Are we protecting our top performers from burnout?
A five-year study in the UK found that the mental health of 20% of the top-performing leaders of UK businesses is affected by corporate burnout (Awbery 2017).
At Let’s Get Healthy we design and deliver workshops for the talented team’s whose job it is to ensure successful companies have a pipeline of future leaders and inspired employees. So why do these great employees burnout and is it always their own desire to progress in their career? Findings from the five year UK study (Awbery, 2017), concluded that organisations tend to do the following:
Put high performers on the hardest projects – It makes sense, of course you’d want your best people on the most important projects. But if you keep going back to the same small group of people time and time again, you’ll run the risk of wearing them out.
Use high performers to compensate for weaker team members – While many star performers do enjoy mentoring others, they understandably start to feel resentful if they think the boss is letting poor performers off the hook.
Ask high performers to help on many smaller projects/work unrelated to their work – While this issue is often framed as a personal problem for people who don’t know how to set boundaries or say no, it’s more fairly seen as an organisational problem where the most hardworking people are “rewarded” with more work.
Protecting and energising the mental health of all employees is key to a successful health and wellbeing programme. Enabling the leadership team to reflect on their day to day habits is a great place to start the conversation about the mental health of their teams.
For more information on the mental health and wellbeing workshops we can run for your team, give us a call on 01924 666295.
