As we return to the office post-pandemic, we are finding that engagement has taken a massive hit. We are finding that our people are change fatigued. We also have an uncertain future and there are impacts of the pandemic that we're going to feel long beyond the lockdowns and the restrictions.
Of course, this is having a flow on effect in our organisations. So many people are telling me at the moment their staff are burned out and that they too feel burned out. As leaders we’re too busy to lead and exhausted because we've spent the last two years supporting the team emotionally, whilst also trying to manage ourselves and our families through the uncertainty.
Engagement has taken a hit. The mass return to the office didn't go down too well when we'd all got a bit comfy and cosy at home. There's this feeling that we've got nothing left in the tank and we're talking about burnout a lot, but what are we actually doing about it?
The workshops and webinars that I've been running in organisations have surpassed my expectations, but also the feedback from the organisations in terms of a) the staff turn out and b) the engagement. Organisations have had more staff come along than is usual, and the engagement and desire to talk about this stuff has surprised us all which shows it's an issue, which shows it's something we need to address and something that can be fixed.
How? Well, it takes a new way of thinking. It also takes the acknowledgement of what's gone before and where we're at, so that we can then move forward and start looking at how do we be our best without burning out in the process. That's where the Burnout to Brilliance workshops can help.
The Burnout to Brilliance programme is available for your organisation in house. It’s designed to allow us to find more time, to battle the busyness and cut through the noise to do important work, to improve our focus. It helps us understand burnout and avoid it. It helps our teams improve their productivity and focus. To understand the habits of high performing people and how we can hack some of those habits to gain control of our schedule and to overcome some of the overwhelm that can happen when we get busy.
In these programmes we learn how to get more done in less time, improve our focus, re-energise so we always feel like we've got enough in the tank to do the work that's in front of us. To navigate the structure around what good looks like for us to be our best, and to work smarter rather than harder. Many staff are telling me that they feel a lack of focus right now, tired, exhausted even. Motivation has taken a hit and of course they wish it was different. We all want to perform at our peak but we’ve been spread too thin for too long. There's no room left for thinking space, creating, for strategic thinking. It’s easy to get frustrated when we know that we can be performing at our best, and yet we are not.
Do you feel like the batteries are a bit empty? The tank needs refueling? You're not alone. It's not uncommon. It's a bit like when your phone is on low power mode. We, the battery drops, we switch it onto low power mode. And yet we are still checking our messages, our emails, sending texts, ordering Ubers, in a hope that the phone doesn't die before we can get to a charging point. And that's a little bit like how we feel post COVID. We need to plug in to a charging point.
We are all wandering around on low power mode, wondering why we don't feel our best and why we're not performing at our best when we know we are capable of more. And yet there's just this feeling of I'm over it, I'm tired. This productivity guilt that then comes in. I know I'm capable of more, but I just haven't got the energy. We get frustrated with our loved ones because our tolerance levels have gone down. And that's all normal. It's also a sign that we need to take a break, that we’re feeling burned out.
Burned out staff will not perform at their peak, they will also not be engaged. We know that that has an impact on the bottom line. Retention will suffer as they won't be sticking around and there will be the obvious impact on productivity. To enable your team to perform at their peak, to re-energise, to re-engage, to press reset. We need a new way of thinking, a new way of doing things. To develop some practical strategies to wipe the slate clean, move forward and to be our best without burning out in the process. We blame COVID and say, well, now it will be different but there is this change fatigue. This COVID hangover that hangs over most of our organisations that we need to address.
Burnout to Brilliance is one way of doing that. Otherwise, without this support, it's like wading through treacle in an environment that's changed forever. So if you want to give your staff the renewed motivation and increase in productivity, the ability to focus, the perception of time to shift from the busyness, the noise, the distractions to performing at their peak, then I would love to share the Burnout to Brilliance programme with you.