Carefully I walk them through my three part program to deal with burnout.

1. Resolution – Deal with their immediate situation to reduce some of the stress so they can think straight and design a game plan for moving forward.
2. Transition – Find and adopt new strategies for the days to come. You can’t very well solve problems by continuing to do the same things over and over. And finally …
3. Continuity – Make sure the client has made transitions to new ways of thinking and behaving AND that those new strategies have taken root and become the norm.

What do clients get by walking through this simple but profoundly changing step by step process? I’d like to suggest some of the following as reported benefits of dealing with burnout that I have heard. I don’t need to make much comment on them. They are fairly self-explanatory. And they are benefits that everyone experiencing this significantly painful time in their lives would like to have. Here are just a few.

Physical Realm

• Able to start exercising again
• Back aches stop
• Weekly trips to chiropractor stop
• Panic attacks reduce to zero over time
• Get to sleep easier
• Get a better sleep – waking up more relaxed
• Have more physical energy
• Sporadic and strange aches and pains drastically decrease
• Skin irritations stop

Time Realm

• Feel like they get weekends back
• Feel like they get weeknights back
• They once again have choice about what they want to do
• More time to work on projects they care about

Relationship Realm

• More positive relationships begin showing up
• Their mind isn’t preoccupied when with their spouse – totally present again
• Their mind isn’t preoccupied when with their children – totally present again
• Time to enjoy good friends once again

Everyday Living Realm

• Feel more relaxed
• Able to enjoy a hobby if they have one
• Made some long-needed and healthy decisions
• Brought their life into line with the truths they believed
• Discovered or made more personal space – some time to recharge

Opportunity Realm

• Dreaming about possibilities again
• Got to take what they are learning and help others
• Regained the excitement of God opening up new doors

Emotional Realm

• More contentment with their circumstances
• Brighter outlook on life
• Feel like their emotional energy was being renewed
• Sense of regaining control
• Relief from the pressure of worry

Spiritual Realm

• Created the time to connect with God in prayer and the Word once again
• Began to see people (often the source of burnout) through God’s eyes
• Once again connected with God’s people in healthy and enriching relationships
• Developed a core of people who prayed for them daily
• Allowed space for God to work in grace

I think you would agree with me that these benefits of dealing with burnout were worth reaching for. I want to encourage you. Please take the fourth step in my Beat Burnout Plan … Prevention. Prevent the slippery slide into the ways of thinking and behaving that can lead to burnout in the first place. Pursue health and personal and professional effectiveness. Be proactive in the first place and you will reap the benefits that so many leaders, executives and professionals long for this very day.

Some Helpful Resources

Take my Beat Burnout Assessment.

Get and use a copy of my Guide, Beating Burnout, Where to Start.

Participate in a Beat Burnout Call.

Call me directly to discuss and get coaching around your situation.

It’s a valid tactic.

Sometimes we have to have someone tell us to stop. I have told men and women I work with to ‘Stop.’ In the past, I have been told to ‘Stop.” We get in such a state of overload that we almost can’t see how we can get off the treadmill. It seems that everything must be done and done yesterday. And we keep on either allowing others to add more or layering it on ourselves. We often need someone from outside our situation to make that critical observation and intervention.

But you say, “I can’t stop.” Sorry, but yes you can. There are very few occasions when something cannot be done to address the problem of ‘too much’. You may not like the options, and you may choose to ignore the options, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t there. And it doesn’t mean that you don’t have a choice. You always have a choice.

God brought a Jethro to Moses when he was overloaded, morning till evening, spending long hours involved with people and their daily concerns and needs. Jethro wisely observed “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.”

In other words, STOP. See with clarity what you are doing. Understand the consequences of continuing to operate this way. Find another way. This is not God’s agenda for you as important as it all may appear and as pressing as the need may be. It can be done another way. There are options. But it is a matter of choice.

I would like to ask you to pause right now and think about your own situation. Is it possible that you are doing way too much for your own physical, mental, emotional and social well being – in short your spiritual wholeness? You have to pause to think about this. Unless you take the time to reflect you will not understand the implications of what you are doing.

Do you need to STOP?

Having a reserve means we don’t have to keep being distracted and drained by the need. Rather, we will eliminate problems and pressure and have the unencumbered ability to reach our potential best.

Imagine a well. If it has just a little water in it, what happens? You start being very careful with using the water you have. You keep checking the level. You may start worrying. You constantly search for emergency sources. Now imagine the well filled to the top with water. Notice how you feel now. Concern has decreased dramatically. Our lives can be like that almost empty well. We live beyond the limits of what we have on hand. There is little left to draw from.

