Achieving Work-Life Balance: A Guide for Leaders to Prevent Burnout and Excel in Business
Hong Kong has a predominantly workaholic culture where we praise and glorify being busy, staying at work well after regular work hours, and working on the weekends.
With all this work and little rest or play, how can we expect to lead our teams effectively when we fail to take care of our physical and mental health?
How burnout impacts our work performance?
Not enough sleep, exercise, or nutrition can severely damage our mental faculties. To expect our bodies and brains to make crucial decisions, lead with confidence, and connect with our teams when we are low or out of energy is a big ask.
We end up running on fumes, which leads to reacting rather than responding and being short on patience, among other things.
What is self care?
Self-care is caring for one's physical, mental, and emotional health. It can involve getting enough sleep, eating healthy foods, exercising regularly, and spending time with loved ones.
Self-care is essential for everyone, but it is crucial for leaders. Leaders are often under a lot of stress and must ensure they are taking care of themselves to be effective.
Let's roll out two different scenarios to explain this idea better.
A life without self care
Imagine you went home late the night before, only had a quick bite of fast food for dinner because it was the most convenient fix, and managed to sleep about 4 hours.
You wake up tired and late. You rush back to work for an important meeting with the team. You're in a bad mood due to a lack of sleep and lack of nutritious food, and healthy movement. Your neck and back are sore from sitting on the desk all day.
Someone made a mistake, and you feel the blood rushing. You react by shouting and being visibly angry. You regret reacting this way. The team grows resentful and scared.
A life with self care
In our second scenario, you leave work at 6. Hit the gym for your favorite class, then grab dinner with friends or family. You chose something delicious and full of nutrients. You eat the food slowly, enjoying the taste and the company.
You take time to unwind with a nice warm shower, a tea while you read a book and head to bed at a reasonable hour. The following day you wake up refreshed.
You prepare a quick breakfast: some eggs and toast with a piece of fruit. You do some light stretches, drink some water, do a gratitude practice and remember all the things that you are thankful for. You go to work and listen to your favorite playlist or podcast.
You arrive to work for your team meeting. You're in a good mood, you have been taking care of yourself. Someone made a mistake. You step up and ask them questions about how it happened. With the team you find ways you can fix the error and avoid it in the future.
The team is happy they feel like they are supported and their respect for you grows. You're proud of how you handled that situation.
Benefits of Self Care for Leaders
There is a perception that self care is about massages and spas, which could definitely be included in the list but are just two of many options you can practice to take care of yourself.
There is also the myth that self care is for women or housewives, when in reality everyone is in need for self care. It’s about finding what practices work for you and how you can make time for including these in your routine.
There are many benefits to self-care for leaders. Self-care can help leaders to:
- Reduce stress
- Improve their mood
- Increase their energy levels
- Improve their focus and concentration
- Make better decisions
- Be more productive
- Build resilience
- Practicing Self Care
If you don’t know where to start, here we list many ways to practice self-care. Some everyday self-care activities include:
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- Getting enough sleep
- Eating healthy foods
- Exercising regularly
- Spending time with loved ones
- Relaxation techniques (e.g., yoga, meditation, massage)
- Spending time in nature
- Reading
- Listening to music
- Taking a vacation
Tips for making self-care a priority
We know that taking care of ourselves is important, but the real challenge arises when we need to put it into practice. Here are some tips about how to make self care a priority:
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- Schedule time for self-care in your day.
- Make self-care a non-negotiable.
- Don't feel guilty about taking time for yourself.
- Find a support system of people who encourage you to take care of yourself.
- Be patient with yourself. It takes time to develop healthy self-care habits.
Self-care is essential for leaders because it helps them to be more effective. When leaders care for themselves, they can better handle stress, make good decisions, and be productive. Self-care is also vital for setting an excellent example for others. Leaders who model healthy self-care habits encourage their employees to do the same.
Tiara Hoquee
Psychologist and Emotional Intelligence Coach
Extended reading:
Mental Wellness is Under Attack, Especially for Business Leaders
According to World Health Organisation, mental health is "the state of wellbeing in which every individual realizes his or her potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and can make a contribution to her or his community".
Mental wellness is now under attack, especially for leaders. Many leaders are struggling with mental health challenges and yet, hardly seek help or acknowledge any issues. In many cultures, leaders are expected to be strong and not show any vulnerability and this is driving leaders to worse mental spaces. Mental health challenges can take an individual from being competent to simply trying to survive. This affects leaders as individuals, their families, and the organizations they lead.
Here are some of the mental health challenges facing leaders.
Uncertainty
There is so much uncertainty in the workplace and this is becoming stressful for managers and leaders. With the recent pandemic, for example, no one knows what new issue will sprout and leaders are facing anxiety. This is especially because the occurrences such as a pandemic are way beyond a leader’s control and they can’t do anything about the situation. As a result, they develop anxiety, which can lead to physical problems such as hypertension.
Anxiety from distractions
We live and work in a very distracted world. There is a barrage of messages, chats, calls, and online meetings. This causes anxiety as the distractions are exhausting and often lead to poor performance and burnout. Our work environment has become a place where everyone is required to stay connected. Should one go offline, they could miss out on opportunities and leaders have to be reachable by their workforce which makes them more prone to anxiety resulting from distractions.
Loneliness
It is lonely at the top and many leaders can attest to that. Working long hours is expected to have all the answers and having to take care of everyone can be exhausting. Leaders sometimes feel isolated and feel that they cannot show their weaknesses and struggles to their employees. This loneliness is mentally exhausting and many leaders turn to habits such as alcoholism to cope.
Burnout
There is so much to do with so little time, especially for leaders. Everyone is looking up to leaders for solutions when they face challenges. Many have little time to take care of themselves, recuperate, and often suffer burnout from the stresses of work.
Balancing demands outside the workplace
Leaders are mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, brothers, sisters, and friends. Leaders have demands outside their places of work that they need to meet. Juggling work demands and home demands can be too much for some and it often leads to stress and the feeling that they can’t do it all.
How to help leaders who are suffering from mental health challenges?
To appropriately deal with mental health issues facing leaders, we first need to destigmatize mental health. Leaders also need to drop the mindset that they can "tough it out" since ignoring mental health issues will not make them go away. When we make it a norm that even the best of us can suffer from mental health challenges, the stigma dissolves and many will be open to seeking help. By encouraging leaders to be more vulnerable, we admit that are all human and we are bound to face challenges now and then.
Secondly, organizations can open channels through which leaders can seek help. There are mindfulness programs that help leaders address their mental health problems. These programs help us become centered and explore within ourselves to understand what we are going through and what we can do about it. When leaders model the behavior of seeking help, the rest of the workforce will be open to the idea as well.
Conclusion
Uncertainty, anxiety, loneliness, and burnout are some of the leading causes of stress among leaders. Traditionally, leaders are expected to have it together and not fall apart or ask for help. Thankfully, that school of thought is being challenged and leaders are being perceived as humans who have weak moments and can seek help. By reducing the stigma surrounding mental health, we can all seek help and learn techniques to help reduce stress and burnout.
The Destiny Team