EXECUTIVE BURNOUT & PREVENTIVE ACTIONS

Dr. Prakash V. Bhide

Kiran was a Hi Potential STAR in a financial company. He was an Engineer from IIT and MBA from IIM. He had a dream successful career and was promoted as Vice President at the age of 32. His boss and company had very high expectations from Kiran. Unfortunately even with long hours of work, within a year after promotion, Kiran is a wreck and facing burnout. Why? How can he be helped?

Even though executive burnout is reported to be growing at an alarming rate, it is not talked about much. The cost of burnout both for individuals as well as organization is very large. In a survey, it is reported that the cost is $200 billion per year for Australia as a country.

The term burnout was coined by Freudenberg (1974). The term burnout is described as “a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion that often result from a combination of very high expectations and persistent situational stress. It describes a state of depletion of person’s resources, particularly energy due to excessive

demands made on the person as a result of which the individual becomes apathetic and impassive towards work and other aspects of life.”

Radha Sharma (2005): “Executive burnout is marked by persistent feeling of inadequacy, ambiguity, dissatisfaction and powerlessness accompanied by behavioral manifestations of apathy, indifference and physical and emotional exhaustion.”

My experience shows that high potential talent and high performers with very high ambition and expectations are more prone to executive burnout. Many times ‘A’ players are found to be insecure overachievers. Even though they show external self-satisfaction, a large number of them lack self-confidence. They need constant appreciation and kudos much more than other ‘A’ players around them. They are never satisfied with anything. The best results, grades or promotion, are just ok for them. They work very long hours and can’t say ‘NO’ to unreasonable demands and expectations from superiors and other significant stakeholders because of inner insecurity that they will be left behind.

These high potential and high performer ‘A’ players, to meet their own and organizational expectations, work for very long hours under unremitting pressure of walking tight rope amongst conflicting interests of work, family, children and others. Over a period, they become lonely, harassed, burdened and go beyond a tipping point into psychological quicksand leading to physical, mental, emotional and psychological exhaustion. They become angry, go into self-criticism, cynicism, irritability, negativity, mood swings, powerlessness, overwhelmed, depressed, lack of motivation, self-control and sort of hit the wall. This leads them to absenteeism, alcohol, drug abuse etc. Many burnout cases report that they can’t sleep well, can’t eat well and are under chronic stress. There is a total loss of energy and interest and long-term psychological exhaustion and detachment. People report that they are empty, helpless and hopeless.

The major factors of burnout are:

1.) Type ‘A’ personality/stress personality.

2.) Very high ambition to meet own and & other significant stakeholder’s unreasonable and changing expectations.

3.) Role-expectation conflicts

4.) Role stagnation/Role erosion

5.) Personal inadequacy

6.) Low Emotional Intelligence (Self Awareness, Self Control)

Preventive Actions:

Individuals and organizations can do a lot to prevent burnout. Individuals should set reasonable expectations and say ‘No’ to things beyond their capacity. They must pay attention to work-life balance and periodically go on vacations with family and friends for socialization. Sharing with close friends is an effective way to come out of the burnout process. They must keep a positive attitude towards their life and rein their expectations. They must avoid long hours of work on a continuous basis and keep away from competing with others for promotions and more financial rewards. They should take help of executive coaches or, if necessary, therapists to come out of burnout. Meditation, spirituality, physical exercise, sports, pranayaam, self awareness and self control are very helpful.

Organizations should carefully watch the high potentials and high performers with Type ‘A’ personality who are obsessed with very high expectations and ambitions. With annual mental checkup, Maslach Burnout Inventory Test, initial symptoms of burnout can be detected. Counseling, feedback, executive coaching and therapy can be provided by the organization. Superiors should avoid pushing High Pots beyond their limits and expect long hours of work.

Even though stress is closely related to burnout, and many people use it synonymously, the concepts are slightly different. 

S.N	STRESS	BURNOUT
1.	Over engagement	Disengagement
2.	Emotions are over-active	Emotions are blunted
3.	Produces urgency & hyperactivity	Produces hopelessness and Helplessness
4.	Leads to anxiety disorders	Leads to disenchantment & depression
5.	Loss of physical energy	Loss of psychological motivation, ideals & hope
6.	Primary damage is physical	Primary damage is emotional & psychological
7.	Can occur at short intervals	Occurs slowly but creeps upon the person & goes from bad to worse as time goes on.
8.	It is like a frog dropped in boiling water jumps out	It is like frog slowly boiled in water does not jump out but adjusts to higher temperatures and ultimately dies.

As per me, I visualize EXECUTIVE BURNOUT as “A highly energetic bird trapped inside the golden cage of his own unreasonable ambition and expectations from self and significant others. Over a period of time it is exhausted, lonely unable to break through the psychological cage of expectations, feeling trapped mentally and emotionally exhausted and ultimately collapsing in the cage.”