Burnout is Out—Energy-Powered Resilience is In
At Crescent Leadership, the word of the year is Energy.
As a working mother and leader who has, at times over my career, lived through tremendous stress at work, experienced health challenges due to burnout, and strived to make a positive impact and better workplace for team members—this one is especially important to me. I have recently undergone a significant transformation personally and professionally. In the summer of 2023, I moved across New York State with my husband from Buffalo to the Adirondack mountains, called to take on the CEO role for a mission-based organization with the most vibrant and positive energy I've ever experienced in a workplace.
My study of employee wellness programs during and after the pandemic primarily focused on how organizations can better prevent burnout and support employees, particularly women who shoulder the bulk of family caretaking responsibilities on top of their work responsibilities. In 2022, (in a piece for the University of Buffalo's Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness) I wrote:
"We are in a moment of incredible opportunity for leaders. It is a challenging time to lead, but if we shift our lens to the opportunities arising out of those challenges - the heightened understanding of the impact of effective or ineffective leadership, shifts in the ways we work, the increased attention to employee retention, and higher expectations that employees have of their leaders, we potentially can leverage this moment to make huge strides in making workplaces better and more equitable places to work, and ultimately achieve our companies' missions and visions more effectively."
I firmly hold this assertion, and the challenges have not gone away. In fact, McKinsey & Company's report, Women in the Workplace 2024, states that the gains in equity and employee support over the past ten years are fragile, and organizational commitment to equity has been declining. It is a leader's primary job to empower and serve those they lead, and studies have proven that by better supporting and promoting employees to build their Resilience, the organization's bottom-line outcomes will also benefit.
In her groundbreaking book, 9 Leader Touchstones, Dr. Jes DeShields defines Resilience as the "capacity to overcome adversity through the systematic renewal of the body's four energy wellsprings - physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual." This distinction is essential, as Resilience is not just the ability to manage and overcome adversity, which can still leave you exhausted and depleted, but rather the ability to continuously restore and sustain energy levels before, during, and following times of adversity.
This is a complex subject. Know that my aim is not to overwhelm you with ever more rules or guidelines you must follow to be an effective leader but rather to offer some ideas and share some lessons I’ve learned over time.
Multiple intersecting factors at work can help or hinder a team member's ability to build Resilience. As some of these can be outside of a person's control, I recommend that organizations adopt a systems-level approach to enabling and encouraging energy renewal to happen. Leaders have a critical role in a team member's overall experience at work. They can help team members cope with stress or burnout by making them feel supported – for example, by listening with empathy, offering coaching, or encouraging them to use their PTO. Organizations and leaders can make a profound difference for team members at the systems level by improving the conditions that lead to burnout in the first place.
I experienced this firsthand as the CEO of a nonprofit organization during the pandemic. The health crisis heightened stress levels, causing the need for constant change, "pivoting," and uncertainty at work. Stress and energy depletion were exacerbated as schools shifted to virtual instruction, childcare networks closed, and employees juggled work and family caretaking responsibilities during the workday. A record number of women left the workforce during this time, which was personal to our team as an organization dedicated to empowering girls and building women leaders.
Our leadership team did our best to offer support and flexibility, but no level of support could change the conditions that staff faced at work and at home. They were depleted. From the systems level, we realized that the most effective support we could offer was reimagining the workweek. This was not revolutionary as many companies and countries had already started piloting the 4-day work week before the pandemic. Studies have proven that working more hours does not equate to higher productivity. If the program is implemented effectively, productivity and the bottom line often improve with a compressed workweek.
Our vision was to create a better work experience, and we put our staff team at the center of our decision-making process. We launched a cross-functional "Future of Work" committee that developed a planning guide focused on customers' needs, expectations for quality work performance and productivity, needed tools and resources, guidance on fostering collaboration and communication, and team member preferences on how they could achieve their best work. Through a 12-month pilot, we allowed team members the opportunity to work a flexible schedule and compressed work week. The results proved the concept. Reports of burnout declined. These changes gave team members more time and flexibility to take care of their personal and family responsibilities and renew their energy. Remarkably, the shift to measuring work outcomes instead of the number of hours worked (outputs) resulted in higher organizational performance. Program enrollment increased. Revenue increased. Customer satisfaction increased. Employee retention increased. And ultimately, team members were better positioned to do their best work in the long haul.