Consider Phil, struggling to juggle work and family. Phil wanted things to be done right. He’d give 110 percent to any project he put his hand too. He was noticed. More projects and offers of promotion came his way. His experience and expertise were sought out. You’d think this success would energize him, but the opposite took place. Phil’s discretionary time eroded. Since work had to be done, his family had reluctantly slipped into the discretionary category. Phil had little time for his family, little time to spend with God, no time for himself and constantly lived in the future, longing for a day when it would be different.

Several trips to the hospital later, with panic attacks, missed work and a deteriorating approach to people around him, I received Phil’s call. Over time we strategized about the future he saw and how to bring it into the present. Phil needed to carve out some time to actually relax and figure out where he was going.

After gaining some real clarity about his tending towards being a perfectionist, he started by saying “no” to new projects until he finished a project already started. He cut the number of projects back to reflect a more comfortable working pace. This moved him closer to balance. Phil began praying more and he physically started booking his family in as priority time. He concentrated whole undistracted days on unfinished business, cleaning up his long to-do lists.

Bits of discretionary time started to appear. This gave him a little time to relax and think about the offers coming in and just what he and his family really wanted from life. Clarity led to an intentional, but flexible strategy being developed to cover the short, medium and longer term in his life.

What did Phil get that was so important? Time. Once that was carved out, he could think clearer, act smarter and begin to enjoy his wife, family and himself again. Having a reserve of time improved how he looked at people, his health and his approach to living. Talking about it garnered the respect of others around him. Now, things have changed. No offer or activity could convince Phil to deteriorate that reserve of personal time he now guards so closely.

We live in an extremely noisy world.  Most often people who describe themselves as in overload, a few steps removed from burnout, don’t experience much quiet. Their lives are often busy, full of people, and quiet is usually a relatively scarce commodity.  You know what it’s like going from one activity to the next throughout the day.  It doesn’t afford much time for pause or reflection, and when it does, that is relatively short-lived.

Even if it seems quiet, it’s often hard to turn the brain off.  It just seems to keep working.  We wake up and the brain is active, we go through a busy day with brain in high gear, we go to bed thinking and working through situations of the day.  And oftentimes we can’t get to sleep because the mind keeps on working while we gaze anxiously at the time (sometimes measured in hours) go by on the bedside clock.

So how do we find time to be quiet?  It might not necessarily be easy, but we need to begin to make the effort to build quiet time into our lives. It’s like anything else that’s important, we’ll find a way to do it.

Something you will have to get over right away is the thought that somehow you shouldn’t be taking this time. You don’t feel guilty about other important events that are scheduled into your work and life routine.  And you shouldn’t feel guilty about this either.  Because it is during this time of quiet that you are going to begin taking, that you will make a decisive victory against overload and burnout.  You will have clearer thoughts about how to work, lead and live more effectively and productively.

This quiet time is extremely important.  It is as important as any other item on your calendar.  It needs to be treated like any other important engagement you might have. You might say that being quiet will be your first line drawn in the sand.

I’m going to ask something big of you right now. I want you to block out one or two consecutive hours during the week when you can have a period of quiet.  It is going to be a very purposeful quiet.  Put that on your scheduler.  Next I want you to block a full day sometime in the next month for a personal retreat.  And thereafter I want you to block out one full day for a quarterly retreat.

Don’t worry, this time doesn’t need to cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars.  Make them simple, purposeful times. You need to clear out the clutter of noise and activity and take some time to think about you. Write down or work with your coach on some penetrating questions you might want to ask yourself during that time. Then take lots of time to think through them.

Great leaders know so well what they will say ‘yes’ to, that saying ‘no’ generally comes easy.

The not-to-do list allows us to create boundaries around out time and talents. It allows us to avoid being spread too thin. It prevents us from potentially slipping into attitudes that devalue others and depreciate ourselves.

Those leaders, executives, owners and professionals around us who we admire for really achieving good things, do not get involved in everything. They understand their limits and work within them. Whether they operate a successful business from home or run an international empire from the office with the commanding view, these men and women have clear boundaries.

Sometimes they tick people off when they say ‘no’ to a request. But they get things done … the right things … things that move causes, projects and programs forward. They appear to have a great ability to focus on those priorities that will best advance the ball.

