Work overload and 5 other triggers that guarantee painful and costly burnout. Learn how to recognize them before it is too late.

Many people believe that the only cause for burnout is working too much and being overwhelmed with work. 

But this, in fact, is not true. This is precisely why taking time off to rest and relax does not do the trick and does not help to avoid burnout in the end.

The researchers identified six triggers for burnout.

They emphasize that all these triggers have their source in the mismatch between the job environment and the person. 

The reason for you to dive deeper into each of these triggers is twofold. 

First:

you as a business leader want to stay vigilant for your own sake and recognize that you're approaching a danger zone way before it is too late. You are too valuable for the business to fall out for months, aren't you? 

Second:

you want to quickly identify when there is a mismatch between the job environment and what your team members require to thrive. 

Again, consider the cost of replacement of one of your key employees: search process, recruitment, and onboarding. But also think of the impact of additional workload on the rest of the team and you. 

Are you getting the picture? 

The more awareness you have around the idea of burnout, the easier it will be for you to spot it by yourself and others in the early stage. Remember that it tends to creep on gradually until it is too late to turn around. 

So let's look at each of the triggers one by one. 

Trigger 1: Work overload. 

This trigger is pretty well-known to everyone. It gets activated when the workload gets overwhelming: it gets too much, requires more time, is pressing, and gets too complex.

Because it leads to physical and mental exhaustion, it quickly takes a toll on performance. So the immediate response is to put in more hours to compensate and bring more performance, which leads to more exhaustion, which leads to chronic health problems and burnout after a prolonged time. 

Take time to look at the workload from different perspectives: 

what is high-value work that brings the organization closer to achieving the big goals, and what is just busyness? 

What is seriously urgent? 

What can we postpone or eliminate to create space for high-value work?

Also, learn and teach your team members about focus, unitasking, and unlocking the flow state, and eliminate all that does not align with the company's goals. 

Learn and model how to rest to recharge effectively. 

Watch this space - I will be talking more about recovery in the coming videos. 

Trigger 2. Lack of control

This trigger gets activated when you feel you're out of control; you have nothing to say when deciding what to do, when, and how.  

In some businesses, the policies and procedures prevent employees from using their brains and creatively solving problems. 

And guess what - over time, the employees stop using their brains. 

Then the managers feel they have to do the job of their people or tell them exactly what to do, how, and when, and fall into the trap of micromanagement. 

And this leads to the feeling of further lack of control. 

Vicious cycle. 

Take some time and evaluate how much control you and your team members have now and how much more autonomy you could create, so you all can thrive. 

And a tiny sidenote for you - more autonomy leads to more creativity and innovation. So you might really spend some time figuring out where to create more freedom for your team.

Trigger 3. Insufficient rewards 

This trigger gets activated when you are not compensated fairly for your work or feel taken for granted. 

Pay raises, promotions, and even job security are not as they used to be for many people.   

Also, the significant impact here might be the feeling that your job is not enjoyable anymore. It is all connected.  

So take your time and consider the extrinsic and intrinsic motivators here. 

And pay more attention to the specific needs of your people. Every person is motivated a bit differently and will evaluate the rewards accordingly. 

Trigger 4. Absence of fairness

This trigger gets activated by lacking trust, openness, and mutual respect.

It starts when some high-performing individuals are left behind or omitted for promotion because of favoritism, 

when management decisions cannot be trusted because they are not made in the best interest of all involved, 

when a newly hired team member is not the best candidate but a family member of the hiring manager,

when the high-performing employee gets fired, and the less effective one stays because his manager has more power,

and so on. 

Take a critical look at your organization. Where could you increase trust, foster honest communication, and bring more respect into your work environment?

Trigger 5. Breakdown of the community

As soon as there is no focus on people, personal relationships, and teamwork, the breakdown of community is in sight, 

and with it - more conflict, more gossiping, less support, less feedback, and less respect. 

People focus on short-term profits and job security and feel more and more isolated. 

A toxic culture emerges and drains emotionally all stuck in it.

Take some time to look at your team. 

Where could you strengthen the sense of belonging, build trust, and foster healthy conflict resolution to make it a high-performing team?

Trigger 6. Values conflict

This trigger might get activated if the individual values don't correspond anymore or even get in conflict with the company's values.  

As a business leader, you need to clearly and repeatedly communicate your organization's values. 

Yes, you need to become this broken record. 

The clearer you express them in the recruiting process, the easier it is to avoid hiring a person with mismatching values and prevent burnout deriving from this mismatch later on. 

Sometimes, new misaligned recruits might impact the values and culture when the leaders don't pay attention. Unfortunately, this often happens over time and unnoticed. 

So take your organization under a magnifying glass for some time. 

Gather feedback from your team members on their understanding of the organization's values and ensure everyone is on the same page. 

Learn to identify the trigger, and you will be able to find the appropriate measure to prevent burnout. 

Burnout creeps on over a prolonged time. 

However, there are many signals in the environment that - when caught in time - can help you prevent it and all its consequences. 

Which potential trigger do you think you need to tackle first?