10 Tips For Helping Employees Be Driven, Not Drained In 2021

Tuning into employee’s psychological energy and why leaders must manage it wisely

It’s 2021 and while we are thankfully making great strides in combatting the Covid-19 pandemic, there is another pandemic that is still in full swing.  It’s more subtle and less immediately deadly, but perhaps even more insidious.  What is it? Burnout.

If the thought “I just can’t even right now” has crossed your mind recently at work, you’ve at least got the gist of what burnout feels like. And while burnout is a feeling, it has very real, very practical effects. In fact, a 2017 study found that burnout led to an increased likelihood of coronary and cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal pain, respiratory challenges, and even premature death. And of course, even if there are no immediately observable physical effects, organizations will soon find that burnout will drive an exodus of talent, as Goldman Sachs recently found out the hard way.

Burnout happens when you run out of the physical, mental, and emotional energy needed to work, and the Covid-19 pandemic has only served to exacerbate it. Two separate studies found that since the pandemic started, burnout rates have increased between 48 and 64 percent.  Another study found that the top three reasons behind this burnout spike are loss of work-life boundaries, increased workload, and increased hours.
 

To be sure, the technological innovations that have enabled many to find new ways of working from home have been essential to keeping businesses and the broader economy running.  But these same innovations blur the lines and break down boundaries between work and life, personal and professional, “on” and “off”. Crying babies don’t respect Zoom calls, after all. 

And anything that is “always on” is always going to be at risk of running out of energy – including people.

So, as we continue to move into this more stressful, boundaryless world with fewer and fewer opportunities to re-energize, we are left with this question:

“How can we help our talent manage energy so they stay engaged, high-performing, and burnout-proof, even in the most stressful of situations?”

Stop the Energy Drain

Burnout occurs when employees feel as if (1) they are unable to do their job, (2) they have nothing left to give, and (3) that things will not improve. These three together drain employee motivation and energy.  It is a key responsibility of leaders and organizations to fight this drain.

1. Make work doable. Let’s start with the most obvious – and most overlooked – a tactic for fighting burnout. If you are making unreasonable demands of your employees (and “unreasonable” can be considered anything where demands outstrip resources), you are burning your people out. Make sure that the demands you are placing on your people are at least on par with the resources you are providing.

2. Praise freely and frequently. People gain energy when they see their efforts are actually having a positive effect. Conversely, they lose energy when they start wondering whether there is any point to expending effort. To fight this, offer clear praise for effort and accomplishments. Help people see that everything they do is contributing to progress and wins.

3. Lead with hope. Burnout also happens when people get stuck in a rut of thinking that, no matter what changes, things are not likely to get better. You can help fight this aspect of burnout by showing employees where things are headed, and what you are doing to improve the situation. Knowing that there is a light at the end of tunnel won’t fix everything, but it will slow the energy drain. 

4. Avoid toxic positivity. One mistake leaders can make in seeking to stop the energy drain is to lead with unrelenting positivity. This kind of positivity can be “toxic” because it makes employees feel guilty or wrong for feeling burnt-out (think of it as a form of gaslighting). It can also come across as inauthentic or clueless, as if leaders are denying reality. Any of these can exacerbate cynicism and burnout. Acknowledge the challenges, and move forward.

Tailor Your Leadership Approach

To take your burnout-proofing to the next level, you’ll want to tailor your approach to your employees’ motivational needs. 

5. Know what drives (and drains) your people. While there are common factors that cause burnout, every employee is different. Burnout occurs when the gap between demands and resources is too large for too long, but different people have different “gap needs.” Some may actually feel energized by the challenge of a demand-resource gap. Similarly, some need lots of recognition and clarity to maintain energy, while others may feel embarrassed by too much praise. Leverage techniques like active listening and tools like motivational and drivers assessments to understand what your people are motivated by, on a person-by-person basis.

6. Lead with empathy and grace. You might be tempted to think of motivationally “low maintenance” employees as being more valuable. They do, after all, require fewer resources on your end to manage. However, by over-valuing employees that are stereotypically more “resilient,” you may miss out on the benefits that a more psychologically diverse workforce can bring. And as the boundaries between work and personal lives continue to blur, employees who can consistently give you 60, 80, 100 hours a week with minimal support or motivation are going to be harder and harder to come by.

7. Keep your motivational data fresh. Times are not static, and neither are people. It is not enough to typecast people and then assume that one leadership tactic will always be appropriate for that “type” of person. A person who typically enjoys solving problems by talking them out with others may, for one of a hundred reasons, begin feeling frustrated by that exact dynamic. Collect ongoing feedback from your employees about what you are doing that is working (or not working) for your employees. You can do this through one of many listening and survey platforms, or if you have created a psychologically safe environment, through informal one-on-one conversations.

Empower Your Talent to Re-energize

Organizational context and leadership are major factors in creating a burnout-proof workforce, but at the end of the day, burnout is experienced at the individual level. Individual people take actions and think thoughts that either contribute to, or help mitigate, the feeling of burnout. So, to create a burnout-proof workforce in this increasingly burnout-prone environment, you’ll want to help individual people take charge of their own motivational energy.

8. Enhance employees’ burnout-awareness. As with many things, the first step toward addressing a problem is acknowledging there is a problem to address. When employees understand what causes burnout and that it is a common problem, they will be better equipped to identify the warning signs of burnout and address it before it becomes a major problem. 

9. Develop employees’ driver-awareness.  Knowing when you are burning out is part of the solution, but wouldn’t it be nice to know how to keep your energy levels high? It’s a bit more complicated than simply listing out the things you like and do not like to do, because of cognitive biases like affective forecasting and confirmation bias. However, scientifically validated motivational and drivers assessments can help employees cut through the noise of their own biases and identify the things that will re-energize them.

10. Make it safe to ask for help – before there is a crisis. While leaders can (and should) be listening for signs of burnout, it is the people who are actually experiencing burnout who are most qualified for raising the “I need help” flag. However, expecting people to ask for help is difficult for two reasons. One, once an employee is fully burnt-out, they typically lack the motivational energy needed to ask for help. Two, organizations often glorify burnout-inducing practices like working longer hours, being always-on and hyper-responsive, always having “the answer”, and never admitting ignorance. Perfectionistic, achievement-driven cultures where employees wear burnout like a badge of honor will of course discourage people from admitting they need help. Flip the script by encouraging people to seek (and offer) support early and often.

Burnout may be an insidious pandemic, but fortunately, we have the vaccine. By leveraging advancements in organizational, leadership, and psychological sciences you can help your employees, teams, and organizations be driven, motivated, engaged, and sustainably high-performing in 2021 and beyond. 

Author Bio

Christopher Coultas is the Vice President of Product Innovation and a Senior Leadership Consultant at Leadership Worth Following, LLC. He personifies the scientist-practitioner model in the fast-growing field of industrial-organizational psychology. He has coached hundreds of leaders and dozens of teams on how to leverage enhanced self-awareness for optimal leadership impact. His forthcoming book with Leadership Worth Following, Driven Not Drained: Discover Your Path to Career Happiness, Effectiveness, and Influence is a candid, engaging, and comprehensive look at both the science and practical application behind human behavior. Visit https://worthyleadership.com/  Connect Christopher Coultas