From Burnout to Balance: The Role of a Burnout Coach for Leaders
How a Burnout Coach Can Revolutionize Your Leadership Journey
As a leader, what happens when burnout hits? Are you able to spot the signs of burnout and know when you need support from a burnout coach? With so much vying for your attention, this may not be easy.
Paradoxically, you may also have trouble seeing the signs and getting help precisely because you are a leader. People assume that you should excel at time management and be “beyond” burnout. You may even feel some shame about needing help: if people think you can’t manage your own life, how can you lead others? Better, you think, to push the warning signs of burnout away and work even harder and longer–but burnout just gets worse.
Many people assume that healing burnout requires taking time off, but as this seems impossible when you are so busy, that is not a very helpful belief. The good news it that there is more efficient way to get over burnout, and one that doesn’t take much time. What you need is a more nuanced understanding of time management.
"If time is life, what are you doing with yours?"
Carmel Moore
Your Burnout Check-Up
Signs that you can benefit from a burnout coach:
- Overwhelmed
You feel buried under responsibilities and you’re struggling to find time for rest and recreation. You are using words like “crazy busy,” “drowning,” or “swamped.” You feel that things are moving faster than you can handle, or you fear being left behind. This sense of being overwhelmed can itself cause diminished productivity and poor decision-making. A burnout coach will help you reassess your responsibilities and develop strategies to regain control and balance. - Difficulty Disconnecting
You are always on “work alert”–checking emails and responding to text messages–even in your personal time. Your inability to disconnect stops you from relaxing and undermines your relationships–you may not even take “personal time” or proper vacations. A burnout coach will help you establish stronger boundaries that allow you to better serve your colleagues and clients, and also take care of yourself and your family. - Exhausted
You experience chronic fatigue, irritability, and mood swings. Your sleep is poor. Sometimes you can’t even think straight. These symptoms indicate you’re running on empty, not allowing yourself sufficient rest, recovery, and “down” time–which is actually necessary to sleep well. Prolonged high-stress periods can lead to physical illness and emotional exhaustion, making it difficult to maintain a high level of performance and killing your zest for life. A burnout coach will help you design better strategies to manage stress and protect the time you need for rest, recovery, and what gives you pleasure–helping you be more resilient and get your energy back. - Neglecting Personal Needs
You repeatedly prioritize work over exercise, sleep, or family time—a surefire path to health problems. We all need regular physical activity, adequate sleep, and meaningful personal connections to maintain balance and well-being. A burnout coach will assist you in making time for personal needs–building a life that is both productive and healthy. - Declining Performance
Despite putting in even more effort and even more time, you see your performance dropping. This happens because burnout erodes your capacity for clear thinking, creative thinking, and effective problem solving. A burnout coach will help you identify the root causes of performance issues, and find solutions to enhance your productivity and think creatively about the future. - Strained Relationships
The demands of leadership can strain personal and professional relationships–leading to isolation, reduced support, and shallow (or weak) networks. You are “going through the motions” with people, rather than feeling genuine empathy. But relationships must be strong for your happiness and success.. A burnout coach offers guidance on how to manage time and energy so that you can support and connect with those important to you. - Diminished Health
You are suffering from health problems such as muscle tension, neck and back aches, insomnia, anxiety, migraines–or you are noticing unhealthy behaviors such as overeating or overdrinking. All these could be signs of burnout. Addressing these health concerns through targeted burnout coaching can help you develop strategies to manage stress and prevent more serious health problems in the future. - Unfulfilled Life
You keep skipping activities that you enjoy or you are lacking a sense of purpose. This feeling of being unfillfiled can further diminish your motivation, energy, and engagement. A burnout coach helps realign your work and your values and find the “juice and the joy” in every area of life. - Lost Perspective
Overwhelmed by daily tasks, you struggle to focus on long-term goals. Exhaustion clouds your ability to see the bigger picture–you focus on minor issues rather than strategic priorities. A burnout coach assists you in regaining perspective, setting clear long-term intentions and maintaining focus on what truly matters.
