In the dynamic landscape of modern leadership, managing the ever-evolving demands of the workplace while maintaining a sense of balance and well-being is a formidable challenge. Burnout, a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress, has become a pervasive issue that can undermine both individual performance and team cohesion. For leaders, recognizing the early signs of burnout and implementing proactive measures is not just a responsibility but a necessity.
This episode is dedicated to exploring the 3Ps—Prioritize, Push Back, and Pause—three pivotal strategies designed to help leaders effectively manage stress, delegate tasks, and ensure both they and their teams can function at their best. Prioritization involves organizing tasks in a manner that aligns with their urgency and importance, thus alleviating unnecessary stress. Pushing back signifies the art of communicating with supervisors to set realistic expectations and boundaries, enabling a more manageable workload. Lastly, pausing emphasizes the importance of taking breaks to rejuvenate and return to work with renewed energy and focus.
By mastering these strategies, leaders can create a more sustainable work environment, one that not only mitigates the risk of burnout but also enhances overall productivity and job satisfaction. Join us as we delve deep into these essential techniques, equipping you with the tools needed to navigate the peaks and valleys of your professional life with resilience and grace. Understanding and applying the 3Ps is not just about surviving the demands of leadership—it’s about thriving amidst them, ensuring long-term success for you and your team.
Timestamped Overview
- 03:00 Helps relieve stress, recognize it in others.
- 07:30 Ignoring values and withdrawing: signs of panic.
- 09:45 Recognize burnout signs, prioritize, take action.
- 13:45 Delegate non-urgent, non-important tasks to others.
- 18:08 Managing time effectively is essential for productivity.
- 20:29 High-stress finance team member finds stress relief.
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Scott McCarthy
Transcript
The following is an AI generated transcript which should be used for reference purposes only. It has not been verified or edited to reflect what was actually said in the podcast episode.
Scott McCarthy [00:00:01]:
Yes. Welcome, 1. Welcome, all. It is your chief leadership officer, Scott McCarthy, here. And weekly live video, and we’re gonna be talking about tackling burnout because I hear from you all regularly. Scott, I’m exhausted. Scott, my team stressed out. Scott, we are a burnout.
Scott McCarthy [00:00:27]:
Scott, you know, we just can’t handle it anymore. There’s so much going on right now. And the reality is it’s just a normal thing. Okay? Now is it normal to be consistently burnt out? No. But from time to time, you know, we go through these peaks and valleys of how much stress and strain we’re in. Sometimes, you know, it’s it’s good. Life’s good. We’re just kinda chugging along, doing our thing and just, you know, doing it.
Scott McCarthy [00:01:05]:
But then, you know, deadlines get piled on top of us. Dead tasks get piled on top of us. We have an issue here with one of our team members. Gets piled on top of us and just keeps adding, adding, and suddenly, the stress builds up and suddenly, boom, we’re just like, I’m just had it. No doubt you felt that way too. Okay? So today, I’m gonna talk to you about 3 strategies, the 3 p’s on how to combat hernia. Now, is this gonna be is the magic red pill or blue pill depending on your preference? And let me know if you know that quote, by the way, or that reference, I should say. No.
Scott McCarthy [00:01:51]:
It’s not going to be, but it will be the advil or Tylenol. So it’s not going to completely solve it, but it’s going to help relieve it. And then you’ll get through it. And then as you get through it, then you come back down and get through it and then you go back to that kinda steady state. So before we dive into the 3 p’s, let’s talk a bit about burnout itself. And I want you to be able to understand, 1, the signs of it so that you can either recognize it in yourself or you can recognize it in your team members as a team lead. Okay? So let’s talk about burnout is basically it’s it’s emotional, physical even, and mental exhaustion. And this is caused by prolonged stress.
Scott McCarthy [00:02:51]:
So, again, back to what I said earlier, things getting piled on top of each other, car broke down, filed with the spouse, boss pushed the deadline up, person called it sick, someone else quit, project delayed, yada yada yada. TPS report is due, GPS port, you know, was the wrong cover sheet. Boom. Boom. Boom. It’s add on. And suddenly, you just feel exhausted. You’re ready to, you know, kinda explode.
