How To Help Your Team With Burnout When You’re Burnt Out

Burnout is a real problem for many entrepreneurs, teams, and companies. There can be numerous reasons for it, but there are just as many things you can do to deal with the actual burnout. It might be difficult at first, but here is how to help your team with burnout when you are burnt out yourself.

1. Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

One of the most important things to remember about burnout is that it can be both a local and a more widespread phenomenon. This means that certain individuals in your company can experience burnout and your team as a whole can too. This is why it is so crucial to integrate your employees into the work process with the help of teamwork and collaboration.

You need to show your workers that fighting burnout is much easier when they do it together rather than attempting it on their own. Each of your team members needs to help others in difficult situations, delegating tasks in certain projects, and keeping communication open. It’s just as the proverb goes: “Teamwork makes the dream work.”

2. Prioritize Your Own Health

That being said, it is important that you prioritize your own health before you can worry about your team. After all, if you get rid of your own burnout, you will be able to help others. Try to focus on your own mental and physical health issues before turning to other employees in your organization who need your help and support. Remember that it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon, and taking your time to take care of yourself is leading by example.

To do this, identify what caused you to burn out in the first place, and then eliminate the causes. Need more time to yourself? Need to have structure to your day? Create a schedule for fun things for you. Make sure to sign off at a certain time.

Next, once you have eliminated the causes, exhaustion needs to go away and should be replaced with a more energetic state. Think sustainable and energizing. Once you have succeeded in this, you can now focus your attention on other employees.

3. Be Compassionate

The key to understanding the reasons for burnout in your employees is being compassionate. It might sound like an over-exaggeration, but empathy can actually work wonders, especially if you are genuine about it. Always try to understand what your employees are feeling and put yourself in their place to get better perspective.

Emotions are an integral part of burnout – rather, they are one of the main causes. It’s not that you need to get rid of all emotions, but you have to teach your team members to communicate or express their emotions when it is necessary. To put it simply, being aware of the emotions and seeing new ways to cope is a great way to control it so to speak and it can help prevent burnout.

4. Speak Up on Behalf of Your Team

Dealing with burnout will differ depending on the role you play in your business or the position you have in your organization. If you are a CEO, then you will likely be on your own when dealing with burnout. But if you are a manager, for example, then you will need to deal with burnout both with the people above and below you. It sounds harsh, but it’s true.

You need to speak up on behalf of your team and have good communication with your boss. Try to be the one who gets the information from your colleagues to your boss and back again. If you can manage this responsibility, you’ll realize that a significant amount of stress will be lifted from your employees and they will feel better.

5. Remain Optimistic

It sounds easier said than done but remaining optimistic is really important if you want to succeed in dealing with burnout. Negative thoughts, unnecessary worries, and anxiety can all contribute to your constant state of exhaustion. At the same time, it will negatively affect your colleagues, team members, and so on. Just don’t be stupid about it – instead, be cautious, be aware, and try to get to where those negative thoughts are coming from. 

Our brains can often create an internal dialog of negative thoughts, either to force us to play it safe or if we’re feeling insecure. Try to remind yourself to assess the reality of a situation, rather than listening to that negative-flight tendency.

6. Focus on The Causes of The Issue

As a reminder: focus on the causes of the issue. By merely looking at the consequences, you will not only be likely to waste your time, but you will also notice that you are not actually doing anything to deal with burnout. You’re just patching it up temporarily. Remember: marathon, not a sprint.

Direct your attention to the core of the problem. What caused the exhaustion? Did burnout just hit unexpectedly, or did you arrive at this state gradually? You will need to work through this one stage after the other – there is no way to just get rid of it right away. Stay dedicated and you will eventually figure something out. Think of a work-life balance that’s a little more sustainable, that fuels you, and doesn’t keep taking from you.

Writer Frank Hamilton has been working as an editor at review service Online Writers Rating. He is a professional writing expert in such topics as blogging, digital marketing and self-education. He also loves traveling and speaks Spanish, French, German and English.