Self-determined work with a portion of leeway is an effective firewall against burnout. This is why leaders in executive management are far more seldom afflicted with the illness than their mid or lower-level colleagues. The higher a leader’s position in the hierarchy, the less susceptible she is to burnout. Simply put, people in leadership positions enjoy more control when it comes to executing their tasks or overseeing the people they work with, for example. This feeling of having things “under control” helps protect them from mental strains like stress, fear or, as our study now shows, burnout.[1] Recognizing the risk early on, the tech company Google introduced their 20% Project rule even before their IPO in 2004. The rule allows employees to work on and get paid for personal projects during work hours, increasing innovations and company potential. Thusly, Google Mail and AdSense were born.[2]
Self-fulfillment is yet another safeguard against burnout, i.e. the feeling that your innate competence is capable of successfully carrying out assignments. Hardly anything is more emotionally debilitating than permanent overwhelm at your workplace. This, too, is a leader’s responsibility. You are called on to ensure your employees are given tasks appropriate to their skills and abilities – or see to it that they receive the proper training and qualification. To be on the safe side, we’ll once more mention that in today’s incredibly fast-paced world, constant advanced education should be routine practice. On top of everything else, you cannot expect your people to keep step with permanently shifting internal and external demands. An emerging new computer program, inhouse restructuring or, as we saw in the last chapter, promoting an employee without making sure he has the proper qualifications for the new position. Not only is he destined to gloriously fail, he will also overburden anyone involved. You are a leader and are obligated to be a good role model, unceasingly working on yourself as well as providing and actively offering your workers advanced education and qualifications.
You need to know that burnout is not a selective illness. With the proper negligence, burnout can afflict individual employees, an entire team or even your whole company. This erases the predisposition argument when not only one person becomes ill, but then the next and the next until the whole department or business is shut down due to burnout.
In their book, Das hält keiner bis zur Rente durch!/You’ll never make it to retirement![3], authors Hans-Peter Unger and Carola Kleinschmidt blame collective exhaustion on the excessive pressure and need for speed exercised by leaders and proprietors. They call this the acceleration trap and cite a study carried out by Swiss management professor Heike Bruch: Companies caught in the acceleration trap overburden their staff with excessive tasks and changes without providing sufficient resources. Lacking set priorities, they lose focus, are pushed to the brink of their performance limit and held there without any prospects of regeneration.[4]
Obviously, such practices initially raise profits. Think of Hendrik from the last chapter who was wholly enamored with his laissez faire leadership style, justifying it with economic success and bursting order ledgers. It wasn’t until Nadine, one of his most loyal employees, threatened to leave and Marcello informed him there were others half-way out the door, did Hendrik see the need to change his approach. So, in the long run, leaders and proprietors hazard the consequences of their employees falling ill. It works wonderfully for a while. […] But all too often, company executives want to such accelerated conditions to be the norm. What began as a short sprint becomes chronic overwhelm. […] Most of the workforce try to keep pace as long as they can – and reap fat profits for the business stuck in the fast lane.[5] However, the employees pay dearly. Anyone functioning under pressure day-in, day-out is eventually going to breakdown and stop functioning altogether. Apparently, their leaders couldn’t care less.
An excerpt from the book “Leadership is More – 27 Questions We Too Can Answer” written by Gianni, Jan & Marcello Liscia, 2022
[1] https://www.the-klu.org/article/little-risk-of-burnout-for-top-managers, accessed Oct. 10, 2022.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side_project_time#Google_implementation, accessed Oct. 10, 2022.
[3] Ungerer, Hans Peter, Kleinschmidt, Carola, ≫Das hält keiner bis zur Rente durch!« Damit Arbeit nicht krank macht/You’ll never make to retirement! For a healthy working life, Kosel-Verlag 2014.
[4] Ibid, pg. 94. Not available in English.
[5] Ungerer, Hans Peter, Kleinschmidt, Carola, ≫Das hält keiner bis zur Rente durch!« Damit Arbeit nicht krank macht/You’ll never make to retirement! For a healthy working life, Kosel-Verlag 2014, pg. 94ff.
