MAP Strategic Wealth Advisors

It is hard to completely avoid being overwhelmed at work. But when constant work stress leads to burnout, it becomes a serious issue, harming not only your own well-being and performance– both at work and at home.

Research has linked burnout to a host of negative physical and mental health outcomes, including coronary artery disease, hypertension, sleep disturbances, depression, and anxiety, as well as to increased alcohol and drug use. Moreover, burnout has been shown to produce feelings of futility and alienation, undermine the quality of relationships, and diminish long-term career prospects.

Valcour points to three common, distinct traits of burnout that can help us recognize it in ourselves. These are:

1. Exhaustion: the feeling of your tank running perpetually on empty: the physical, cognitive, and emotional fatigue that undermines your ability to work effectively and feel positive about what they’re doing.
2. Cynicism: also called depersonalization, this represents a gradual decline in engagement with your work. A natural means to distance oneself from their work, cynicism often stems from overload, conflict, unfairness, or lack of say in bigger decisions in the workplace.
3. Inefficacy: Inefficacy is the sense of falling short—feeling unproductive, ineffective, and unsure you can succeed. It often accompanies exhaustion and cynicism, as it’s hard to perform well when you’re depleted and disconnected.

Valcour then points to four tactics for overcoming the feeling of prolonged burnout:

1. Prioritize self-care: Focus and efficacy is tied to energy. To restore yours, prioritize sleep, nutrition, exercise, social connection, and calming practices like meditation, journaling, or time in nature. If your schedule feels too full, spend a week tracking how you use your time- it will reveal blocks of time for you to fill.
2. Shift your perspective: Assess your mindset and assumptions at work. What aspects of the work situation causing burnout are truly fixed, and which can you change? Altering your perspective can buffer the negative impact of even the inflexible aspects– and show you which aspects of the job & your performance you can most easily change.
3. Reduce exposure to job stressors: Reset expectations with colleagues, clients, and peers about what you’re willing to take on and how you’ll work together. You may face pushback, but it’s important they understand these changes support your health and long-term productivity.
4. Seek out connections: The best antidote to burnout—especially from cynicism and inefficacy—is engaging in meaningful relationships and ongoing growth. Seek mentors, pursue learning, and consider advising others to help shift out of a negative cycle.

Burnout can often feel like an unshakable disease. But by understanding your burnout, you can begin taking these practical steps to overcoming it.

Whether you are a manager or an individual contributor in a workplace, showing those around you that you appreciate them can have massive– and reciprocal– benefits. Here are techniques for doing so:

1. Show your appreciation for people’s presence: Sure, everyone is being paid to be there. Nonetheless, letting someone know their presence is having an impact on you or the organization can make a big difference. Greet them when they arrive, express regret if they are ill or forced to spend time out of the office. If they are staying late or going above and beyond, acknowledge that you value the effort.
2. Show your appreciation of peoples’s ideas and contributions: Managers and individual contributors alike should show colleagues that their input is valued. Managers should nurture a culture of sharing ideas by asking for employee input in each staff meeting, and championing those who contribute.
3. Show your appreciation of people’s lives outside of work: Work should never be the only thing in your life or the lives of those on your team. Take an interest in people’s interests and activities outside of the workplace, and then take pains to respect the boundaries between the two– avoid sending emails or requests after hours, and remember how the conditions of your coworker’s lives might make certain work commitments harder than they are for you.
4. Show your appreciation of people’s need for growth and development: One of the main reasons employees give for leaving jobs is a lack of development opportunities. Give peers and reports alike reasons to stay by taking an interest in their path forward– and then seek out or create chances to develop the key stills or have the experiences that advance them on their desired path.

You don’t have to incorporate all of these actions at once to make your direct reports and colleagues feel appreciated. Start small by weaving a few into your daily routine—over time, they’ll become second nature.

This article’s three writers conducted a survey of 485 of articles related to the future of work. Based on questions & conclusions formed from the survey of those articles, they then polled 570 experts from tech, economics, and writing/journalism about their views of the future. Specifically, they asked these experts to name the year that specific projections would finally become reality.

Here are their findings:

Further polling leads to a conversation about how three distinct groups (tech entrepreneurs, economists, and authors/journalists) relate to each other as they predict the future.

Tech entrepreneurs tended to be radical optimists about the future, while economists were more skeptical & cautious. Authors and journalists held more pessimistic attitudes. Importantly, these three groups were unshakably convinced that their predictions about the future of work were right and that the others were wrong — and even preposterous.

Why There Are Differences in Beliefs About the Future of Work: Groups tend to take in information from shared or similar sources, which insulates it from other perspectives. Being open to other group’s perspectives is important; embracing uncertainty and competing scenarios is in fact essential to long-term strategic planning.

The Future Is What We Make It: The article’s writers believe their study shows that the future is not yet set in stone, and that it is impossible to determine who is right about the future of work. The question is not, “What will the future of work be like?” but rather, “What do we want the future to be like?” This reframes the future-of-work question as an arena for values, politics, ideology, and imagination, instead of a set of trends that can objectively be predicted.

The article ends on a resonant note: it is important to be attentive to and active in discussion about the future of work. This ensures that the future of work will unfold within a social and democratic dialogue. Remember: the future is what we make it.

Rising through the ranks in the professional world can too often be viewed through the prism of “years of experience” or earned credentials. This is a misconception. The best credential for climbing the ladder is demonstrated leadership, which can be performed by any member of the team regardless of rank.

Becoming an influential leader begins with shifting your perspective and mindset. You can adopt a wider vision for your company or teams’ future, and then making colleagues believe in and work towards that vision. Here are three steps to doing so:

1. Devote time to daily growth: You have to help yourself before you can help others. Seek out mentorship, and ask questions of those who have achieved what you want to achieve. Actively learn outside of work, and study psychology to understand human the forces that inform group motivation, safety, and cooperation.
2. Discover and embrace your personal strengths: While it can be productive to attack your perceived weaknesses, building influence can be better advanced by discovering and developing your innate strengths. These strengths are what set you apart from others. By highlighting these strengths, superiors will know how and when to trust you to add value in those specific areas. This trust will make you feel empowered and valued.
3. Improve your ability to connect with people: Not all leaders need to be charismatic public speakers, but they do need to be adept interpersonal connectors. This often involves direct, clear communication and– in turn– active and intentional listening. Communicating in a way that feels accessible and relatable to others will ultimately increase your ability to influence. To do this, be as vulnerable and authentic with others as you can. In listening, be as empathetic as possible.

As you build these qualities, your influence will grow and your career trajectory will improve. By focusing on personal growth, embracing your unique strengths, and forging deeper connections, you will shorten the path to reaching your goals.