Leaders approaching or experiencing burnout may feel physical symptoms, cynicism about work, emotional exhaustion, and reduced performance.<\/p>\n
Sound familiar? Remember, it\u2019s not you. It\u2019s burnout.<\/p>\n
![\"Our](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/leadership-in-disruption-perpetual-crisis-cover-center-for-creative-leadership-ccl.jpg\")
<\/a>\nIn the face of perpetual crisis, leaders must adapt, not just react. Explore our guide to Leadership in Disruption<\/a> to learn how leading with culture, vision, and collective agility helps organizations thrive through complexity.<\/p>\n
How Organizations Can Support Their People in Overcoming Burnout<\/h2>\n
What can organizational leaders do to support their workers in dealing with burnout, and in tandem, address turnover rates? Senior leaders can bring intention and attention to creating the conditions for everyone to bring their best selves to work and foster an environment that supports their people and the communities they serve.<\/strong><\/p>\n For the nonprofit and public health sectors in particular, philanthropic organizations and foundations can play several essential roles. First, grantmakers, executive directors, and senior leaders can consider their own personal and professional practices and how those are contributing to how they show up for their constituents. Second, they can stop doing anything that doesn\u2019t support creating and cultivating the conditions for nonprofit teams and organizations to flourish.<\/p>\n Whatever your industry, if you\u2019re a leader, you can build your own resilience by stopping and starting these 6 things to help create the conditions for colleagues to overcome burnout and \u201cburn bright\u201d instead.<\/p>\n Do you feel like you\u2019re living the same day over and over, like your own personal Groundhog Day<\/em>\u00a0movie? In addition to fostering boredom, unexamined routines can also diminish energy and focus.<\/strong> Consider how much you might be mindlessly defaulting to behaviors reinforced by burnout, and what you might do differently today to shake things up.<\/p>\n Our brains actually thrive, and we feel happier, when we have novel experiences.\u00a0Brain research<\/a> has found that a rush of dopamine comes with any new experience. And it doesn\u2019t have to be big to be effective \u2014 even small changes can help to create an immediate shift in energy and focus.<\/p>\n Make a commitment to trying new things <\/strong>as a way of helping you and your colleagues with overcoming burnout. It could be as simple as trying a new route on a morning walk. How might you encourage others to try something novel? Perhaps add \u201csharing new things tried\u201d to your one-on-one check-ins or an upcoming team meeting and start creating space for colleagues dealing with burnout to share ideas with one another.<\/p>\n You might not even notice that you hold your breath or take very shallow breaths during the day, especially when you feel pressure. The moment we get anxious or stressed, we can assume some control and agency by breathing properly. Even less than a minute of intentional breathing can make a big difference.\u00a0<\/strong>The research is clear: if we breathe shallow and fast, it causes our nervous system to up-regulate, and we feel even more tense and anxious. But if we breathe slowly, taking a deep breath with a focus on our exhale<\/a>, it turns on our body\u2019s anti-stress response. Breathing is convenient, free, and a fast way to ground into a state of calm.<\/p>\n One simple practice for dealing with burnout is to anchor intentional deep breathing to something you do every day \u2014 maybe just before joining another online meeting, or as you transition from work to home tasks. You might experiment with expanding this practice to include everyone participating in a meeting you\u2019re leading. Simply invite team members to breathe fully for one minute at the start, or take a pause for a \u201cbreathing break\u201d in the middle.<\/p>\n Have you ever received a generic, \u201creply-all\u201d thank you message that fell a little flat? You\u2019re not alone. While the intent is positive and it\u2019s better than no gratitude, it can lack sincerity and reduce the overall impact.\u00a0Giving thanks will actually make you a better leader<\/a>\u00a0and personal notes that include specific details about the value of an individual\u2019s contribution are far more effective than mass communications,<\/strong>\u00a0research finds<\/a>. Just 5\u201312 formal, individualized, sincere gestures of thanks per year can significantly cut an employee\u2019s propensity to leave and help with overcoming burnout.<\/p>\n Take a couple of minutes and write a brief note (even just 2\u20133 sentences) to a person you\u2019ve been meaning to thank at work. By doing so, you\u2019ll not only share gratitude with the individual you\u2019re sending the note to, but you\u2019ll also be modeling this behavior for other leaders in your organization. Make it your practice to send your team members a brief but personalized thank-you note on a consistent basis.<\/p>\n Meetings are a constant presence in our lives, and with the rise of the remote and\u00a0hybrid workforce<\/a>, they\u2019re more prevalent than ever. Yet, meetings can be draining, feel like a waste of time, and force after-hours work. They can even feel isolating when there\u2019s not an opportunity to connect. Meetings are critical to getting our work done, however, so take some time to really examine and\u00a0update your organization\u2019s meeting culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n The next time you\u2019re about to schedule a meeting, ask yourself the question, Is this meeting really necessary, or are we simply defaulting to a meeting because that\u2019s how we\u2019ve always done it?