Rules of Engagement: How Leaders Can Prevent Team Burnout

A recent study conducted by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence revealed that a staggering one out of five highly engaged employees is at risk for burnout. The burnout was severe enough that despite feeling passionate about their jobs, many reported an intention to leave their positions soon. The most effective leaders recognize the importance of cultivating employee engagement while minimizing feelings of frustration. Following these three easy tips helps ensure you’ve achieved the right balance with your team:

1. Provide Helpful, Specific Feedback

Lack of feedback can leave employees feeling out of the loop and unappreciated, while the right feedback can boost employee confidence and motivation. The best feedback is focused and specific. Imagine a manager who says, “Great job at that meeting the other day.” The team member walks away feeling somewhat gratified, but also uninformed because the feedback lacked specifics.

Imagine now that same leader says to the employee, “Great job with your presentation. Your delivery was concise and confident, and everyone appeared very receptive to your message. I was impressed at how effectively you answered the questions that came up and could tell you spent time ahead of time thinking through what might be asked. Good work!”

Feedback that answers questions about when, where and what the team member did right can lead to a repeat of desirable behaviors and increase their initiative. Employees who know they’re on the right track are more resilient and better able to avoid burnout.

2. Listen to Your Team

Team members should always feel welcome to come into your office and talk. The more time you spend talking to and listening to your employees, the more you’ll know about the specific challenges that they’re facing. This makes it possible to address problems in their early stages. To supplement your open door policy, schedule a standing meeting with each team member on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. These weekly one-on-ones will help you stay informed from members of the team who might not feel comfortable coming into your office spontaneously.

3. Focus on Wellness

Encourage employees to take care of their minds and bodies. Schedule stress-reduction sessions, provide healthy snacks at meetings and order an ergonomic assessment for each workstation. Focus on wellness to encourage employees to develop healthy habits, reduce stress, and avoid burnout.

The good news? Not all highly engaged employees are at risk for burnout. According to the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, two out of every five highly engaged employees feel good about their work and have few negative feelings about their current position. To cultivate these feelings of engagement, provide useful feedback, maintain good communication with members of your team, and focus on promoting wellness among your team members.

This piece was originally published by Judy Kirby, who has served as president of Kirby Partners since 1994. To follow the company on Twitter, click here.