Scott McCarthy [00:03:22]:
K? It doesn’t have to be even that extreme. K? There are some other ways that you can identify in yourself or your team members that burnout may be setting in. And, again, we want to be proactive, not reactive, to addressing this because being proactive is always better than being reactive. K? Proactive means you’re getting in front of the problem. Reactive means the problem’s in front of you. Now you have to deal with it even more. So if you find yourself neglecting needs, okay, not eating properly, not sleeping properly, not getting exercise it, not hanging out with friends, not doing the things you love, This is a identifier of burnout coming in. If you basically displace problems, so you just kind of shove it on, whatever.
Scott McCarthy [00:04:30]:
Alright? But the reality is that can turn around and cause panic because, again, you’re being you’re pushing into a reactive mode because you’re kind of pushing it down later and later to a point where you need to then suddenly deal with it leading to panic. Suddenly, you start going against your values. So if you have a value of family, but suddenly, you’re just purely focused on work and neglecting your family or getting your team members and then neglect theirs. Okay? And this is over a prolonged period because, you you know, there’ll be peaks and valleys in in works, you know, busyness. It happens. Sometimes, you know what? You have to take care of work more so than the family, but then you have to balance it out later, come back down. But if you’re not doing that, keeping it always work work work work work, and you’re forgetting about your values and other things, that could be a sign. If you’re withdrawing, so maybe, you know, before you used to take your lunch breaks and used to hang out with your with with your friends, coworkers, laugh, and chat.
Scott McCarthy [00:05:46]:
If you’re withdrawing from your friends outside your work, withdrawing from your community, withdrawing from your family, these are all signs that per minute could be coming in. If people start talking to you and start going, hey. You know, you’ve been withdrawn lately. Hey. You’re not doing what you used to do. Hey. Like, are you gonna come with me on our usual bike ride or yoga class? I miss my workout partner. Hey.
Scott McCarthy [00:06:14]:
I miss my book book club partner. K? These could be signs of burnout as well. Depersonalization. So what that means is you’re no longer valuing the people. Joe’s and Jane’s and Sally’s, you don’t value them as people, but rather you look at them as objects just to get things done. That could be another sign. Inner emptiness. You’re like, so empty.
Scott McCarthy [00:06:45]:
I just feel so alone and just like, and then you start trying to fill this void with negative things such as alcohol, drugs even, overeating potentially. K? Depression, that feeling of getting you know, you’re lost or unsure about the future. This can all be signs of burnout. So if you notice this in you or your team members, you have to involve yourself to start taking action and then team members have a conversation and as the team lead, team manager, start taking action in them. Okay? So with that, we’ve talked about now what burnout is and some signs and how to recognize it. Let’s talk about the 3 p’s in overcoming these three strategies. The first one is a word that I use so much in our leader growth mastermind, which is our elite community for leaders who want to, you know, grow and develop their skills, and that is prioritize. Prioritize.
Scott McCarthy [00:07:59]:
Prioritize. Prioritize. You have to prioritize your workload because it’ll never all get done. Accept it today. Except that now. Work will always be there. It will always be there. There will always be something to do 100%.
Scott McCarthy [00:08:21]:
Okay? There’s always gonna be something to do, So you need to prioritize what you do and when you do it, and that is a form of hitting the the relief valve on stress. Now I’m going to talk to you about the strategy of prioritization that I teach. Okay? And that is the Eisenhower matrix. Love this. It was developed by former general slash US president, Dwight Eisenhower, and it is a quadrant of 4, okay, 4, 4, not 3, but 4. Okay? Four side you know, 4 spots. Okay? Think of it now. At the top, you have urgency, and on the side, you have importance.
Scott McCarthy [00:09:10]:
So we have urgent, not urgent, important, not important, which develops 4 quadrants. Okay? So for the stuff that is urgent and important, I want you to do it right away. And that’s going to relieve some stress because those urgent important things are gonna be weighing on you because they’re the most important stuff. They have to get done right now. If you don’t get done right now, stress is going to pile on it. Your boss is gonna be on top of you, breathing down your neck. Hey. Where’s the TPS report? It’s due.