<\/em> Consider whether you can handle the agenda via email or in a real-time messaging app, or explore shortening the allotted time. This allows people to avoid attending back-to-back meetings all day.<\/p>\n Lighten \u201cZoom fatigue\u201d by making some virtual meetings audio-only when being on camera isn’t really necessary. Or, if it\u2019s an option, suggest team members take the call while walking outdoors to incorporate some movement and fresh air. Bonus points if a walk-and-talk meeting can be done together in person. Meetings are a prime opportunity for connection, so make them count<\/strong> and use them to\u00a0improve your organization\u2019s virtual collaboration<\/a>\u00a0and communication\u00a0practices.<\/p>\n How have your boundaries around work and home shifted over the last few years? For many of us operating in a hybrid workplace<\/a>\u00a0context, we no longer \u201cwork from home\u201d as much as we \u201clive at work.\u201d A boundaryless experience like this can take a serious toll on our health and contribute to burnout. Because of this shift, you may want to\u00a0consider how you might be unintentionally creating expectations of working longer hours<\/strong>, including evenings and late nights, when your employees typically have been untethered from work.<\/p>\n If you or your colleagues are dealing with burnout, notice the communication patterns that have emerged for yourself and your team recently. If you find yourself often catching up on emails after hours or on weekends, reflect on this habit. How might you create or influence new expectations that support recharging and disconnecting from work? How can you actively support both a work ethic and<\/em> a \u201crest ethic\u201d? And what rituals can you start that signal to yourself that you\u2019re \u201cclocking out\u201d?<\/p>\n Consider closing the laptop and leaving it in a designated workspace, collecting virtual or physical files and putting them away, or sending your team a friendly \u201cI\u2019m out and you should be, too\u201d<\/em> email at the end of the day or week, or when leaving on vacation. This will\u00a0help your employees manage their work-life conflicts<\/a> and increase their ability to unplug from work when the day is over or when they\u2019re taking some much-needed time to rest and recharge.<\/p>\n Do you check your phone before your feet hit the floor in the morning? Is making coffee or tea your next step after that? These behaviors, while very common, may be eroding your energy before your day even begins.<\/strong> Checking your email, social media, and texts as soon as your eyelids open quickly hijacks your attention and emotions, often triggering anxiety before you\u2019ve even gotten out of bed. You\u2019ve probably already heard the advice not to keep your smartphone in your bedroom \u2014 but turning off notifications, curbing social media use, and removing as many apps off your phone as possible are all helpful, too.<\/p>\n As for your unexamined caffeine routine, simply delay it a bit. When you wake up, the energizing hormone cortisol is at its peak \u2014 adding caffeine on top of that is like throwing a match on a fire that\u2019s already crackling. You\u2019ll experience a greater caffeine boost by waiting an hour or 2 if you can.<\/p>\n Replace that immediate screen time and caffeine jolt with a little movement<\/strong> \u2014 a quick walk, some yoga, or even just stretching \u2014 and then something mindful like journaling, reading, or listening to music for a few minutes. Then, hydrate with water before you caffeinate.<\/strong> Give it a try for a few days and see if your energy improves and if these practices help with overcoming burnout.<\/p>\n When you assess personal habits and default organizational practices that may be aggravating stress and burnout, you can start building a culture that values resilience and gives employees permission to take care of themselves. Be mindful about recharging and modeling those behaviors for your team, and say goodbye to dealing with burnout for good.<\/p>\n As a nonprofit ourselves, we\u2019re guided by purpose and fueled by passion, and we understand the need for strong, resilient leaders who are able to support themselves and their teams in dealing with burnout. Create the conditions for employees to bring their best selves to work with our\u00a0resilience-building solutions<\/a>, or partner with our\u00a0nonprofit leadership<\/a>\u00a0experts to help build a more resilient organization for your people, your mission, and the communities you serve.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What can organizational leaders do to support their teams in overcoming burnout? Get our advice on dealing with burnout and creating conditions for everyone in your workplace to thrive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":57143,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57142","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categories-health-wellbeing","categories-leadership-tips","categories-resilience-stress","categories-work-life-balance","industry-foundations-philanthropy","industry-population-public-health","industry-nonprofit-social-sector","region-global","article-type-leading-effectively-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAdvice for Dealing With Burnout<\/h2>\n
6 Tips for Leaders: What to Stop & Start Doing<\/h3>\n
1. Stop <\/em>repeating the same things.\u00a0Start <\/em>trying something new.<\/h4>\n
2. Stop <\/em>holding your breath.\u00a0Start <\/em>an intentional breathing practice.<\/h4>\n
3. Stop <\/em>sending generic messages of thanks. Start <\/em>personalizing gratitude.<\/h4>\n
4. Stop <\/em>holding meetings by default. Start <\/em>building an intentional meeting culture.<\/h4>\n
5. Stop <\/em>perpetuating a 24\/7 work week. Start <\/em>encouraging boundaries.<\/h4>\n
6. Stop <\/em>the early morning phone scroll and caffeine hit. Start <\/em>your morning with intentional, mindful movement.<\/h4>\n
Ready to Take the Next Step?<\/h2>\n