“Today many are harming themselves through the temptation to do more than their limits will allow. Walking, running, and ambition are not necessarily unhealthy. Too much, however, is universally unhealthy. Overload is like that. The problem is not with the ‘load’. The problem is with the ‘over’. Richard Swenson, Margin, 1992, NavPress

We live surrounded by the cult-of-busy. People busily doing things, but achieving little, happy to have the bragging rights of being ‘too busy’ under the guise of complaining about work.

The leader ought not to live like this. Yes, you may be busy. Let’s not kid ourselves. There is a lot on your plate. But your busy is directed and engaged. It is focused on priorities. It takes its energy from attending to those things which are most important and which when achieved will make the biggest impact.

Creating the First Draft of Your Not-to-Do List

• Answer this question, ‘What matters?”. Check last weeks to-do list against this question. Were you working on what matters? Did you achieve those few things that would make the biggest difference? Or did your time get chewed up with items of lesser importance? Or worse yet, frittered away?
• Write down those things which you are not prepared to do or which are simply not effective things for you to be doing. As a leader there are some key activities that you should be spending considerable time on and others that are just not the best use of your time.
• Think about how willing you are to allow other people to do what needs to be done. Can you let them take the responsibility? Possibly fail to get it as well done as you think you can do it? Deal with the consequences? In other words before you make your not-to-do list, think about your attitudes toward others and just how important you find yourself to be.
• Write the not-to-do list.

Possible Not-to-Do’s. I will not:

• Say yes to every request for my presence at some function.
• Agree to sit on as many boards.
• Take my work home on these nights of the week.
• Allow that particular area to run understaffed, causing pressure on me.
• Agree to as many conference calls.
• OK so many meetings that require my involvement.
• Agree to speak as often in places that involve considerable travel.
• Allow interruptions during my most productive hours.
• Agree to hear a problem without the person providing a potential solution.
• Stay any longer in an area than 10 years.
• Try to troubleshoot technical problems myself.
• Accept the invitation to long lunches.

You get the idea. See how you do with your list. And then execute it with intention and focus. As you work with your personal coach, develop your personal not-to-do list. Let it guide you as you become increasingly more effective.

As an executive coach working with leaders, it is important for me to assist my clients in being more effective and productive. The not-to-do list is a simple lifelong tool, probably underestimated, that can make a big difference in seeing real, measurable improvement in that very same effectiveness and productivity.

You take a Christian worker who loves the Lord, and has high expectations of ‘what God will do’. Make them a key decision maker carrying major responsibilities. They will prove themselves highly committed, heavily involved and willing to take on a demanding workload.

They will also, with great regularity, ratchet up.

Ratcheting up simply means you take the assignment (.. as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 1 Corinthians 3:5) you are sure ‘God has given you’ and you add to it. In this one area discernment often seems to be neglected.

While working you also see something else worthwhile to be done. You add it to your to-do list. You see a need here and a cause there to be addressed. Few step forward to help. And you do it … and do it … and do it.

Pretty soon you are doing more than the original assignment. You have ‘ratcheted up.’ And you may be on your way to ministry burnout and the signs of career burnout that are so common to any leader who is experiencing significant stress.

You become resentful of the task and critical of the people who have not volunteered. A gnawing ache develops in your gut and unwanted attitudes invade your thinking.

The cure? Know so well what you ‘have been called to do’, that saying ‘No’ to what you have not been called to do will be much easier.

In other words, know your priorities so well, that you say ‘No’ to those requests, no matter how good they are, that are not absolutely yours to accomplish. (If it isn’t an absolute yes, it’s a no.)

This is not to take away from doing what you have been assigned with excellence. Excellence is about depth not quantity.

Saying ‘no’ may allow others to step up and take responsibility, giving them the joy of seeing good things happen that are attached to their efforts and faith.

If the priorities and assignments all seem to blend into one and you find it difficult to sort them out, you may need to work with a life or leadership Coach for a period of time to gain some perspective.

Many people have been robbed of useful service because other well meaning Christians, most often leaders, have taken the task to themselves. If it is important, then God has prepared or is preparing the worker.

You are not the solution to every need.

Start here. Ten steps to address burnout.

