Leaders, how is the work environment affecting you and your colleagues?

/ mkessenburg

Photo by Tengyart on Unsplash

Our environment. It affects us. We know this. Home environment affects children, so parents work to provide a positive environment (not a negative one). Classroom environment affects students, so teachers work to provide a healthy environment (not an unhealthy one). And work environment affects employees, so leaders work to provide a flourishing environment (not a toxic one), one that keeps employees both engaged and free of negative stress (meaning, away from burnout).

Question: How is your current work environment affecting you in terms of engagement and burnout? Look carefully at each of the 3 eggs in the above photo. Which egg describes the effect the work environment is having on you?:

  • Are you egg #1?: Your work environment keeps you fully engaged and fully free of negative stress.
  • Are you egg #2?: Your work environment doesn’t keep you fully engaged and/or you’re actually a bit stressed out.
  • Are you egg #3?: Your work environment pushes you toward being unengaged and burned out. (Think numb.)
  • Or are you another egg of a different description? 

Just how are you being affected in terms of engagement and burnout? And how about your international Christian school colleagues? How is the current work environment affecting them?

Photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash

Please note 3 things: 

(1) We’re focusing on work environment (a function of your international Christian school); we aren’t focusing on what you can individually do to stay engaged (like identifying goals) and have well-being (like self-care). The author of The Burnout Epidemic emphasizes, “If you want to address the burnout problem, the first step is repeating and internalizing this mantra: burnout is about your organization, not your people” (loc 69).

(2) Leaders are responsible for the work environment: Just as parents (not children) are responsible for home environment and teachers (not students) are responsible for the classroom environment, so leaders (not staff) are responsible for the work environment. Simon Sinek explains, “Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge” (Twitter). And the author of The Burnout Epidemic adds that “we can no longer suggest wellness strategies that place ownership on individuals for preventing and managing their own burnout. Instead, we need to look at ourselves as leaders, at the role our organizations play” (loc 73).

(3) Engagement and burnout are separate and related: This means that engaged staff can also experience 1 or more factors pushing them toward burnout (like a happy, healthy runner who is running well and has a small rock in her left shoe). 

Photo by Nathan Maduta on Unsplash; Photo by Christian Erfurt on Unsplash

What helps me get a better handle on how my work environment is affecting me is describing a flourishing work environment and a burnout work environment. In a flourishing work environment (see ACSI’s model), I consistently experience: 

  1. Passionate purpose, for example, through clear connections between job responsibilities and the achievement of the mission and outcomes.
  2. Resilient well-being as I work in a safe, nurturing, Christ-centered environment.
  3. Healthy relationships with loving, kind, caring, respectful Christ-centered staff.
  4. Transformative learning, for example, through professional development aligned with individual, department/team, and schoolwide goals.
  5. Helpful resources like effective technology.

In a burnout work environment, I experience 1 or more burnout factors, as described by Jennifer Moss (author of The Burnout Epidemic):

  • “Unsustainable workload”—feeling a bit overwhelmed (like with the extra work due to the pandemic).
  • “Perceived lack of control”—feeling a lack of autonomy, as in micromanaged and/or not fully trusted.
  • “Insufficient rewards for effort”—feeling that your efforts are not sufficiently acknowledged in terms of pay and/or celebration.
  • “Lack of supportive community”—feeling alone, not feeling like you belong, and being without a good friend in the workplace.
  • “Lack of fairness”—feeling like men/women, teaching staff/support staff, and/or national/international staff aren’t treated equally.
  • “Mismatched values and skills”—feeling overqualified or underqualified for your role, like being asked to teach or coach something for which you aren’t prepared.

So back to our key question: How is your current work environment affecting you and your colleagues in terms of engagement and burnout? Regardless of how you assess your current work environment, take responsibility as an international Christian school leader to improve your work environment by, for example:

  • Soliciting and taking action on staff input on improving the work environment.
  • Addressing 1 or more of ACSI’s constructs.
  • Focusing on being a flourishing leader who helps others flourish.
  • Having your school board adopt and hold you accountable for a work environment policy like the following: Maintain a flourishing workplace culture in which staff consistently experience the 5 elements of flourishing and in which the 6 causes of burnout are addressed.

