Let’s talk about burnout.

In the past three years, the number of articles in Forbes, Inc., and Harvard Business Review has multiplied and each new article speaks more urgently than the last.

Even before Covid, there was concern about burnout in the workplace.

What is the current situation in June 2021?

• According to the World Health Organization, 745K people died in 2019 due to stroke and heart disease related to overworking (55+hours).
• 81% of people don’t want to go back to work according to a recent Gallup poll.
• The reasons range from concern over personal physical safety due to heightened racism to the ability and autonomy to work when they want to return to the daily commute that adds another 2 to 4 hours to their day, depending on geography.
• From a business vantage point, reducing the commute also reduces carbon emissions. For an enterprise committed to the 3 P’s – Productivity, Profit, and Philanthropy, creating remote working and hybrid models would be in alignment with their philosophy.
• Concern about heightened acts of incivility based on race, gender, preference, culture, and more are very real. Allowing ongoing working from home could support a time-based commitment to education with a DEI expert combined with coaching that accelerates the learning.
• Autonomy also compels our attention and its presence hinges on the confidence, self-awareness, and skills their boss possesses.

As we look at the health risks of burnout and that stress has a $500 billion price tag in American business, some organizations are now threatening to take vacation days or cut pay to force people to come back to work.

As coaches, how do you get curious about the client/leader’s choices? Instead of increasing stressors and financial pressure, what opens up if s/he were to choose to open a channel to conversations with cross-functional teams including employees from the warehouse to technology, sales, operation all the way to the C suite—how would that align with core values and a commitment to being better than before?

What are the lessons that your client has learned through Covid-19? Beyond their experience, what’s been the employee experience? The customer experience? What would occur if time were spent in “genuine curiosity”? Translating the answers into your company’s “being better than before” embodies generative leadership. When curiosity becomes priority #1, solutions emerge authentically and organically that create job satisfaction, a psychologically safe environment, and a collaborative advantage in the marketplace.

"We are urgently called to action in two distinct capacities: to serve as hospice workers to a dying culture, and to serve as midwives to an emerging culture. These two tasks are required simultaneously; they call upon us to move through the world with an open heart as we experiment with new visions and forms for the future." - Will Keepin, Ph.D., president and executive director of the Satya Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

For more on Being at Work ... Better than Before, access the inviteCHANGE YouTube channel for shorts videos on subjects that support conscious, empowering leadership.