1. Rule out anything medical. Make sure what you are feeling doesn’t have its roots in a physical problem.
2. Know that there is hope. This is not a hopeless situation without solutions. Just know that that is the case.
3. Take responsibility for change. Take ownership for turning this situation around.
4. Face the fear. Change will involve moving into new territory and leaving old. Be very clear about what it involves.
5. Develop a strategy. Clarity rules. Having a plan for letting things go or for adding new ways of working takes a lot of pressure off.
6. Name the one thing. One thing will make the biggest difference. One thing can probably unlock the road block to solutions. Name it clearly.
7. Have support. Don’t run solo through this time of life. Have good people with you and behind you. Hire a personal coach if need be.
8. Take significant action. That’s exactly what it will take. No playing around the fringes. Do what needs to be done to change what needs to be changed.
9. Know that burnout is not permanent. This will come to an end. Do it on your terms as far as possible.
10. Draw on your faith. God is available 24/7. There is no time you will catch Him off duty. Call out to Him for strength and solutions.

This is a turning moment in your life and work. And that should make Christmas look just a little bit brighter this year. Solutions are possible and with your intentional action are at hand.

As a leader, you already know that three high level indicators of stress – alcoholism, divorce and suicide, are all alarmingly present in policing. Much has been studied and written about this.

As an executive in policing you have the opportunity to make an impact in treating police burnout in those you are responsible for.

You already know the background situations that policing professionals face every day. Our aim is to provide a synopsis of possible actions and shifts in attitude that may lessen the number of cases of police burnout.

Here are a few things police can be intentional about promoting, encouraging and acting on.

• Continue to grow as a person. Seek to be mature and avoid being self-centered. Cultivate those characteristics that make up what we now call emotional intelligence – honesty, emotional self-awareness, resilience, good communications, compassion, integrity etc. Don’t push those things down because your primary contact with people is in bad situations.
• Develop your character. Pay attention to it. Stay sensitive to what you are feeling. Stay sensitive to what others are feeling.
• Let go of what people say to you or about you. Their comments reflect their problem, not yours.
• Don’t stuff emotions inside. Talk with others about what you see and experience. Stress is cumulative unless dealt with. Deal with the accumulation of daily stress … daily. Otherwise what gathers in your daily job is brought home. Don’t take out stress on those within your own home.
• Find positive ways to address stress each day. This is one of the keys to treating police burnout.Who we are does not consist of bits and pieces that can be isolated from each other. Your body’s reaction to stress does not stop to ask whether it is job related or personal. It’s just stress … related to you as a whole person. Incorporate holistic strategies.
• Understand the vast majority of the public respect you and what you do. They are absolutely grateful for you. They don’t want you to be another cop burnout statistic. They want you healthy and well in every way.
• Find a means to deal with anger and frustration in healthy ways. Participate in group sports, work out. Expend energy. You already know it will have all sorts of benefits.
• Love your spouse. Actively look for ways to romance them. Make your own personal growth as a husband or wife one of your highest challenges so you can make loving your spouse your highest priority. Be intentional in working on this area.
• Do not drink for escape. We are told alcoholism is high with far too many over-stressed officers. You may need to avoid drinking altogether to be safe.
• Remind yourself every day that you are creating an environment where people can work and play and do well.
• You are not your job. You have a passion to see good things happen, but whether or not they do does not affect the fact that you are a great person. You are valuable by creation, not by occupation.
• Cultivate friendships outside the force. Go out with other couples not connected with policing. Talk about other things. Go with your spouse to his or her events.
• Don’t let a feeling of superiority creep in. Yes, you have a lot of street smarts others don’t have. But they are wise in unique areas you are not. Benefit from their wisdom as well.
• Cultivate balance. You are mostly with people at their worst. Spend time with people at their best, doing positive things which contribute to their families and communities. Let the good around you be the greater influence.
• Continue to be bothered when injustice occurs. Don’t become callous to being passionate about wrong behaviors.

If we are going to decrease law enforcement burnout these are the simple things that have to be paid attention to.

I use this policing example to illustrate the need for senior leadership in any profession that deals with people, to pay particular attention to this specialized area of leadership development.

Avoiding burnout needs to be on your curriculum prior to deployment and an ongoing topic of learning and discussion throughout a policing professional’s career.

While I may provide leadership and executive coaching for you as senior leadership, you need to adopt that same coach approach for the leaders and staff on your team.

What contributes to police burnout? A conversation with two seasoned officers who were in their 40′s gave some insight. We don’t pretend this is in any way exhaustive, purely anecdotal.

Like anyone else who has to work with people, law enforcement officers carry a huge burden of stress, maybe more than many other professions. The big difference is that officers often get the stressors all at once.

While much more could be said about law enforcement burnout, here’s the initial view from two officers in response to the question, “What do you feel is the leading cause of  burnout amongst police officers that you are aware of?” The fact that they had immediate answers indicates high awareness of the problem. They didn’t have to spend time thinking long and hard about it. It shows the reality of the specter of burnout was top of mind.