Around that time, I attended Crescent Leadership's inaugural leadership retreat. We read the Harvard Business Review article by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy, "Manage Your Energy and Not Your Time." This article differentiates time, which is finite, from renewable energy and encourages leaders to invest more in team members instead of trying to get more from them. We each took the article's energy assessment (which you can take, too: https://hbr.org/2007/10/manage-your-energy-not-your-time). I answered the quiz honestly and discovered I was headed for "a full-fledged energy management crisis." At that time, I was still working long hours each week, which had not subsided since the initial days of the pandemic; I was carrying stress and had not exercised regularly in months. Sure enough, I soon began recognizing the signs of burnout, a lowered immune system, and poor health outcomes. This awareness forced me to take a hard look at how I was prioritizing my health and wellness. Since then, I have become a fierce protector of my energy and am more attuned to the energy levels of my team members.
When tuning into your or others' energy levels, pay attention to what drains and replenishes them. Sally Hogshead, a branding expert who developed the How to Fascinate® system, challenges us to identify our "quicksand" (what drains our energy) and our "wellspring" (what boosts our energy). From an organizational perspective, some common energy drags get us into quicksand and challenge us to work effectively—workplace drama or unresolved conflicts, too many new projects, frequent interruptions, inadequate resources, and overworked team members. This is far from an exhaustive list, but three key areas can improve team member experience, ultimately leading to higher, more sustainable performance.
Remove the energy "drags," the conditions and factors that drain energy.
Stabilize factors to a "normal" or relatively non-adverse work state.
Cultivate the conditions that build a culture of vitality - those that boost and replenish energy.
How might these look in reality? Teach managers to coach conflict resolution skills. Practice direct communication to reduce unproductive workplace conflict. Add new team members to stabilize the workload. Cross-train and cover for each other so team members can take needed vacations or downtime without stress and work piling up while they are away. The organization tilts to a stable state as you remove and stabilize adverse factors. From there, you can optimize performance by cultivating factors that boost energy.
Think of your "wellspring" as doing the work that motivates and energizes you, like achieving a state of 'flow.' In 9 Leader Touchstones, Jes describes 'flow,' introduced by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, as "a heightened sense of concentration, enjoyment, and effortless engagement. Time seems to dissolve, self-consciousness fades away, and you become completely absorbed in the present moment. Achieving flow requires a delicate balance between skill and challenge." Through my self-reflection and self-discovery, I have found that I do my best work when I have ample time to reflect, intentionally and thoughtfully. Alternately, frequent conflicts or "drama" drain my energy. In this state, my best work is not possible.
In your organization, cultivating opportunities for team members to achieve flow can be an important energy booster. Create distraction-free workspaces or protect distraction-free time. Admittedly, this can be challenging with tools like Slack, social media, texting, and email at the ready on our phones, tablets, laptops, and even in our cars. As an individual, optimizing flow and creating space to do your best work means recognizing when you need to take a break and recharge. Build trust and communication so that you feel comfortable talking to your manager or peers. Set boundaries and ask for support in scheduling time for deep work. These all help you on your quest to build energy-powered Resilience. There is no rule book… every person’s energy needs are different. So, write your own. Know that shifting your priority to energy renewal will not be easy. Sustainable, positive change rarely is. But it is essential, and as McKinsey & Company’s research tells us, it is worth it.
As I shared earlier, I recently felt called to join a new team, and anyone who visits this organization can instantly feel the positive, uplifting energy. Fairly quickly, it was clear how much hard work, time, and effort the staff team and volunteers give to create high energy for others. Knowing this... living it... has made me realize that supporting our team members (including myself!) and volunteers in energy renewal must be my number one priority so that we can, in turn, do the incredible work of creating joy, hope, and love for others.