When it comes to preventing burnout, if leaders don’t put their own oxygen masks on first, they’ll never be able to help their people avoid or overcome it. Take a moment to incorporate best practices for yourself that will help you stave off burnout. When you take care of yourself first, not only will you be able to confront this challenge in your organization, but your style of leadership will be noticed across everything you do.

When it comes to employee burnout, the numbers don’t lie. Your people and your bottom line suffer. To get ahead of burnout, leaders must proactively manage the entire ecosystem in an organization, from what tasks are given, ensuring timelines are reasonable, that people are playing to their strengths, and more importantly, ensuring you have an open door policy and co-collaborative approach when it comes to helping them deal with challenges.

In our hybrid workplace, the hours we work have become blurred between home and the “office”, which is leading to more burnout across organizations. As leaders, we have a responsibility to help ourselves and our people prevent burnout wherever possible. Learning to meet them where they are is a critical step. When you co-create solutions that meet their needs, you will set your people up for success as valued contributors to the organization.

Working to build your leadership muscles means using a mix of hard and soft skills and continually practicing them as your workdays ebb and flow. Those around you will be inspired to trust you and be their best as a result. Think of yourself as a beacon of stability in these changing times. Your people will thank you for your thoughtful servant leadership approach.

As a leader, you must undertake your own personal and professional growth journey so you can lead by example while helping your people achieve their full potential. You cannot control others, but if you are a self-aware and mindful leader who is truly committed to serving others, you will strike the right balance that allows everyone the freedom to co-create amazing things that help propel organizational success.

Leaders are tasked with competing priorities, responsible for balancing the needs of the organization, their team needs, as well as their own. While you can work on the many hard and soft skills of leadership, one item that is often overlooked is boundary-setting. As in any relationship, when you work with people, you need to establish healthy boundaries; ones that work for you and demonstrate servant leadership.‍

Establishing effective employee engagement initiatives isn't about setting up new policies and procedures, it's about creating an environment where people feel comfortable sharing their thoughts openly and freely. As a leader, it's up to you to help your people thrive. Your people look to you for inspiration, motivation, and clear direction on what they need to do. The more you support them to be their best, the more you will up-level your organization and your career.

If you want your employees to go the extra mile for you, you need to go the extra mile for them. Without your ongoing steady guidance, encouragement, and support, you risk employee disengagement, production and customer service will suffer, and your leadership role may be jeopardy. To right the ship, you need to continually adhere to employee experience best practices.