers keeping their cameras off is a bad sign. It doesn’t have to be. For some workers, the cognitive load created by Zoom fatigue can be very negatively impactful. Evaluate a change in camera on/camera off habits as part of the bigger picture of productivity and engagement before using it as part of discussions.
Performance Issues
What it looks like: Employees start letting more things slip. The team member who was typically on-time and on top of things starts submitting work with unusual errors, turning in items late, or missing deadlines all together.
What to do: If a usually reliable team member starts dropping the ball, there’s a reason behind it. It’s your job to observe, check in, then create clarity. Do they have the resources they need to do their job? Is there something outside of work pressing on them? Is work fairly allocated? Is there someone else in the team or organization creating a bottleneck that’s slowing them down? Is their plate simply too full?
Some of these items may be easy to discover from regular conversations. Others may require your observation of how work is being distributed and where people’s resource strains might be preventing them from doing their best.
Expressions of Fatigue
What it looks like: Team members may look visibly exhausted. They may complain about being tired or worn out or about how drained they are even after a weekend away.
They may also complain of afternoon slumps and look for ways to mitigate the exhaustion, including scrolling, mindless snacking and doing small, low-priority tasks because they can’t summon the energy to handle tasks that would accomplish more but that seem like too heavy of a lift at their current energy level.
What to do: You only control part of your employee’s wellbeing when it comes to fatigue. They need to focus on implementing the pillars of recovery (sleep, movement, nutrition, and rest) all of which you can promote, educate, and advocate for in how they show up at work.
The best thing you can do here is to normalize recovery. Set explicit boundaries so people know that they are not expected to respond to messages at night. Anne-Marie Slaughter, author of Unfinished Business, said she intentionally modeled leaving work at a reasonable time so her employees would feel capable of doing the same without feeling the need to ask for permission. You can do this same kind of influential leadership within your workplace, so your people feel both allowed and empowered to care for their needs.
Shifts in Communication
What it looks like: This is a subset of other signs of disengagement. Instead of being quick to communicate and stay in touch, employees may pull back. They may respond more slowly or respond with an attitude of disengagement.
What to do: When people disengage, don’t take it personally. It’s far more often about how they are feeling than about you. Instead of getting upset or frustrated when they pull back, lean into the conversation with curiosity. Ask directly, “How are you really doing?” or “What do you need more or less of right now?”
Draw them out with open-ended questions. Encourage them to continue to share with you by taking time to address the feedback you receive from them. If you ask, then put solutions to their concerns on the back burner, you only reaffirm their hesitancy to communicate candidly.
What’s the Toll on You?
Feeling responsible for other people’s wellbeing takes a toll on your wellbeing as well. As a leader, your commitment to recovery and to avoiding burnout is twice as important, because it impacts your work, and trickles down to the people you interact with daily.
You can create a framework for high performance in your team, and to expand that culture of care and high performance through your influence.
Start with yourself. Ensure you have the energy and capacity to lead, show up for your team, and create a culture that values high performance and the people who make it happen every day.