Marketing Management: How to Beat Burnout
Every organization needs a team with a positive outlook and a bigger capacity for long-term success. Here's how to prevent burnout, or how to fix it when burnout ultimately happens.
Every organization needs a team with a positive outlook and a bigger capacity for long-term success. Here's how to prevent burnout, or how to fix it when burnout ultimately happens.
One of the biggest problems facing digital marketing organizations is burnout. Whether it takes the form of a decline in quality of work or turnover, we must be aware of this problem and address it head on.
Now, there’s a huge difference between someone giving up on a job and getting burned out. The former is unacceptable and should be dealt with by other means.
That being said, true burnout happens to all top performers at one time or another. And if it isn’t handled, it can be devastating for all parties involved, including the employer.
“Burnout creeps up and you don’t know until you’re in the midst of it,” said Dr. Todd Dewett, author of the book “Leadership Redefined.” “It does not happen overnight. It happens in tiny little chunks slowly. This is why it is difficult to read any given instance for what it is, let alone judge where you are in the process of becoming burned out.”
How to Spot Burnout Before it Happens
So as managers and leaders within our organizations, how do we make sure we spot burnout before it becomes a significant problem, and then what steps do we take to solve it?
How to Fix Burnout After it Happens
So now that we’ve identified how to prevent it, how do we fix it when burnout ultimately happens? There’s no one way to comprehensively “solve” burnout. It will inevitably depend on the person, which makes it often difficult to recognize and diagnose.
Perhaps you won’t be able to identify specific symptoms. Recognizing that something is different, and that the change is negative, is the first step to tackling the problem. So what’s next?
Summary
Nothing in this column is new to anyone. However, everything in this column can easily get lost in our daily lives as we wrestle with the demands of our jobs.
Print it out. Keep a checklist. Make sure you’re doing it. The result will be a team with a more positive outlook and a bigger capacity for long-term success.