The trigger is stealthy and develops incrementally, with the potential of achieving chronic levels and the ultimate status of an occupational or psychological hazard.

Burnout, if left unattended, can debilitate our mental, physical and emotional health. But similar to other medical conditions, the earlier burnout is detected, the faster we can find an off-ramp and reroute our pathway to harmony.

The good news is that we know the warning signs.

*Emotionally, we may feel disappointment and disillusionment with work or sentiments of being undervalued.

*Physically, we may experience stubborn fatigue, restlessness and an inability to sleep through the night.

*Mentally, confusion, inattentive disposition and clouded thinking are leading indicators.

There is no quick fix for burnout — it takes time to get burned out and even more time to overcome it. If you’re missing deadlines at work, perceiving routine tasks as stressful, thinking about quitting while displaying increased tardiness, absenteeism, irritability or loss of motivation, it may be time for a change.

Here are a few tips that professionals and job seekers can consider when contemplating a career move to help avoid or mitigate burnout:

Listen to the click. Much like how a gas pump clicks as the tank reaches its limit, life provides a click for stress, tension and physical ailments. It’s a sign that we’re at capacity, and it’s time to stop pumping. Listen to your body and adjust accordingly.

Know your “why.” Reconnecting with the mission or purpose of your work provides the context to “zoom out” and put daily tasks into perspective. Understanding how your work contributes to an overall mission is the key to meaningful engagement. Feeling valued and consequential enables you to ignite your inner fire without fear of burnout.

Use your time-outs. In sports, coaches call a time-out to bring focus, assess the flow and momentum of the game and craft their next play. Professionally, micro-vacations serve that same function by helping you reassess your current situation.

Take a moment to take stock. Engage in authentic reflection, quiet your mind and make an inventory of your concerns. Uncertainty and ambiguity can intensify disengagement and burnout. Combat them by scouting the landscape for the scope and volume of your current responsibilities to better understand where to focus your attention in the future.

Schedule your life, not just your tasks. Rather than filling out your calendar based on things to do, organize it around your primary roles in life. Think in terms of your role as a spouse, parent, friend, colleague or employee. This allows you to see if you are neglecting any of these roles over a period of time. Doing this brings visibility to your choices in terms of how you spend time doing what matters most to you.

If you see the warning signs, act now to get yourself back on track.  Life is too short to let it burn you out.  Seek the full life of inspiration that is calling to you.

Creating an organizational culture of full engagement and nurturing a sense of community where people feel connected isn’t easy — especially when we’re working remotely.

National polls indicate about 67% of employees in white-collar jobs reported working from home in 2021. A majority of those migrated into a virtual environment within their current organization where they had established relationships. But how can we successfully integrate ourselves when we make a career pivot or change jobs?

Entering a hybrid or fully remote setting requires a shift from conventional practices for creating a good first impression and establishing meaningful working relationships.

Gone are the casual and spontaneous conversations in the hallway, elevator or cafeteria tables that enabled people to share interests, gauge enthusiasm, observe expressions and capture useful tips to better acclimate to the team and organizational culture.

These dynamics have been replaced with video call habits like turning your video on, unmuting and typing in the chat. Technical connectivity is the new pathway for getting to know others, establishing trust, building bonds and creating a sense of belonging.

Despite the benefits of remote work such as cost and time savings, working virtually may also trigger sentiments of isolation and disenfranchisement.

Those planning to change jobs must be mindful of the implications of integrating into the new culture remotely. Be mindful of your sources of emotional energy — for example, people who thrive on social interactions and interpersonal engagement may experience a lack of stimulation that can lead to dissatisfaction and burnout.

Engagement can’t merely be delegated to the onboarding process or the HR department. Being proactive will ignite your creative thinking and stimulate ways to seek and create engagement opportunities.

