Episode 943: How “A” Players Avoid Burnout

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 943 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:07] Taylor Stephens: I'm Taylor Stevens, AKA Mr. Five guy. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your call. Having the ability to focus on what's really important.

[00:00:25] And to define your route to independence is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott, me.

[00:00:36] Scott Maderer: sending emails at two in the morning and expecting an answer. You actually understand that people need to take time off. And recharge while they're on vacation, you expect them to actually be on vacation and you enforce that and live that pattern yourself. If you're the boss, how's the solo preneur. That can be a little harder because sometimes if you're not [00:01:00] working, you're not working.

[00:01:01] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time. And your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world

[00:01:27] in today's episode about investing in others. By stewarding your time. I talk with you about how top performers can avoid burn. Also share how to recognize the signs of burnout in yourself and others. And I also talk about how burnout leads to bigger issues than just losing employees. As we talk about stewarding your time.

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[00:02:15] One of the things that happens is there's often people that are top performers. You're probably one of them. These are the people that deliver more than their ass, that work hard, that are constantly the ones at the top of the list, whether they're working for someone else or working for themselves, they're always going above and beyond to try to deliver more.

[00:02:39] But what happens is oftentimes these top performers begin to burn out. We've talked about burnout before on the podcast, but I wanted to go into a little bit of detail about how to recognize burnout and then some of the things that you can do to avoid it. First off you need to know for [00:03:00] yourself and for others to begin to look for the signs and educate each other on what are the signs that burnout may be happening.

[00:03:08] Here are some of those you may have exhaustion or difficulty sleeping. You may have lower productivity. Maybe you begin to see the amount that you get done each done day, go lower and lower. You began to get, make mistakes and forget to do things overlooked, task and jobs that are coming. You have a higher rate of illness or more sick days or absentee days, you begin to suffer from depression or irritability, or you get very cynical and begin to lash out with sarcasm and cynicism.

[00:03:41] And then of course you begin to see absenteeism, lateness, or even sometimes stated plans about leaving. All of these are signs of. And often by the time you're seeing all of these, the person is already well on their way to completely burning out. So you [00:04:00] need to begin to look for these and see them early and teach each other what to look for.

[00:04:06] If you're a solopreneur, you're going to see some of these things from time to time. But when it becomes a pattern, that's going to be a problem. And if you're an employer and you have employees, you may see it from time to time. But when it becomes an overarching pattern, especially when it's your top performers exhibiting it, this is a problem.

[00:04:25] So how can you begin to help people avoid it, or if you're working for yourself, how can you help yourself? One of those things is assigning fair workloads. Oftentimes the top performers are always asked to go above and beyond and do even more and that can lead to burnout. So what happens. Is because they're doing more, they get frustrated and eventually leave.

[00:04:50] So distributing the work fairly as important. And if you're a solopreneur, that means you have to look at the things that you're trying to put on your own plate and pick and [00:05:00] choose what actually are the things that are the most important. What are the things that you need to do? And what are the things that you need to take off your plate?

[00:05:11] That's how you assign a fair workload. In that case, you also need to make sure that employees are trained and know what they're supposed to be doing, or as a solo preneur that you've clearly identified. What are the jobs that you're working with? And even if you can't outsource them, you're still developing processes and training for yourself as well.

[00:05:33] Because oftentimes we just end up winging it all the time. And that creates burnout for employees. It's the same thing. If we don't train them, that creates burnout. And then also creating an opportunity for feedback. Checking in with your employees. If you're an employer and letting them help identify what problems they're having, make sure that they know their goals and their expectations, help each member collaborate [00:06:00] with others.

[00:06:01] And again, if you're employed by yourself, create a system where you give feedback to yourself, create a regular pattern of reviewing what's going on and examining that. And then the last one and probably in many ways, the most important help develop work life balance. Now, I don't like that term because balance to a lot of people implies equalness.

[00:06:25] But what I mean is make sure that you're pre creating time. Vacations for breaks for mental health days. For time off, you create flexible schedules or options to do remote work. You create boundaries and tell people, turn off your email at a certain time, and you actually expect them to do that instead of sending emails at two in the morning and expecting an answer, you actually understand that people need to take time off and recharge.

[00:06:57] While they're on vacation. You expect them to [00:07:00] actually be on vacation and you enforce that and live that pattern yourself. If you're the boss now as a solopreneur, that can be a little harder because sometimes if you're not working, you're not earning money, but it still doesn't matter. You have to schedule in that time to take a break, to give yourself some time off.

[00:07:19] The truth is burnout leads to more than just losing employees. Burnout leads to health problems. Burnout leads to irritability and lashing out at others. Burnout leads to not having good relationships and not having good energy. Burnout leads to lots and lots of lost effort and time and money because of the stress and strain.

[00:07:44] It puts on us and learning to recognize these signs early and avoid them is something we all need to be better at doing. Thanks for listening.

[00:07:55] So much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast, [00:08:00] as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign. For our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting 4 4, 2, 2, 2 time tips.

[00:08:32] And that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time. Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.