Take specific action steps to enhance a flourishing work environment, for example:

  1. Passionate purpose—facilitate regular staff discussions (including celebrations) of the meaning, implications, and achievement of the purpose statements.
  2. Resilient well-being—ensure your organization has all necessary policies and procedures related to staff well-being.
  3. Healthy relationships—provide training in 5 dysfunctions of a team in order to cultivate trust, healthy conflict, commitment, accountability, and a focus on team results.
  4. Transformative learning—provide frequent feedback (criticism that is kind and clear, praise that is specific and sincere).
  5. Helpful resources—keep facilities well maintained by using proactive maintenance cycles.

And take specific action steps to reduce/prevent a burnout work environment, for example:

  • “Unsustainable workload”—reduce workload by getting parent volunteers (after receiving training) to cover playground duty. 
  • “Perceived lack of control”—use this article and this chart to assess your leadership style, and if you find that you are practicing either absentee management or micromanagement in any way, change.
  • “Insufficient rewards for effort”—regularly thank staff for their work in meetings and/or send 1 thank you card each year to each staff member.
  • “Lack of supportive community”—ensure that each meeting starts with a devotional that includes a time for staff to pray for each other.
  • “Lack of fairness”—solicit and take action on feedback from women, support staff, and national staff on fairness.
  • “Mismatched values and skills”—announce your commitment to having each staff member having a good job fit, which may include providing additional training.

What about you? How is the work environment affecting you and your international Christian school colleagues? What helps you get a better handle on how your work environment affects you and your colleagues? How would you describe a flourishing work environment and a burnout work environment? What can you do to enhance a flourishing work environment and reduce/prevent a burnout work environment?

Here are some related blog posts:

Here are some resources related to work environment:

Get flourishing!

Michael

P.S. Bonus! Here’s a list of 10 quotations from things I’ve read or listened to that contain the word burnout:

  1. “Burnout is not a badge of honor” (Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most, loc 126).
  2. “77 percent of workers have experienced burnout. The primary drivers of burnout are a lack of support or recognition from leadership, unrealistic deadlines or expectations regarding results, and consistently working long hours, including weekends” (The Three Chairs: How Great Leaders Drive Communication, Performance, and Engagement, loc 626).
  3. “…organizational injustice leads to depression, anxiety, and burnout” (To Be Honest, loc 2285).
  4. “Live in a way today that will help you thrive tomorrow. If I’m going to maintain wellness and avoid burnout again, I need to live in a way today that spiritually, emotionally, relationally, physically, and financially will help me thrive tomorrow” (Didn’t See It Coming: Overcoming the Seven Greatest Challenges That No One Expects and Everyone Experiences, loc 2214).
  5. “You love your work. But when you concentrate your attention and energy solely in your work, you actually undermine your success. You narrow your perspective. You become more prone to burnout. And, you stunt your learning. The solution? Find a hobby” (Lead to Win: Why Every Leader Needs a Hobby).
  6. “To be a great leader, you need to start with self-leadership. Get yourself energized so you can give more to your family at home and your team at work. Without this as your foundation, you risk burnout in all parts of your life” (The Three Chairs: How Great Leaders Drive Communication, Performance, and Engagement, loc 1779).
  7. “When you run fast and hard and long, eventually you will drain your soul. You won’t really notice it for a while, but you will wake up one day and be emotionally empty and spiritually dry. Ministry will feel hard and frustrating. Team members will get on your nerves more than usual. That is not a fun place to be, especially when the demands of ministry never take a break. Running on empty will eventually lead to cynicism, disillusionment, and burnout. You are not the exception” (High-Impact Teams: Where Healthy Meets High Performance, loc 705).
  8. “…relationships are core to your job. They determine whether you can fulfill your three responsibilities as a manager: 1) to create a culture of guidance (praise and criticism) that will keep everyone moving in the right direction; 2) to understand what motivates each person on your team well enough to avoid burnout or boredom and keep the team cohesive; and 3) to drive results collaboratively” (Radical Candor, loc 318).
  9. “Command & Control leaders often don’t see the greatness in others, let alone communicate or develop it. Consider the demoralizing impact this has on people, teams, and cultures. With such a mindset, a leader might maintain the status quo or even get some incremental improvement. But that leader will get coordination only between silos, at best, and will rarely achieve real collaboration and creative innovation. Apathy reigns, leading to subpar results and eventual burnout” (Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others, loc 1328).
  10. “I don’t know what your goals and dreams are or what your calling in life is, but I do know it’s possible not only to become de-stressed and to avoid burnout and to come back from it but also to thrive. To live fully alive” (At Your Best: How to Get Time, Energy, and Priorities Working in Your Favor, loc 381).