The Vicious Cycle
Burnout can become a vicious cycle. For example, burnout can result in poor sleep which then impacts your decision-making, personal life, and productivity. This then causes you more stress and more burnout. By intervening now to implement “burnout prevention,” you’ll break the cycle and develop sustainable strategies for managing your life effectively.
What Is Burnout Coaching?
We start by quickly helping you get a grip–freeing up at least a bit more time in your calendar. But ultimately, for senior executives, our coaching is more than just “time management” or quick fixes.
We help you rethink your fundamental approach to leadership and to work so that everything you do works better.
Have you developed unproductive habits? Does your calendar look like the calendar of a leader or a follower? Is your approach to time management failing you, now that you have a more senior role? Are there underlying beliefs that are limiting your effectiveness and happiness?
We can also help you improve the way your team or indeed your whole organization is handling many aspects of work, such as deadlines, urgency, and prioritization–shared behaviors that may be pushing everyone–not just you–to burnout.
As experienced burnout coaches, our services include:
- Calendar Coaching™: Calendar Coaching™ is a personalized coaching program for senior leaders that goes straight to the crunch point: your calendar. We sit alongside you, analyze your scheduling practices, and help you to delegate better, improve meetings, and, finally, find time for what matters.
- TimeFraming™: We train you and your team to become highly intentional about time, generate powerful alignment for every meeting, and be sure that you have set up the conditions for success, so that you can make the most for every block of time.
- Question Urgency™: In your teams, a culture of presumed urgency makes people dispirited and exhausted. Our rapid intervention–Question Urgency–assesses how time is (mis) communicated in your teams. We give you quick, practical tools to clarify deadlines, give everything the time it needs, and focus on what is truly urgent or important.
The Benefits of Hiring a Burnout Coach
- Enhanced Performance
A burnout coach helps you improve decision-making and productivity, maintain peak performance levels, boost effectiveness, and drive impact within your organization. - Reduced Stress
A burnout coach helps you avoid the negative effects of chronic stress, gives you effective skills for stress management, and ensures that you design and maintain a healthy work-life balance. - Improved Engagement and Retention
A leader’s ability to balance their work and personal life sets the tone for the entire organization. A burnout coach can help you think through the behavior you are modeling for your people. When you prioritize work-life balance, this demonstrates a commitment to employee well-being and fosters a positive work culture. This leads to higher levels of engagement and retention. - Enhanced Effectiveness
Being an effective and inspirational leader depends on being on top of your time. You have to find time for self-reflection, learning, strategic visioning, and innovative thinking. Burnout coaching supports the development of critical leadership capacities such as emotional intelligence, resilience, efficiency, and prioritization. - Improved Empathy
By addressing your own needs, you gain the empathy and insight necessary to support and lead your team effectively. You can choose to make time for building relationships, listening, and coaching your team. - Mitigated Risk
Investing in burnout coaching mitigates risks associated with burnout–safety failures, poor decision-making, and high turnover. Addressing burnout proactively helps prevent gaps in leadership and maintain organizational stability: you’re no good to anyone if you collapse. - Improved Organizational Health
Maintaining a strong commitment to employee well-being will enhance your company’s reputation and attract top talent. By publicly supporting burnout recovery initiatives, your organization demonstrates its commitment to a positive and supportive work environment.
At the One Moment Company, we envision a world where time is life well spent. Discover how our leadership programs can help you and your team find time for what truly matters. Ready to begin your journey toward a balanced life, free from burnout? Contact us today to learn more.
News and Articles
As a leader, what happens when burnout hits? Are you able to spot the signs of burnout and know when you need support from a burnout coach? With so much vying for your attention, this may not be easy. The good news it that there is more efficient way to get over burnout, and one that doesn’t take much time.
For leaders, work-life balance professional coaching means looking first at how you are leading. Have you accumulated toxic habits? Is your “operating model” out of date? Is the way you are managing time appropriate for a leader of your level … or are you still acting as if you were at a lower level? What are the hidden beliefs that constrain your effectiveness and your ability to enjoy your life and your work? Take our "work life balance audit" here ...
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