Those struggling to forge connections in an online work environment should consider these tips:

Small talk, big outcomes. Never underestimate the power of small talk. Create rituals before and after every meeting or remote gathering to foster openness. Sharing emotions, gratitude and vulnerabilities help remote relationships transcend transactional communications. The constancy of purpose and consistency of action builds the connective tissue that brings people together at an emotional level.

Lead forums of special interests. Start a forum to offer tips regarding hobbies or pastimes or book discussions. These help people have substantive conversations and allow their interests, values, experiences, perspectives, and beliefs to surface. You will attract people who share a common interest, and this creates comfort as you build your social network.

Facilitate ideation sessions. Invite people to brainstorming sessions about current issues in the workplace. You are not alone in navigating the ambiguity and emotions of working remotely. Gather a group of coworkers to address a prompt like, “How-Might-We create engaging working relationships while working remotely?” Promote innovative and even wild ideas. This will help participants share their views and at the same time collaborate and uncover initiatives that could benefit the entire organization.

More is not better. Monitor your connectivity and establish online routines. Create your “closed-door” moments for immersive work and establish your technical boundaries of accessibility. Working remotely dissolves the demarcations of availability and creates the pressure of responding to every communication. This is particularly taxing and intrusive when you have colleagues and clients in different time zones.

Busyness is not progress. In an interconnected world overstimulated by feeds, alarms, and reminders, it’s easy to confuse busyness with progress and high activity with advancement. As we seek efficiencies to cross out our list of things to do and respond immediately to everything without discerning its level of importance, we dangerously drift from effectiveness. Focus on doing the right thing, not just on doing things right.

This blog originally appeared in AZ Central.

No longer did we dress up for work, stress in traffic or compete for parking. Rushing to meetings became a simple keyboard click. At first, we experienced a concoction of complexity, chaos, ambiguity and uncertainty. It seemed unmanageable to get work done.

But we adapted and realized we had gained an incredibly valuable asset: time. We became able to contemplate bigger questions, and to reassess.

Am I heading in the right direction? Why am I working so hard? What do I really want? What brings fulfillment to my life? What is my purpose, my passion? What energizes me?

For many, these questions led to a common answer: a need to switch careers.

It’s not easy to shift careers. It’s an emotionally disruptive experience that also carries a latent risk of failure. To those taking the plunge, I offer these tips:

Find your burning yes. Be driven by exploring and pursuing a meaningful and creative opportunity, versus simply avoiding something that is no longer stimulating. What is your picture of success? What is your picture of fulfillment?

Imagine your successful shift realized. Write down your aim and imagine what it would be like to fulfill it. Think in terms of legacy. What impact would you like to have? This will become your private contract with yourself and a reminder that your shift is in pursuit of a worthy purpose.

Be willing to iterate. Shifting careers is not an event but a process. Building your new level of comfort and expertise will be slow and gradual. There are no shortcuts to discovery. Being adaptive will help build resiliency.

Don’t try to be perfect. Keep in mind that most career-shifters are looking for opportunities that will stretch their thinking and help them develop new skills. Change your relationship with failure. Embrace failure as validation that you are audaciously trying new things. It’s only when you fail, acknowledge failure and reflect on it that you give learning a chance.

Align the shift with your gifts. What is your uniqueness? What talents can you apply to a new context? You are leaving behind your career but not your essence. You are changing what you do but not who you are.

Make your switch with authenticity and assertiveness.

Be proud and share your story. You will find that your narrative and your actions will inspire many others to rethink their own situation.

NOTE: A version of this blog appeared in the Arizona Republic.

You and your team are about to do both.  Leaders need to pay special attention to this important time as we all begin going back to our offices more regularly.  Empathy will be key to your success.

COVID-19 accelerated people leaving behind things the way they were and embracing the new way, which led to them developing new habits.  Now people are being asked to abandon this new way and let go quickly. That manifests in disruption and vulnerability with people having already adapted and being forced to adapt once again.

It’s these types of moments where leaders need to be sensitive to what people are going through. Understanding how employees are feeling at this time is critical to accelerating the organization’s reintegration. People have been impacted by this pandemic in varying scope and levels of intensity, and every conversation is unique.

