3 Areas of Coaching to Improve Company Culture and Employee Engagement While Avoiding Burnout at Work

Here, we look at three areas to address or improve company culture and employee engagement while avoiding burnout at work.

They are most certainly not the only three, but all of these have come up as discussions during coaching with the executives that I serve. 

They are:

1. Having a voice at the table
2. Having the ability to make decisions
3. Having a match between workplace and personal values

Having a Voice at the Table

It's discouraging when you find out you don't have a voice at work. You might have come into the organization thinking that you would.

Over time, this can serve to feed into burnout. You may see things that would be tremendously valuable for the organization to move forward but your opinion doesn't matter.

Whether it's increasing productivity, streamlining operations or taking care of staff, you feel like you are talking into the wind or banging into the wall of company politics.

If you have the sense that your views are not being heard or that no one cares to listen anyway, you tend to stop speaking.

There are times when people's voices are simply lost in the politics of the organization. People in the organization tend to move toward the lowest common denominator of involvement and engagement. And that’s not good for the organization or the individual.

We need to have a sense that our presence, our contribution and what we have to say is important.

Good job stress management says we need to listen to people. One of the sure burnout symptoms is the insistence that, "it doesn't matter what I say."

Executive Coaching Questions

1. How well does your organization create opportunity for leaders and senior-level professionals to give input into those things that feel major decision-making?  

2. If this would be helpful, what barriers exist that seem to be hindering it from happening? 

3. What can you begin doing to create more opportunity for having a voice at the table? How would this improve company culture and employee engagement while avoiding burnout? 

Having the Ability to Make Decisions

Burnout and decision making inability are often found together. It may be real or perceived.

When you believe you are going to be held accountable for results but you do not have ability to control the process, it can be very stressful.

Over time and in combination with other factors, it is often one of the contributing causes of burnout on the job for many key leaders and professionals.

When you make a decision that you feel is important in order to reach good results but you are not the only one who has final say in the process and your decision can be modified or nullified, you get the sense that good results are out of your control.

Having the ability to make personal decisions and to control a process for things which you will be held accountable for is very important. Is it always possible? Probably not, especially in larger organizations, but it is one of the leading contributors to burnout.

If you are in charge, don't let your key people be diminished by a loss of decision making ability. Make sure they have as much control as possible. This extension of autonomy will probably be well rewarded.

Executive Coaching Questions

1. In your organization, how well do the people who are most impacted by the answers, get to make the decisions? 

2. Who might be making more decisions than is needed, and who is that affecting? How?  

3. What steps could be taken to authorize more decision-making at the desk where it most makes the difference? How will you start this happening?

Having a Match Between Workplace and Personal Values

Is there a connection between workplace values and burnout? Absolutely there is.

No matter what the organization, it's relatively easy to sense that 'something else' or some other agenda is more important than what is best for people. It's a subtle link, but that doesn't mean it's not true.

I suppose it is a human trait to wonder where we stand in the real pecking order of an organization.

Who really has the decision-maker’s ear? What are the really important things in the company or organization and where do I stand in relationship to them?

When people have the perception that things are more important than they are, it produces stress.

We ask ourselves, "In this organization, what is more important than me?"

When we determine that overtime, the bottom line, money, favoritism or number of other things take precedence, it can be a discouraging insight. It's not very motivating to find out that things are more important than you are.

And don't be fooled by "low stress" jobs. Where you have people, you will have dominant values. If there is a serious mismatch between personal and group or organizational values, stress and job burnout will be more likely.

Executive Coaching Questions

1. What or whose agenda is most important in your everyday workplace culture? Is there a mismatch between that agenda and the stated company adenda? What is the difference?

2. What or who is the source of this mismatch? How is the personal agenda clashing with personal values? 

3. While it might not be easy to root out, what can be done to create a better alignment of workplace and personal values? In what way(s) could this improve company culture and employee engagement while avoiding burnout? 

Recapping Three Things That Could Improve Company Culture and Employee Engagement While Avoiding Burnout 

• Having a voice at the table gives the leader and professional the confidence that their input matters. 
• Having the authority to make a decision without having someone else always make it for you gives you agency. You are an integral part of making good things happen. 
• Where workplace and personal values are in alignment, energy is released. It contributes to focus and momentum. 
• Pay attention to any or all of these and you could improve company culture and employee engagement while avoiding burnout at work.

Other Reflections on Coaching in This Series

• 3 Unwritten Core Values That Can Contribute to Burnout
• 3 Challenges Faced by Leadership Leading to Signs of Burnout
• 3 Ways for Building a Culture that Prevents Leader Burnout