Scott McCarthy [00:09:43]:
Let’s go. I need it. So the urgent important stuff, we’re going to do right away. Another quadrant in the prioritization matrix is the important, not urgent stuff. So it’s important. Gotta get to do it. But it does not get done right away. And what you’re gonna do with that is you’re gonna schedule it.
Scott McCarthy [00:10:08]:
You’re gonna plan for when you’re going to take care of it. Hey. Friday morning, 9 till 10, TPS report. I’m nailing that sucker. Put it in your calendar. Put it right in your calendar, working on it. Okay? And what that’s going to do is relieve some of the stress because you have a plan. You’re in proactive mode now, not reactive mode, and that, again, is relieving some of that stress for the urgent but not important stuff.
Scott McCarthy [00:10:45]:
You know? Like, hey. Those things get done, but it’s not super important that it’s worth my time. If you’re going as a team, you need to delegate it. You’re going to pass that on. You know? You’re gonna give that to a team member or outsource it if you have the ability to do so. K? But the thing is is that you your time needs to be spent with the important stuff as a leader, what’s important to you. Right? So urgent, not so important stuff, delegate it down. And then finally, the 4th quadrant, my favorite of the quadrants in the matrix is not urgent, not important stuff.
Scott McCarthy [00:11:30]:
We’re gonna delete it. Just gonna stop doing it. K? It’s like, hey. No one reads the CPS rules. You know, there’s no deadlines associated to it and, you know, like, thinks it’s important. You know? Just stop doing it. Suddenly, you have one last task, one last task on your list of tasks that isn’t sucking up your bandwidth. That is the first key.
Scott McCarthy [00:12:04]:
There are other prioritization frameworks that I teach in the Inner Growth Mastermind. However, this is the one that pertains best to the situation in Burnout. I love the Eisenhower matrix. Again, important urgent stuff you wanna do. The not urgent important stuff you want to schedule, urgent not important stuff you want to delegate, and then finally, the, not important, not origin stuff, get rid of it. Just get rid of it. Okay. So that’s the first p.
Scott McCarthy [00:12:43]:
We’re gonna be on the p number 2. P number 2 is gonna push back. If her boss comes to you, your supervisor comes to you and says, hey. Got a task for you. Okay, boss. Great. You give me 5 tasks. This is how you push back.
Scott McCarthy [00:13:01]:
You know, thank you. I understood. You give me 5 things. I can do 3 with the amount of time I have. Which 2 am I not doing? So what you’re not doing is you’re not saying no. No one likes to hear no. Right? You as a supervisor. You as a leader.
Scott McCarthy [00:13:24]:
You definitely don’t wanna hear no and neither does your yours. Right? But what you’re saying to your supervisor is you need to prioritize my load now. I got 3. Give me 5. I can do 3. So which 2 am I not doing? K. I think, you know, this one here is super important, and we need to get done ASAP. So I should definitely do this one.
Scott McCarthy [00:13:56]:
This one here, maybe. This one here, honestly, I don’t recommend we do it all. This one I should probably do. So my recommendation is this one, that one, this other one here, and there’s 2 outliers. They can go away, and that’s my 3. What do you think? Okay. Again, you’re putting the onus back on your supervisor. You’re pushing it back to them.
Scott McCarthy [00:14:20]:
You’re getting them to prioritize your load. You’re pushing it back, but you’re doing it in a respectful way. You’re not saying no. Rather, you know, what are my priorities? Because it is what I like to refer to. It’s actually here. This is what I want you to do. I take your right hand and put it up. Your index finger up and your thumb out.
Scott McCarthy [00:14:50]:
So you, kind of like an l or a backwards l. Now you’re gonna do the same thing with your left hand. Bring it up. And now you’re gonna take your index fingers. You’re gonna put them together and your thumbs together. Okay? And now you’re going to round it. K. No.
