In virtually every discussion about wellbeing at work, one key phrase dominates the dialogue: “employee wellbeing.” So much so, that as Kurt Merriweather, Co-founder and VP of Marketing at The Diversity Movement, a Workplace Options Company, points out, it’s hard to find mention of any other type of workplace wellbeing across studies or literature on the topic—namely, executive wellbeing.
While people are absolutely right to emphasize the importance of employee wellbeing and its connection to employee engagement and organizational success, equal attention ought to be paid to executive wellbeing.
Employee engagement, defined as the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in the workplace, is not only influenced by their own wellbeing, but is directly tied to that of their leaders. When leaders are healthy and happy; when they arrive to work each day at a 10—and remain at a 10 through to the end of the day—employees are more likely to emulate that vigor.
Likewise, when leaders demonstrate effective stress management; when they set healthy boundaries and prioritize work-life balance—or “life-work balance,” as Dr. Kennette Thigpen Harris, Chief Clinical Officer at Workplace Options, calls it; and when they acknowledge, accept, and work through their feelings and emotions—whether that’s fear, anxiety, uncertainty, frustration, or doubt—employees are more likely to model those same behaviors.
That said, with findings from the likes of Harvard Business Review, Deloitte, and the Wall Street Journal indicating that a whopping 96 percent of senior leaders are currently battling burnout, it becomes clear that something needs to be done about executive wellbeing—and soon.
To that point, during Workplace Options’ recent Leading With Purpose summit held in October, Dr. Harris and Merriweather led a c-suite roundtable on the topic of wellbeing and engagement for senior leaders—offering leaders a better perspective on the importance of managing their own wellbeing to drive engagement, improve performance, and ensure individual and organizational success.
Read below for a sneak peek into their insightful conversation:
Kurt Merriweather: So, Dr. K, what does burnout look like?
Kennette Thigpen Harris: I’d like to maybe add another layer to that question and explain the difference between stress and burnout. We often hear people say, ‘I’m trying to keep my head above water,’ or, instead they might say ‘I’m drowning,’—that’s the difference between stress and burnout. Stress is keeping your head above water, whereas burnout is when all that you’re doing is not enough; you have no energy left to give, and there’s a lack of hope or feeling that no change is going to be made.
But when you ask the question, ‘what does it look like?’ I like to break it down into a few different categories: the behavioral, the emotional, and the physical. The physical is what we tend to think of when we think about burnout—the exhaustion. I think another piece is your immune system, which I think people don’t always think of as being tied to those symptoms of burnout. But when you are under that much distress, your immune system is a lot weaker. You don’t have a great appetite, you’re not sleeping that well, etc.
When you look at the behavioral side, you start noticing things like procrastination, stress eating, substance misuse. And then on the emotional side, there’s that element of social detachment or withdrawal, or self-doubt. So I think those are some of the things that you start to see when burnout is approaching.
Kurt Merriweather: Absolutely. Now, when it comes to factors that drive burnout—especially from a leadership point of view—what are some of the work-related factors that you find increase leaders’ risk of burnout?
Kennette Thigpen Harris: I think that’s a great question. I think especially right now, there’s several things that are happening. I think, one, there’s the issue of work overload, where individuals are working many hours, often over 40 hours. I think another piece that we typically don’t talk about is perfectionism in the workplace—some of which is self-imposed, which comes along with the pressure to perform, whether that’s coming from yourself or your client contracts, your employees, or the business as a whole. There’s a lot of emotional labor behind that. I think historically people will say, you know, emotions maybe don’t belong in the workplace—but they do. And there’s so many other things that come along with it as far as neglecting our own wellbeing and our self-care, where we begin to prioritize everyone and everything else before ourselves.
Kurt Merriweather: And I think there’s also this shift that we’re seeing in terms of what leadership means, and so there’s folks that are caught in the middle—in terms of their leadership models—depending on what generation they grew up in. For instance, if you look at Baby Boomers or Gen Xers, those are folks that grew up in a time where leadership was more about command and control—this idea that the leader has all the answers, can’t show any vulnerability or weaknesses. And so, because of that, there is a conflict between that model and then what Gen Z and Millennials expect and also demonstrate in their own leadership.
And so that’s one of the challenges that leaders face today, is finding out ‘is it okay for me to show that I’m struggling? Is that going to be perceived as a sign of weakness?’ And so I think that’s one of the reasons why, when you look at studies on burnout, most of that data comes from employees and not leaders. Just in doing our own research, it was actually pretty difficult to find studies on what’s happening to leaders that are dealing with burnout versus employee burnout.
And so, given that, how would you counsel a leader who’s struggling with this idea of, ‘I don’t know if I’m burned out or not. How do I start to do a test for myself to see whether I am or not? And is it okay for me to admit it out loud? And who do I talk to about those things?’
Kennette Thigpen Harris: Yes, admit it out loud—say it loud, say it proud! [Laughs]. But I do think we have to get to the point where we are able to do those things. So I think the first thing is really about awareness, Kurt, where you have to be able to identify and acknowledge the signs that you’re seeing. For instance, for me, there’s definitely some clear signs that emerge when I’m going through that phase of either stress or burnout. One of the physical signs is my office space at home: it will look in complete disarray, like a tornado has come through, and my husband will walk past and say, “you feeling okay? Because I see your desk.” So that’s one sign for me.
Also on the physical side, I have lupus—so stress flares up my lupus. My body is giving me that sign of, “hey, honey, you are stressed. Let’s do something about it.” And so, I challenge everybody to first dig deep and be honest with themselves about their own signs of stress so that they’re able to address them before ever lead to burnout.
