If you find that even sleeping in on the weekends and taking extra naps is doing nothing to help you feel rejuvenated again, you may want to watch for signs of job-related burnout.
Burnout is a buzzword we often toss around without fully understanding the depth of its meaning. Burnout is a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and detachment, as well as feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.
You may have many years’ experience in your career and a high level of confidence. Complicated procedures and on-the-spot-decision-making? You can do these in your sleep…until one day you can’t. You second-guess yourself and have trouble concentrating. You find yourself getting snippy and cynical with your colleagues. Burnout isn’t something you overcome just by taking a vacation. You’re out of balance. Your life and career need a serious recalibration.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes burnout as an “occupational phenomenon” resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It’s caused by your organization and the more of these factors at play in the career, the more likely you are to experience burnout. They include:
A career coach can help you develop a strategy that puts you in charge of your career. Even though burnout is caused by the organization, you’ll want to recognize the signs to avoid it, and if you’re already experiencing it, devise ways to build resiliency and protect yourself from its damaging effects. It is only through awareness, acceptance and a desire to change course that you can have more control over how you spend your time, and stop burnout before it stops you.
Clarifying your boundaries, both to yourself and those around you, is a skill. It’s the skill of simply saying “no.” Clarifying your goals, values and vision for your life and career is important. This will help you to determine whether to stay, but with a newfound sense of purpose, or take your skill set elsewhere.
Learning to say “no” to being too available and gaining more control over your daily life and career will give you the resiliency and confidence to protect yourself from burnout and to excel in your goals.
Once you’ve developed strategies to prevent or recover from burnout, developing executive presence is a logical next step. Often, it’s fine-tuning these skills that can help you attain the competitive edge you’re looking for in your career. You can read more about my approach to executive presence here
While coaches don’t diagnose, I have personally experienced severe burnout and recovered from it. I would never have been able to do it without the massive support of my wife, my friends and family and the professional services of a physician, naturopath, massage therapist, counselor and coach. If you haven’t reached the point of burnout yet, but recognize the signs, connecting for a few sessions with a career coach can help you get the clarity and establish the boundaries you need to prevent a full blown burnout.
A career coach will help you explore and define your professional career-related goals.
Through gaining clarity on your personal values, mission and vision, and how they align with your current work situation, you will discover a personal career path to pursue.
Learn more about what career coaching can do for you here
You’re welcome to book a Discovery Call on my calendar. This is informal and absolutely free of any obligation whatsoever. It’s an opportunity to get to know one another so I can gain an understanding of where you are and where you’d like to be.
In the meantime, take this short quiz to see whether your work and life are in balaance.
Brent Roy is an ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC)—a designation held by fewer than 5% of ICF-credentialed coaches and the only MCC in New Brunswick, Canada. With 30+ years in communications and leadership, he coaches senior leaders and mentors aspiring ICF coaches globally from Fredericton.
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