Scott McCarthy [00:15:08]:
We’re not doing the whole heart thing, but we’re rounding. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a pie chart. That is how much time you have in a day to be able to do the things you need to do. That’s how much time you have your team has, I should say, to be able to do the things you need them to do. So how do you divide up your pie chart? Can’t make a pie chart bigger. It’s impossible. You can shrink the demands that be into the pie chart, But at the end of the day, the pie chart doesn’t grow. It doesn’t shrink.
Scott McCarthy [00:15:53]:
It stays exactly the same. And that’s what you’re trying to, you know, message to your supervisor when you push back. K. Great. I got a pie chart. How do you want this pie chart sliced up? Here’s how I see it to be sliced up, but it’s up to you how you want me to slice it up. Okay. That is pushing back.
Scott McCarthy [00:16:22]:
So we talked about prioritization, prioritize, prioritize, prioritize, and we talked about pushing back. Final p to avoiding burnout is pausing, taking a break, taking a breather. Okay? Pausing is actually super crucial. You you need those daily pauses. How many of you, k, how many of you spend your lunchtimes working at your desk? Don’t answer me because I already know a lot of you do. How many people go through their day without any breaks? Got a great story from a Mastermind member. We’ll call we’ll call them s. You know, it’s not for Scott.
Scott McCarthy [00:17:29]:
It’s not me. Okay? S b. Alright? S b was part of this team, finance team, you know, super high stress, always under the gun. You know finance folks. Right? And what he end up doing was he end up starting to take walks at lunchtime to clear his mind clear his, you know, just get out and get away. And this is something I I recommended to him for a while, and finally, he caught on and said, yep. We’re gonna do it. So we did it.
Scott McCarthy [00:18:04]:
And he said, god, it felt good. Came back. I was so much more productive. Yes. Of course, you were. Because you get away from it. It gives your brain a chance to relax. It’s like when you exercise, you don’t just keep doing reps and reps and reps and reps and reps until you’re done.
Scott McCarthy [00:18:24]:
You do them in sets. Doing it in, like, 3 sets. Or thanks to my trainer Chris. Shout out to Chris Gooden Fitness, by the way. You know? Today, I was doing sets of bench press by 4 reps by 4 sets. Right? So 1, 2, 3, 4, and then I take a break. I add some more weight on and do some more. Four more.
Scott McCarthy [00:18:48]:
Okay. Alright. Feel good. Add some more weight on. Another little break. Stop. Alright. Next exercise.
Scott McCarthy [00:18:56]:
It’s the same thing with your brain and work and stress. So s b realized this after I talked to him, and he started doing walks at lunchtime. And guess what happened? I’m not talking about him. People noticed. People noticed he was more productive. People noticed that he was refreshed, and people started joining him. And soon enough, SP didn’t have, you know, a coworker or 2 walking with him at lunchtime. He had a freaking walking club.
Scott McCarthy [00:19:39]:
It was nuts. Absolutely nuts. I couldn’t believe it. Never so proud. But the moral of the story is suddenly, the whole team is taking a break that pause. The third peep they’re pausing. Taking that break, enabling their brains to relax, stress, to sift away, getting their minds away from the office, getting their minds away from TPS reports, getting their minds away from the email. And then they came back and crushed the rest of their day right into the afternoon.
Scott McCarthy [00:20:31]:
So, folks, a little story here actually, in this story, there’s 2 more words. One is pause, it’s a force multiplier, Taking your break and going after and taking care of yourself will enable you to actually do more. And second thing is is that you can lead by example, get others interested, and follow you no matter what. Alright, folks. Ladies and gentlemen, that is it. That is the 3 p’s to avoid burnout. Prioritize, number 1. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.
Scott McCarthy [00:21:14]:
Great tool is the Eisenhower matrix. Google it. Look it up. It’s awesome. 2, push back. Get your supervisor to prioritize what it is that you’re going to do within your day. And then the final thing is pause. Take a pause, take a breath, and come back, multiply.
Scott McCarthy [00:21:47]:
Ready to rock it and crush it. That’s it for me. Thanks for tuning in. Appreciate you all. Remember as always, lead dope boss. Take care now.