The Executive's Desk Guest Commentary 122nd year

www.abqjournal.com Business Outlook Thursday, August 8, 2002

Leaders Can Prevent Burn Out and Stay in the Game

"We accept no excuses, and neither should you. When it comes to preventing burnout, our motto is: Leader, lead yourself. " Michael H. Shenkman President, Keystone International, Inc., Strategic Development Group

By Michael H. Shenkman

“When you come right down to it, I’m fried,” said one of the leaders I talked to recently. “I just don’t have anything left to offer. It’s time to retire and play some serious golf.”

Heard that before? How do you feel when a leader you have admired leaves the scene? Sad? Like you’ve lost a friend? Like things will never be the same? When a good leader leaves, we all feel the loss. And we can’t afford to lose good leaders.

There are many reasons why people “retire” from leading: some need a change of scene, perspective or career; for others, the job is done; still others retire citing family, physical or psychological reasons. But the truth is, most of the decisions for abandoning leadership roles have burnout at their root.

We all know that leading is a difficult endeavor. So many people are counting on the leader’s emotional stability and energy, balance and perspective that leaders get buried in the nits of the work, they get swept up in the tide of events in a growing company, they expend every bit of emotional energy they have at the office. As a result, pieces of their lives go missing: families deteriorate, health declines, emotions get frayed, and patience diminishes.
“Aren’t these things just occupational hazards?” you might ask. No, they are not. There are things leaders can do that can keep them fresh and excited about their roles. The most effective recommendations our firm makes to leaders are:

1.Stop trying to prove yourself. How much energy do you expend second-guessing yourself? Stop. If you make mistakes, face them and move on. Most of all, if you believe it is the right thing for your organization, its people, its clients and customers, do it. It’s easy to criticize—especially yourself. Instead, do the harder thing: accept that the decision is worthy of your organization’s efforts. Acceptance takes practice, but it pays big dividends.
2. Enjoy the people you work with, and, if you don’t enjoy the people there now, hire people you will enjoy. The effective leaders I know have friends in their organizations who are trusted when discussing difficult subjects, provide opportunities for reflection or create opportunities for just sharing humor (the best cure of all).
3. Give shape and definition to your days. Stop putting out fires and chasing every little glitch. I don’t mean do the same routine everyday, but make sure that certain components of the job are things that you enjoy and that they are present and part of your workday.
4. Take time for yourself. And that means take time during the work day. Don’t do business lunches or eat at the desk every day. Take a walk, run, read a book, put on earphones and sit back and listen to music. Take days or parts of days to be by yourself, or spend time with friends or your family. Even an occasional round of golf can help.
5. Be a mentor to someone and find a mentor for yourself. Learning is one of the supreme ways we refresh ourselves, and mentoring keeps us in touch with important human values. It’s harder to get off track when you’re teaching someone else about what’s important in life.
6. Establish a life-enriching, creative practice and stick with it. By “practice” I mean a challenging activity that stretches your capabilities and takes time to master. One leader I know takes guitar lessons; another does rock climbing. Often, finding a teacher is the best way to get a discipline going and to track your progress. Since it also may establish a mentoring relationship, this idea kills two birds, so to speak.
7. If you have to leave the current position in order to assuage your restlessness, make the next opportunity one that you really care about – not just another job.

I know what you’re thinking: “Easier said than done.” And you are right. Still, when our firm’s clients implement these ideas, they make a difference; and all of these ideas have been proven possible and effective. We accept no excuses, and neither should you. When it comes to preventing burnout, our motto is: Leader, lead yourself.

By taking one or several of our suggestions, you can replenish the spirit, nourish the soul, excite the mind. Then, the job of leading can be new, fresh and exciting once again. Maybe not every day will be fun, but you’re more likely to feel once again that there isn’t anything besides leading that you’d rather be doing, and the golf course will just have to wait.

Michael Shenkman, Ph.D., is founder and president of the Arch of Leadership (www.archofleadership.com), a leader mentoring company. This article was adapted from his new book, The Arch and The Path, the Life of Leading Greatly (Sandia Heights Media, 2005).