Leaders Discuss Ways to Prevent Burnout + Lead Thriving Teams
In honor of it being #MentalHealthAwareness month, ModelExpand hosted a panel with leaders from Shopify, Salesforce, and Netflix to lead a dialogue on this very topic and how they support their teams and themselves to create dynamics that help everyone stay engaged, grow and thrive at work.
You can find the recording below as well as tools and resources on how to support yourself and your team in the workplace!
Click play to watch the Event Recording below
Tip #1: Recognize signs of burnout
As a leader, it’s important to build trust with your employees so you recognize when something is off.
Get to know your team members and how they show up to work everyday. What motivates them? What drains them?
Keep an eye on if an employee’s productivity and performance takes a hit or when you see less engagement in meetings. 1-1s can also be a way to gauge signals of burnout - less enthusiasm, missed deadlines and lower quality of work are signals.
Tip #2: Create an environment of psychological safety, trust, and belonging
To create a team culture that is healthy, collaborative, and engaged, it’s important to build that trust and celebrate recognition.
With every team meeting, be sure that all voices are heard by opening discussion up to the group - do a round robin of idea sharing of how people are doing, what’s going well, areas of growth.
Give kudos and praises - both within your team and cross-functional teams. This can be through Slack posts, crafting time in a team or all-hands meetings.
Tip #3: Keep your teams engaged and invested
Create Structure: Keep teams engaged through predictability, especially given the ever-changing norms we seem to be in. Build structure and rubrics to set your team up for success (ex: quarterly business review), regular team meetings, and clear goals/check-ins.
Over-communicate: Focus on visibility through regular status updates on what folks are working on. Keep all members regularly updated through common channels. Use tools and spreadsheets to have clear roadmaps, lists, and priorities for the team and for each individual contributor.
Initiate intentional moments of connection: Post icebreaker questions to get to know your team more. Example prompt: What show are you watching on Netflix? What is your snack of choice while watching? Connecting on both a professional and personal level helps with building stronger bonds especially as workplaces adopting office flex models.
Tip #3: Maintain progress and sustain momentum
Set healthy boundaries. Create calendar blocks for project focus or personal time. Take lunch breaks away from the screen.
Prioritize your work by taking a step back to reflect and list out: what’s going well, not going well, can be put on a pause or removed completely.
Tip #4: Help people recognize and cope with feeling burnout
When an employee is already in a state of burnout, ask questions, actively listen, and help them understand that this isn’t a good path to be on. Help them create healthier boundaries.
Examples can be snoozing notifications on Slack after a certain hour, encouraging them to take time off to rest and recharge, help them find coping skills like spending time with family or friends, listening to a podcast, or anything to get them to a better foundation of being grounded.
Tip #5: Provide resources and empower teams to support one another
Craft events and programs focused on team collaboration, wellbeing, and support.
Host team-centered workshops where you allow employees to take a step back and share what’s working, not working, roadblocks - and empower teams to work together to collectively support one another.
Have intentional no-meeting days where taking time off is encouraged or providing time to focus on projects that bring excitement.
Provide employees with mentorship circles, demo days to celebrate wins, and events focused on physical and mental wellbeing
Resources:
If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?
The Cycle of Commitment - Coordinating Action to Get Results
Enjoyed this event? Sign up for the next Women in Leadership Breakfast Series: How To Build Your Leadership Brand + Executive Presence happening on September 16th, 9:00am-10:15am PT. Register below!
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