There are a lot of people who talk about Burnout these days.
For good Reason.
Leaders Must Understand Burnout because the consequences of Burnout are Dire for Teams and Organizations.
Burnout:
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Decimates Decision Making
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Destroys Creativity
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Prevents Innovation
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Blocks Pattern Recognition
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Sabotages Productivity
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Restricts Learning
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More
All of these become Inevitable under Burnout.
What is Worse is that Burnout is also Infectious.
Quite literally, we can pass Burnout from one individual to another via Neurocardiology.
So it is in a Leader's Interest to take care of Burnout Quickly.
This has led to many Leaders seeking Solutions for Burnout Prevention.
The Idea is that if you can Prevent Burnout, you can Prevent those Negative Outcomes.
However, I must be the Bearer of Bad News, for Your Own Good.
If your Goal, right now, is Burnout Prevention as a Leader, then You Will Fail.
Completely and Utterly.
Why is this?
The Main Reason is very simple...
You're Too Late.
Right now, 80% of Employees are "Already" Experiencing Burnout.
Plus, more than that are well on their way.
You know how I said that Burnout is Infectious?
Well, the 80% who are Already in Burnout are bringing it to the last 20% Very Quickly.
Trying to say that the Goal is "Burnout Prevention" is like saying that you want to Prevent a War that started 10 years ago, and you're on the Side that Lost 5 years ago.
You're Too Late, the Damage is done.
But there is More to it than this as well.
See, even if you did bring Burnout Prevention Tactics to your Teams and Organization, it wouldn't be Effective.
The Reason is that All Burnout Prevention Tactics Completely Fail to do One Thing.
Fix Stress Damage.
See, Burnout occurs when we have Too Many Simultaneous Stressors that our Bodies are Unable to Recover From.
Over time, the Body Literally Tears Itself Apart in an attempt to Combat the Stressors, and when Enough Damage has been done, we Hit Burnout.
All these Stressors create Stress Damage (also known as Oxidative Stress) which Builds Up Over Time.
If you Fail to Fix the Stress Damage, the Burnout Prevention Tactics become Useless.
It's also Very Simple to know if a Burnout Prevention Tactic will have "Any" Use against Stress Damage.
Ask how the Tactics Impacts Ceruloplasmin.
The Vast Majority of the time people will not even know what that is, let alone its role in Burnout, which is How You Know that it will Not Help You with your Burnout Problem.
This brings us to our Final Problem with Burnout Prevention.
The Goal of Burnout Prevention is simple - Reduce Specific Stressors.
However, there is a Dual Problem here.
Reducing Specific Stressors fails to target all aspects of Burnout, and it will not fix the Resilience Problem with Burnout.
Since these Burnout Prevention Tactics fail to account for all aspects of Burnout, you'll only have Limited Success (assuming you have "any" at all) as the other Factors will still be at play.
But the Larger Problem here is that in Burnout, our Resiliency Decreases.
Resilience is our Ability to Handle Stressors.
When we are in Burnout, our Resilience Levels Continuously Decrease until we get Out of Burnout.
The Longer we are in Burnout, the Lower our Resilience Becomes.
Now, in a Hypothetical Situation, let's say you get out of Burnout and then you do learn Burnout Prevention Tactics.
The issue here is that Burnout Prevention Tactics Do Not Increase Resiliency.
So, you may use Burnout Prevention to Lower Stressors, but as soon as a Larger Stressor occurs (which it will), due to a lowered Resiliency, you'll Immediately be back in Burnout.
The only way to Prevent this is to Increase your Resiliency.
But you can Not Increase Resiliency by Decreasing Stressors.
See, Resiliency is built "With" Stressors.
You "Must" have Stressors to Increase Resiliency.
Stressors are Not Inherently Bad.
If you only Reduce Stressors, you Never Increase Resiliency.
But if Stressors get Too High you go into Burnout.
However, there is a specific zone known as "Eu-Stress" (or Good Stress) where We can Improve our Resilience.
The Issue here is that you Must be able to Navigate between "Not Enough" and "Too Much" to find that Eu-Stress Zone.
Then, you Must do it Consistently to Build Resiliency.
Which is Impossible with only Stress Reduction.
The Reality of the Business World today is that it is Far Too Late for Burnout Prevention.
We are Already in Burnout at Excessive Rates, and Unless We Remove Stress Damage and Increase Resiliency Simultaneously, we are Doomed to Failure as Leaders.
However, it doesn't have to be this way.
If we work on Reducing Stressors Enough, Fix Stress Damage, and Build Resiliency through Consistent and Targeted Eu-Stress, we can Overcome Burnout.
Now, and Forever into the Future.
That is the Reason We Must Design Regenerative Legacies.
Through it, We Can Accomplish All of these Goals, while Also Hitting Business Goals.
That will be the Differentiator between the Businesses that Succeed in the Future and those that Crumble.
Those that Succeed at the Highest Levels will Design Regenerative Legacies.