Overcoming Career Burnout: 3 Strategies for Leadership Longevity

“It’s a really hard time in the business. I don’t have time for balance in my life,” an overwhelmed executive shared with me as to why he has not been caring for himself and his well-being.

As a public company CEO coach and positive organizational psychologist, I frequently hear similar statements from leaders. It’s based on the misperception that workforce well-being is a nice-to-have perk that leaders don’t have time for. Unfortunately, that flawed perspective is contributing to rising levels of leadership burnout and is detrimental to leadership performance. 

In truth, to lead at your full potential requires caring for yourself first, which is a paradigm shift. Based on my research and experience, I have discovered an encouraging solution for leaders to not only overcome burnout but to thrive: Vital Leadership.

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Vital leadership places caring for your well-being as foundational to maximizing leadership performance. By promoting your well-being, you build your vitality, giving you an abundance of energy. It gives you access to your inner physical, psychological and emotional energy resources to lead at your best.

In a recent study, I interviewed 20 Fortune 1000 CEOs to understand what leadership performance looks like when thriving vs. burned out. The results show that when leaders thrive, it positively impacts their life and leadership. 

Drawing from my research and the CEO study, I have found the top physical, psychological and emotional strategies leaders can take to attain greater wellbeing and perform at their peak.   

The top three strategies to lead at your best:

1. Emotional: Nurture high-quality relationships

The top approach CEOs use to encourage their well-being is nurturing high-quality relationships. 100% of the CEOs I interviewed spoke about the importance of personal and professional relationships, pointing to the energizing effect of their high-quality connections. Additional research has found even greater impacts: positive relationships are the number one key to a happy life according to an 85-year longitudinal study conducted at Harvard. 

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Strategies:

• Prioritize the relationships in your life that bring you joy and are energizing. Intentionally invest in them on an ongoing basis. Consider how you could make time to connect to relationships that are most important to you, such as for a meal, an activity, a walk or a phone call.
• Take inventory of your relationships that matter to you. As you review, consider relationships in each of these categories: family, significant other, friends and work relationships. Ask yourself: Are you getting the time you need with each person? If not, choose one relationship to give attention to. What’s one thing you could do to invest in the relationship more? 

 2. Physical: Care for your physical health

Physical health was cited by 85% of interviewees as critical to fostering well-being. While physical health is essential to increasing well-being, I have found leaders focus on it less when work or position demands increase. 

Strategies:

• Nutrition: cut down on processed foods, eat more nutrient-dense foods and drink more water throughout the day. 
• Movement: incorporate movement throughout the day, such as a walking meeting or a short walk outside. Schedule times each week to engage in a physical activity you enjoy. 
• Sleep: An important key to physical health is getting enough sleep every night. Most people need 7-8 hours of sleep every night to be most productive. 

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3. Psychological: Create space in your day

75% of the CEOs I spoke with discussed the importance of making space in their day to think, plan and get work done as a crucial part of their well-being. One of the biggest issues leaders face is out-of-control calendars, with back-to-back meetings. This issue has only become worse as virtual work has increased. This lack of space reduces effectiveness. 

Strategies:

• Intentionally create space: Every day, create blocks of time on your calendar throughout the day to think, reflect, plan or simply relax. Consider changing meeting durations from one hour to 45 minutes or from 30 minutes to 20 minutes. Use the extra time purposefully. 
• Model creating space for your team: and encourage them to do so as well. Make the commitment to yourself and your team that this time for space is essential and may not be infringed upon. Consider creating “no-meeting” times for thinking space with your team: such as an hour block of time where no one schedules meetings or interrupts each other.

These three Vital Leadership strategies give suggestions to improving your well-being to build your vitality so you don’t deplete yourself. By tapping into your physical, psychological and emotional energy, you’ll lead at your full capacity. Ultimately, it’s up to you to reflect on what strategy you want to explore.

Reflection: What’s one action you could take to encourage your vital leadership in the next week?

Dr. Jamie Shapiro is a master-certified executive leadership coach and organizational psychologist who specializes in working with CEOs of public companies and their executive teams. She is the CEO and founder of Connected EC, a C-suite executive coaching company, and the author of Brilliant: Be the Leader Who Shines Brightly Without Burning Out. For more information about Connected EC, visit: https://www.connectedec.com/