3 Challenges Faced by Leadership that Can Reinforce Feeling Burned Out at Work

Here are 3 challenges faced by leadership that can reinforce feeling burned out at work. The first two come up quite regularly when I am discussing the organization with clients. 

Unreasonable expectations most often occurs in a situation where there is a boss over the executive making demands that truly are difficult to meet. 

Lack of Resources with an Expectation of Delivery can Contribute to Feeling Burned Out

A continual lack of resources can be a contributor to feelings of being burned out. When there's a constant expectation of delivery but not enough to draw from, it's pretty hard to reach objectives.

Sure, we've all pulled off 'the impossible' before. But when it is a chronic feature of the system, one day it will finally be too much. Work stress will spike.

This is one of the causes often linked with career fatigue and burnout. It really ties in with the overburdened to-do list and impractical or impossible time lines.

It's often too much to do, in too short a time, with too little resources. If we have nothing to draw on, if we don't have some margin on which to depend, it becomes very stressful trying to deliver. It's one of the challenges faced by leadership that can reinforce feeling burned out

Somebody didn't count the cost before moving forward. Somebody didn't factor this possibility into the mix. Some attitude or belief is present that is crippling a leader or professional from accomplishing their priorities. And maybe that leader is you.

If you want to know one important component in how to prevent burnout - give your key people the resources they need to get the job done right.

Executive Coaching Questions

1. As you look back on the occurrence of burnout amongst leaders in your organization, how much of a part did a lack of resources play?

2. How well does your organization fund the reaching of objectives? Are there hidden expectations to still deliver if the resources aren't actually there? What does that tell you? 

3. If this exists in your organization, what is the starting point for addressing it? When will you begin?  

Unwritten Agendas Provide Constant Frustration and Contribute to Feeling Burned Out at Work

I'm not sure it's entirely accurate, but it seems that hidden agendas often win out over stated company values. It certainly occurs .. a lot. Because it comes up with clients all the time. 

When do you know that posted workplace values don't match reality? When the actions of leadership don’t match their words. There is a disconnect between what is said and what is done or lived out by the senior leadership.

Great policies and procedures may be in place, but really only appear as lip-service. It may be very well-meaning but when it comes to meeting deadlines or production expectations or whatever else that creates a pinch, personal and family values may be the first thing to be jettisoned.

Of course the real killer are those "hidden" (or not) agendas of individuals who have the authority and control. Maybe their personal "stuff" gets in the way of good management.

Maybe someone is on a power trip, seeing every task and interaction as a contest, the other person as the enemy, and winning as everything. This can be really hard to deal with for any leader or professional.

This may work its way up and down the responsibility ladder, having all levels of management coping with stress. For some it will be a key factor that leads to workplace burnout.

Executive Coaching Questions

1. What counterproductive agendas do you feel are at play in your work environment? Are they organizational or personal? What are they causing to happen? 

2. What control do you have in affecting change? Organizationally? With the troublesome individual?  

3. Where do you go next in thinking about this, and even taking action on it? 

Unreasonable Expectations and Demands Contribute to Leadership Burnout in the Workplace

Keep giving a person an impossible to do list and burnout will inevitably come. Think about that: the impossible and the inevitable.

Talk about a toxic to do list. One of my clients had major responsibility to oversee and move forward over 50 projects at one time. Few knew about the load he was carrying. Everyone just saw their little piece of the pie. And this in a Fortune 100 company.

Clearly, nobody gave attention to stress and time management as serious concepts.

These impractical or impossible expectations just keep coming and they suck the life out of some of the best people the organization has.

Every week I coach men and women who want to move forward significant causes, projects and programs. But the lists they work from are so long it cripples them. And that means they have no sense of how to best move forward. The list buries them every night.

I suppose there are many reasons for it but it does seem that an increasing number of leaders and executives are working with or handing down very impractical or totally impossible time lines and deadlines. It takes Herculean efforts to meet them. Often it happens because someone is watching their own backside (read 'politics' and 'fear') and pushing work and responsibility on down the line.

If we don't have enough time to properly produce results for which we must take responsibility, it produces tension. Job related stress and burnout may be inevitable. Because it happens again and again, the frustration builds and people look for another environment to work in.

Putting out a tight deadline is one thing. Great people can rise to the occasion and make it happen. But being unreasonable is totally another thing and only serves to create inefficiency, poor results and frustrated people.

To counter these challenges faced by leadership that can reinforce feeling burned, new strategies have to be explored.

Executive Coaching Questions

1. How reasonable or unreasonable is your organization when it comes to the number of "priorities" each leader or professional must be dealing with at any one time?  

2. What is the prevailing attitude that allows this reality to keep surfacing? What's the difference between it and the instance of an "for-real" low producing leader who really does need a wake-up call?  

3. Where are there areas in your organization that could be addressed, that might foster a better environment for great people to better achieve great things? If there are challenges faced by leadership that can reinforce feeling burned out, do everything you can to eliminate them.

Recapping 3 Challenges Faced by Leadership that Can Reinforce Feeling Burned Out at Work

• It's beyond hard to deliver when faced with a constant lack of resources. The leader wants to give it their best but keeps running into a lack. Consider how you resource reaching good objectives. 

• The unwritten agendas are silent (or maybe not so silent) killers. Often they are hard to root out, but in the meantime they demotivate and frustrate key leaders. Don't let an unwritten agenda dominate. If it's valid, write it down. If not, jetison it, and perhaps the individual who tries to enforce it to their private and needy advantage. 

• The impossible will always meet the inevitable. Good leaders want to be focused and achieving those things that matter. For that they need clarity, resources and space to get those things done. Constantly pulling focus from "priority" to "priority" doesn't contribute to efficiency or effectiveness. Find a better way.

All three of these challenges faced by leadership that can reinforce feeling burned out, turn up regularly in my executive coaching conversations.

I'd encourage you to give pause for thought at what your organization can do to create optimal environments for leadership to thrive and deliver. It may only take some relatively small adjustments to make a huge difference.

Other Reflections on Coaching in This Series

• 3 Unwritten Core Values That Can Contribute to Burnout
• 3 Ways for Improving Employee Engagement While Avoiding Burnout
• 3 Ways for Building a Culture that Prevents Leader Burnout