I think the other piece is really about being authentic. Don’t come to work and be your fake self, be your true self. And with that, I think another piece is about acceptance. I’m sure you’ve heard, Kurt, the saying that ‘you can only control what you can control.’ And I think that is so true. We as leaders have to accept that we can’t control everything and that’s okay. And so, when you’re going through those stressors and you are having those challenges, it’s important to take a pause and ask yourself, ‘is this something that is within my circle of control?’ And if it is, that means you can control it. And there’s three things that we’re able to control in life: our attitude, effort, and behavior.
Then your second question is really to ask yourself, ‘is this in my circle of influence?’ meaning, ‘I may not have control over it, but can I potentially influence the situation?’ And if that’s the case, maybe you do something to try to influence it. And then lastly, there’s going to be things in your circle of concern that you can do absolutely nothing about. And I think sometimes, as leaders, we kind of spend our time in that space of wanting and feeling like we need to do something about those things. But you just have to let it go.
I think the other piece, too—two more things I’ll say about this, Kurt—is that you’ve got to be willing to take action. Where, okay, now we may say, ‘okay, these are some stressors that are happening in my life,’ but then we stop there. But you can’t stop there—you need to ask yourself, ‘what are some actionable steps that I can take to mitigate, reduce, or eliminate that stress? What can I do differently? What can I start or stop doing?’
And then lastly, the final piece—especially for leaders—is not being afraid to ask for help. Like I love what you said, Kurt, about how oftentimes leaders, somehow, somewhere along the line, the misnomer is that we are superhuman with supernatural superpowers; we can do all things, be all things. But sometimes, being a leader is about asking for help. And I think that asking shows that, one, you’re modeling behaviors for others that it is okay to ask for help. And I think, likewise, some of that ask is about resource utilization of ‘what other resources are there that can provide support?’ And then, lastly, it gives perspective when you’re able to ask for help.
So, I know there were a whole lot of As with awareness, being authentic, acceptance, taking action, asking for help. But if you think of those five As I think that will really help executives and leaders know the things that they can do to combat stress and burnout.
Kurt Merriweather: Right. So, one of the things that I notice is that it seems like there’s just not enough time, not enough hours in the day to manage all the things that need to be managed. And so, what are some practical things that folks can do to manage the pressures that they’re feeling? You know, obviously one of the things that you talked about is having an organized workspace—that would be an obvious thing to do. But what are some other things that are practical steps folks can start to implement, where they’re thinking about, ‘how do I deal with this high-pressure situation that I’m about to walk into?’ both from a practical point of view and an emotional point of view? What are the different things that we can start to do to prepare for those things that are going to happen?
Kennette Thigpen Harris: Yeah, great question. I’ll try to give a few. One of the things that I would say—and I got this from one of my dear mentors from undergrad—is “the Who does not have to be you.” And that has stayed with me because, ultimately, what it translates to is delegate. The Who doesn’t have to be you. So yes, something needs to be done, but it doesn’t have to be you. But as leaders, oftentimes we want to say, ‘I got it. I can do it by myself.’ And if that is the case, I challenge you to think about why that is because I’m sure there’s some stuff behind that.
Likewise, I think understanding what your purpose is, is important. I think sometimes when we talk about purpose, it seems like something that is so abstract, but when you know what your purpose is, you can kind of get to the core of, ‘okay, why am I doing what I’m doing?’ So, when there’s this high-pressure situation, or when things do become challenging, your ‘why’ helps keep you centered.
Of course, setting boundaries is another huge step. And I think when you think about setting boundaries, there’s several things that go into that, whether it’s embracing the idea that, ‘no is a complete sentence,’ whether it’s unplugging—where after a certain time your notifications stop, or you stop responding—or something to that effect.
I think one thing we hear about often but take so much for granted is life-work balance. And yes, I said life-work versus work-life because I think it’s important that we start with our life events and then the work goes around it. And so, when I’m looking at my calendar for the week, I know for me, movement affects my mood. So, whether it’s going to the gym, going to dance class, working out—those are the things that I put in my schedule first: ‘These are the times that those things are happening.’ My family is also important to me. So, if my family has activities going on that I want to be in attendance for, of course, I’m going to fill those things in, and then work kind of goes around those other pieces. So, I think, one, it’s really about prioritizing life-work integration— ‘what does your life-work integration really look like for you?’ And I think that’s inclusive of your sleeping habits, which are so important, what you’re eating, and, again, any movement or physical activity.
The last thing I would say, Kurt, is it’s about mindset. I think mindset is so huge. And I feel like this was a buzzword several years ago, and it may have fallen by the wayside a little bit, but practicing positivity is key. And practicing positivity doesn’t mean that the world is full of roses and sunshine. But when research tells us that 80 percent of the 60,000 to 90,000 thoughts we have each day are negative—meaning our default setting is negative—it helps you understand the importance of recognizing the thoughts you’re having especially when you’re in a high-pressure situation. Because once you know what thoughts you’re having, it’s going to drive your emotions and behaviors thereafter. So, I think if you can understand that whole triangle—which I call the cognitive triangle—you can start to get a better handle on those high-pressure situations.
And I know, Kurt, with your experience and executive leadership, I’m sure there’s some strategies and techniques that you’ve probably seen work really well, right?
Kurt Merriweather: Right. So, there are a few things that come to mind…
Want to hear the rest of their conversation? Replay the session at https://www.workplaceoptions.com/info/leading-with-purpose-employee-engagement-strategies-to-inspire-and-win/.