For those of you leading other organizations, ask yourself what your key people would say if asked the same question.

Long Shifts Twelve hour shifts often mean 14 hours with commute time. Sometimes things like the volume of paperwork and sitting can be tedious. Other times it is active and requiring the highest levels of alertness. But for the whole 12 hours you’re ‘on’. That means that adrenaline levels remain up all the time and spike during tense situations.

Decreased Respect for Authority Over time, there has been a steady erosion of respect for police officers. It is not uncommon to see young people give cops the finger and display other acts of disrespect.

Attitudes of Other Officers Younger cops coming on the force will often complain about jobs that are assigned to them. “Why do I have to do that again?” The spread of griping seems to have increased over time. “We shouldn’t have to feel like baby sitters with these kids. They’re cops. Do your job.”

Blurring of Your Own Identity It’s often a challenge separating what you do from who you are and who you were before you became a cop. You see your job as your identity. Lines are blurred and inability to always succeed when the public is in need carry over into your view of yourself. It just means you put a lot of stress on yourself and sometimes even hold yourself accountable for things that are outside of your control.

Whether or not you agree or disagree with this anecdotal account isn’t the point. The point is that when asked about police burnout, officers can immediately point to what they perceive are contributing causes. It points to the need of an ongoing environment of conversation and support where the effect of these things would be lessened.

That’s where the ‘coach approach’ comes in, making and taking the time for individual discussion with each officer in a climate of non-judgment and with a view to personal and professional growth.

First, it would be valuable to experience coaching for yourself. In addition to your own professional development, you could use this time to develop a strategic approach to coaching the people on your team.

Spending time one-to-one with your team members is not about fixing the weak. It is about fostering and boosting existing strengths and being proactive at avoiding burnout with each and every individual.

Mark lays out the problem:

We lawyers are a pretty messed-up bunch—more emotionally and psychologically messed-up than the mean. We suffer from higher incidences of alcoholism, drug abuse, and depression than the general population.

The lawyer whose career is his whole life, who defines himself in terms of his prowess as a lawyer, is in for disappointment and trouble. Because if you are your successes, then when a case doesn’t end as hoped, you are the failure. A common sequel: the fruitless search for fulfillment in ultimately self-destructive behavior.

Interesting. Sounds like leaders and executives in other other professions I’ve worked with …

When we define ourselves by what we do we are already headed down a slippery slope. What we do is to be an expression of who we are, not the determinant. But if allowed, it can become all consuming and what we do can become a vivid picture of who we have allowed ourselves to become.

Mark makes the case:

The lawyer who can strike a healthy balance between clients and family, between career and avocation, between work and life is going to be happier and more fulfilled than the lawyer whose personal life is in smoking rubble because of his monomaniacal fixation on being Lawyer. In other words, a lawyer is a better lawyer when he is happier and more fulfilled.

Then the part about real life and the reality of a balanced human body,  mind and soul.

When we’re in trial the clash is most obvious: we work 16- or 18-hour days, and our families cope. Even when we’re not in trial, though, clients’ problems don’t keep bankers’ hours.

Still, even the accused benefit from balance because balance is essential to creativity. If our clients need our creativity (they do), they can’t afford for us to bill 2300+ hours a year (sleep less), spend every waking hour at our desks (exercise less), and eat at the office (eat worse), all of which are crushing to creativity.

Mark doesn’t offer solutions in this post. There is an existing culture and system that precludes easy solutions. That didn’t seem to be his purpose. But the way he comments on the issue is excellent.

If we had jobs rather than vocations—if, for example, we worked in offices counting widgets or with Thomas DiCicco in a Boca boiler room lying to people—there would be nothing at work competing with our responsibility to take care of  our families. We could arrive at work at 8:00, have an hour to ourselves for lunch, cut out at 5:00 and leave the job behind. Work-life balance would be easy.

Doesn’t that ring true for most leaders and executives? Work isn’t always a simple formula of 8 to 5, with an hour for lunch. We work every day to bring balance into our schedule. Some leaders and executives can make it happen and either don’t know how or don’t wish to for other reasons. For others of us, balance is a hard fought victory when we do gain it.

Those of us looking on obviously want the best lawyers possible working on criminal cases. Read Mark’s post and get a glimpse of the real life challenges faced by the professional who not only wants to give their best but wants to have a life that allows them to have some best to give.