By Isabelle St-Jean

As any working professional can attest, there are fatigues which rest does cure—and if left unaddressed can lead to burnout. For HR professionals in particular, the risk is as real as the multiple responsibilities and stressors of the role.

What then is the key to avoiding burnout?

What Rest Cannot Cure
Rest is not the answer, according to David Steindl-Rast OSB, a Benedictine monk noted for his interfaith work and bridging spirituality and science. When his friend David Whyte was on the verge of burnout while working for a non-profit organization, he explained the exhaustion as a result of an internal division that caused Whyte to be only half present at work.

“Half here will kill you after a while,” explained Steindl-Rast. “The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness.”

Whyte recounts that conversation in his book Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity as the catalyst for changing his role at work and thereafter seizing the opportunity to begin writing poetry and books. Now well-known for his best-selling books and for inspiring crowds around the world, Whyte is thriving.

Tickled Pink With What You Do?
A similar mindset was affirmed at the recent HRMA Conference + Tradeshow by closing speaker author Dan Pink, whose most recent book is aptly titled To Sell is Human. Pink is a prime proponent of intrinsic energies and the ability of an entrepreneurial mindset to foster sustained engagement and success wherever one “chooses” to work.

In the mind of Alan Seale, founder of the Centre for Transformational Presence and author of Creating a World that Works, burnout occurs primarily when we are no longer connected to a sense of meaning—whether as an HR professional or in any other professional role. Essentially said Seale, burnout can be prevented when we understand and approach workplace challenges from a deeper level of engagement.
Self-awareness is the crucial catalyst.

Self-awareness as a First Step
As part of our emotional intelligence toolkit, awareness enables us to know when we are in a state of cognitive dissonance or discordance. David Cory, founder of the Emotional Intelligence Training Company, and also present at the HRMA Conference, agrees that emotional self-awareness allows us to become more intentional about making proactive changes or choosing a career that corresponds with the fulfillment and meaning we seek.

In the absence of that self-awareness we can get off track and end up in burnout mode. Fortunately, as Cory shared, over the course of our work lives, self-actualization and the need to fulfill our potential naturally become a driving force. Yet, if we have not strongly developed our emotional intelligence, we risk losing more than our way and end up in survival mode—at which point we are unlikely to focus on values-driven intentions required and put ourselves at even greater risk of burnout.

CREW to Heart: Enhance Workplace Civility
In “Conquering Burnout,” in Scientific American Mind’s February 2015 issue, authors Michael P. Leiter and Christina Maslach—who are also researchers and consultants—point out that according to the current psychological research, while burnout can happen in any job and for a wide range of causes, the most commonly recognized reasons include:

• working too hard due to staff shortages;
• incompatibility between an employee’s core values and their job; and
• a workplace milieu that is characterized by conflict and incivility.

Noting that hospitals suffered from a lack of civility, Leiter and Maslach developed an intervention program called CREW to champion Civility, Respect and Engagement in the Workplace. The six-month program consisted of facilitated weekly team meetings that gave employees an opportunity to work through strained relationships and practice more productive ways of defusing emotional tension.

Participants were also encouraged to practice specific civility behaviours, all of which improved the culture and atmosphere among teams.

Most importantly, following the CREW intervention, it was confirmed that significant improvement in workplace civility had helped to decreased burnout.

Unleashing Restorative Creativity
Dave Wittington and Tammy Dewar of Calliope Learning, spoke in their HRMA breakout session about creativity being “The Secret Skill of Top Organizations and Leaders.” They offered approaches and practices that can remediate a downward turn towards burnout with a focus on our perception. The most common misperception, explains Wittington, is that “we overvalue what we already know and do and undervalue what could be an innovative and effective approach.”

The slippery slope of burnout often accelerates when we have given away our power to the organization we work for while settling for a status quo devoid of creativity. Feeling adrift with no room to contribute one’s creative impulses, can be “soul destroying” affirms Wittington. This makes it wise for HR professionals to embrace their influence on workplace culture to make it more inclusive of creativity and innovation.

Gossip for the Greater Good
In their HRMA conference breakout session, “Collaboration in Action,” Sarah McVanel, CHRP and Brenda Zalter-Minded contributed tools and insights from their GreatnessMagnified programs, many of which help prevent burnout by furthering humanizing workplaces.

Case in point, gossip happens, but what if gossip was good?

McVanel and Zalter-Minded pointed out that since gossip is an inevitable constant at work, we might as well innovate a resourceful way to do it. They explained that by transforming gossip’s underlying intention from neutral or negative to positive, a revitalizing, empowering effect can be achieved.

Imagine yourself in the photocopy room while overhearing a hallway conversation about you, the focus is about something you have recently achieved with a high degree of excellence. This is what McVanel and Zalter-Minded call Resource Gossiping, and as experienced in the breakout activities, it’s impact is undeniable, leaving many looking to create a new habit in their workplaces—one that inspires appreciation and engagement.

Four Steps Beyond Burnout
In his book, Creating a World that Works, Seale explains the four levels of engagement that reflect varying levels of awareness and consciousness development. The first level, called drama, is when we see a problem as something happening to us. Embroiled in emotional reactivity, we see ourselves as the victim of the problem’s impact. The second level of engagement is situation, which also results from mechanical, fragmented way of analyzing a problem while trying to fix it.

In the third dimension of engagement, called choice, we take responsibility for responding to the challenge with courage and curiosity. Here we rise up to a new level of inner integrity, and engage our intuitive and imaginative faculties as we shift into a more resourceful state.

At this point, the wisest course of action becomes evident; at the fourth level of engagement, opportunity, we can view the present situation as an invitation to something greater. Being called into a new way of being, we are compelled to tap into dynamic resilience and intrinsic leadership energies.

In short, at the highest level of engagement, we step beyond burnout and into a potential in which resilience is engrained. This is what David Whyte wholeheartedly did, and he never looked back.

Professional speaker, author and business coach, Isabelle St-Jean, RSW, PCC brings to her clients a decade of experience in leading, educating and providing practical solutions to major work/life challenges and transitions. (inspiredmomentum.com)

(PeopleTalk Summer 2015)