Here are five considerations as you work with your team about how to create your new normal:

Look for meaning. Consider why someone is sharing specific details with you about their situation, but don’t rush to solve the issue right then and there – just listen. Silence is your friend. Don’t interrupt, but ask questions for clarification when necessary, “What do you mean by that?” “Tell me more,” or a simple nod, will allow you to relate to the situation at a deeper level.

Read between the lines. Stay in the moment and focus on what you hear and what you see. The unspoken parts of communication can offer relevant clues.  What emotions are you observing? What expressions and gestures are reinforcing the feeling? Are the spoken and unspoken communications in harmony? All of those details are important to pick up on.

Seek the proper context. After allowing for the meaning and feelings to emerge, it is important to get some specifics and demonstrate curiosity.  When, how and where did something happen? Gather the facts, make your assumptions explicit and seek clarification. How widespread is this issue? Is this person representing the views of others or is this their own point of view? Paraphrase your understanding of the message and let the person react to it. Never walk away without this validation.

Assess the consequences. Are there unintended consequences or irreversible implications that may emerge? As you seek empathy, be mindful of your own emotions. Are you genuinely interested in how others feel? Are you in tune with how they feel? How do you know? Are you mindful of how their emotions are influencing you?

Don’t watch the clock. When people ask if you have a minute, consider the intensity of the request and try not to postpone the conversation.  They may change their minds and not tell you. Is this a priority that requires immediate action or attention? Assess the risk of inaction or postponement.  Recognizing the time sensitivity with respect to the request is an opportunity to take action and our options should be to respond with compassion and comfort.

Leaders need to draw upon deep empathy and take the time to work through these issues with their teams in order to make the back-to-office transition successful.

A similar article also appeared in Smith Brain Trust.

We were young, dedicated athletes. I took basketball seriously  and I had to train hard and take good care of myself. Twoten loved junk food and he could eat forever without gaining a pound and had the capacity to sustain high levels of performance. Looking back on it now, it’s evident we had different metabolisms and processed our caloric intake differently.

Similarly in the workplace, some are able to consume immoderate amounts from the menu of things to-do while others feel a cognitive and emotional imbalance from the same diet. Just like our biological metabolic system, we all process the consumption of expectations and requirements differently.

Do you know your work metabolism?

If you find yourself busy and active yet feeling chronically stuck, tired or overwhelmed and mentally saturated, it could be indicative of a slow work metabolism. Adding more activities and things to do will not necessarily be translated into energy, but create a physical, emotional, and mental overload.

On the other hand, if you feel exhilaration when engaging in new projects and challenges, and the more you take on the greater your energy and excitement, it could be indicative of having a high work metabolism.

One type of metabolism is not necessarily better than the other, and just like our biological metabolism, different eating habits, lifestyle and overall quality of life play a role in our metabolic rate.

In my executive coaching, I often see the mismatch of metabolisms at play. Executives that thrive on the edge of overload without awareness of the burnout it is causing on the team or the toll it takes in their families, keep going and going under the misguided compulsion that more is better, and all activity leads to progress. They can’t see the adverse impact because they feel recharged.

Is it possible to change our work metabolism?

Changing your work metabolism is possible yet it is a gradual process requiring constancy of purpose and consistency of action. The constancy of purpose will give us the aspirational target we want to achieve and the consistency of action, the discipline to create new habits as we move in the direction of our intention.

Perhaps you want to slow down a bit or accelerate your work metabolism. A candid reflection to assess our workload and discern when the volume or intensity of actions and initiatives are not healthy for us or for those around us, or how much we have on our plate is an important first step. Start slow making gradual changes in your “work caloric intake.”

Be mindful of the adjustments you are making and appreciate the small new habits that you are creating. Doing otherwise is detrimental to you and those around you and ultimately affect your quality of life.

