It is common for middle managers to feel burned out as they focus on executing the strategy of company leaders while also developing their teams, according to Harvard Business Review. Too much work and not enough time and resources can lead to exhausted managers and turnover at your company.
Recovering from burnout requires careful steps to help your managers feel energized, engaged and motivated. Harvard Business Review recommends the following strategies to help your managers recover from burnout.
- Recognize. Acknowledging the burnout and showing concern helps individuals feel seen and allows the burnout to be addressed. It also is crucial to recognize the manager’s efforts and positive contributions regarding the business; this shows the individual he or she is making a difference.
- Reconnect. Create a sense of community where managers can share their challenges and successes with their peers and offer support. Checking in with a co-worker—by phone or in person—can provide energy or inspiration. It also can lead a manager to talk about stress and burnout, which can make him or her feel less alone.
- Reprioritize work. Managers often are burned out because of a constant high volume of work. Conduct an audit of what each manager is working on and what consumes most of their time. Identify the top three areas that will make the biggest difference in achieving the company’s goals; focus your managers’ effort on these and deprioritize the rest. Encourage your managers to reassess and manage priorities on an ongoing basis.
- Revise team agreements. Empower managers to help solve the burnout problem by revising agreements about how you all work together. What boundaries can you and your managers agree to respect? This could include things such as not sending evening or weekend emails, giving each other permission to say no and establishing specific non-meeting days to do focused work.
- Check in regularly. Check in one on one with your managers to see how they are doing and how you can best support them. Make it safe for them to speak up and tell you when they are feeling overwhelmed so you can address the issue.
- Relax and reset. Taking a meaningful break from work is necessary to restore your managers’ energy levels and help them reset mentally and physically. Set the expectation that they should use all their vacation time, which can counter a warrior mentality in company culture that may contribute to burnout.