Maybe it was fear of judgment, fear of rejection or fear of being perceived as unintelligent that deterred you. You might have looked around in search of signs from others that confirmed your confusion, only to find none.

But a courageous soul asks the exact same question you’ve been percolating for several minutes, to which the boss responds with: “That’s a brilliant question!” Everyone is glad the question was asked, since the confusion was silently shared by many. The team is thankful for the intervention, but you are distracted by the resentment from not speaking up.

If you’ve experienced something similar, you are in the company of many. I call this, “inquisitive hesitancy.” Asking basic questions is no reason to feel exposed or experience the powerful psychological forces of the impostor syndrome, which typifies the invasive doubt that we feel if we perceive we lack the required knowledge, talents or skills.

We can relinquish ourselves of these feelings if we embrace and trust our inner voice. If your inner voice is curious, honor yourself with the exploration and speak up. Ask questions, make comments and seek understanding. If you do, you will not only advance your understanding, but will also nurture your inquisitive confidence.

This dynamic is manifested in team meetings and amplified when the boss asks for new ideas, opens the floor for questions or simply asks: “What do you think?”

As leaders we must be sensitive to the forces of this hesitancy, embrace all the questions asked by our staff and reinforce that the notion that questions are welcomed and necessary for progress.

Questions are the scaffolding to seek understanding. Learning begins with the question that we cannot answer, but as Plato, the Classical Greek philosopher noted, “The first and best victory is to conquer self.”

Ignorance is not a sign of vulnerability, but rather the foundation to help us frame relevant questions. Always remember that it is only when we admit that we do not know, that we give learning a chance. Speak up and let your curiosity resonate.

When reentering the atmosphere, astronauts experience a period of turbulence where there is great suspense, extreme heat, interrupted communication, and everything happens at remarkable speed.  We should expect to undergo a threshold of discomfort as we re-familiarize ourselves with our old surroundings and routines.

During quarantine, many of us working from home saw our roles in the homefront amplified and the demands of the moment required us to multitask like never before. The line between personal responsibilities and professional ones blurred. Transitioning from virtual staff meetings to homeschooling, caregiving and then back to other work engagements became the new normal.

Juggling and blending our responsibilities has been exhausting. But along the way, we’ve developed new routines, stayed connected with friends, enjoyed time with the family, and exercised.  We picked up new hobbies and perhaps found that our time previously spent commuting is now dedicated to more fulfilling activities. We missed going to the office, but now we are vested in this new reality and you might struggle with going back.

Transitioning back to the office can be not only draining, but also treacherous because of the emotional landmines that we may encounter.

To ease into this period of workplace reentry, here is some advice.

Avoid comparing then to now. Understand that your work environment will not be the way it used to be. Don’t spend your energy trying to force past routines into the present environment. Instead, focus on the opportunities and benefits of this new setting, embrace the differences and leverage the moment to innovate and introduce positive change.

Be empathic. Be mindful that those around you are experiencing the same crisis but in different ways. They are adapting and may unconsciously display new behaviors or attitudes.

Calibrate your goals. In a dynamic environment, it is important to revisit and adjust your priorities and goals. Doing so will keep you focused and productive in the current context. Keep in perspective that your expectations of teamwork and collaboration, as well as team spirit will not be the same, and it may impact your efficiency and productivity.

Voice your concerns. If you are confronted with job requirements that put you in a risky or vulnerable position, speak up. All levels of the organization are grappling with the crisis, and sometimes decisions and actions may inadvertently put team members in compromising situations. The environment is prone to unintended consequences and your perspective can bring them a welcome early warning signal.

Stay proactive. Uncertainty and ambiguity grow if you stand still. Unproductive worry can be paralyzing. Being proactive will give you a sense of agency and control about the way forward. It will keep you agile and responsive to address emerging changes and most importantly, it will allow you to influence the character of the future rather than waiting for it.

We adjusted before and we will adjust again! Take Care, Be Safe, and Good Luck with Re-entry.

An earlier version of this article appeared in Smith Brain Trust, July 13, 2020.

COVID-19 has melted our concept of normalcy and turned our traditional vacations and leisure activities into a high-risk proposition.  Seeking a Safecation begins with our desire to reinvigorate our spirit and recharge our soul, and this can happen anywhere we are.

The emotional toll of the pandemic and the mix of powerful emotions it is triggering – such as fear, guilt, worry caused by the loss of life, financial vulnerability and job insecurity – are like a psychological Molotov cocktail.  Add to these worries the responsibility of homeschooling, daily house tasks, adapting to new technologies and the demands of virtual work, and – you need a break.

We’ve lost our sense of stability, and the demarcations between home life and work life are blurred.  We’ve been working in overdrive with no transitions and decompression time from work to our home.  Here are some principles to keep in mind for your Safecation:

Flatten the curve, not your dreams.  Indulging your fear initiates a cycle of unproductive worry. Worry exists in our imagination through images and narratives of something going wrong. We can channel that energy and gain a sense of control if we change the images to desired positive outcomes. Planning a vacation gives us permission to dream, and its details give us a sense of control and something to look forward to with anticipation and excitement.

Put yourself on digital quarantine.  Disengage from stressful activities and place your needs at the top of your list of priorities. Reduce the overstimulation and bombardment of information brought to us by social media. Disconnect from technology and reconnect with yourself.

View the world through the eyes of a traveler.  Recalibrate your perspective and appreciate the moment with mindfulness. Traveling forces us to see differences among things that are similar or familiar. We can accomplish the same by looking at our surroundings through the eyes of a traveler. Changing your patterns and performing your routine in a different room in the house can help in creating a modified experience in your habitual setting.

Creating a modified vacation experience must be done with a sense of optimism, embracing the possibilities of your surroundings and most importantly trusting your resiliency to adapt and derive joy from it.

Break up your routines: explore nature, read books not related to work, take on new physical fitness challenges, rearrange the furniture in your house – give it a new look, or engage the family in fun and interactive activities.

While this summer will be different that others in the past, it is still important to take that time off.  Plan your Safecation now.

An earlier version of this article appeared in Smith Brain Trust, May 20, 2020.

When visiting family, frantic shopping and financial pressures extend our to-do lists during the holiday season, it seems that more people spend time bracing for impact, rather than kicking back and enjoying.

The anticipation of holidays is now requiring that we get ready, instead of approaching it as a time to let go, enjoy and be in the here and now.

Too much of our focus and attention during the holiday season is consumed by clutter, busyness and the next task on our to-do list. Constantly worrying about what’s next comes at the expense of enjoying the present.

The issue with busyness and things to do is that we forget life ought to be around “how to just be.”

With every little task we accomplish without mindfulness, we forfeit our joy.  If you can, take advantage of the chance to decompress, reflect and recharge.  This is an opportunity to step back from the daily rigor and make an effort to adjust the pace of a hectic routine.

To get the most out of the holiday season, here are some tips:

Imperfect is Perfect.  Let go of the self-imposed burden of perfection – the perfect house, decorations, dinner and gifts. Rigidly adhering to these high standards is a recipe for stress, because there is always more to be accomplished if we are aiming at perfection.

Recalibrate. Calibrate expectations and redefine what makes a great holiday season. Maybe it’s disconnecting from technology, exercising more or relaxing and reconnecting with friends and family.

Less is enough. We have to indulge in simplicity and declutter our brains from things to do.  Appreciate with mindfulness every moment and interaction, find meaning in what is happening around us and embrace the spirit of the season.

Zoom out. Look at the calendar and not at the clock.  Look at the big picture of your day, not at the nitty-gritty of activities and the fragmentation of your day. Appreciate the big picture and approach it for what it is: a season. It’s not a short-term event; it’s a joyful time if we make it so.

All the best to you for finding true joy this holiday season.

A similar article also appeared in Smith Brain Trust.