Lead Your Leaders

When the Workload is Too Much

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"How can I help my team when everything is so overwhelming? I want to be encouraging so they don't leave but I don't want to give them false hope that it will get better when it's been this way for a while."

 

There is something about the last two years that has made the “load” we carry a little heavier. More work, more stress with less staff is a story on repeat. And, we might be facing the situation for a while yet to come. 

 So, I hear ya! It’s time to look at this a different way. 

LENS OF CLARITY

One lens we could use is the lens of clarifying what overwhelm is for our people. You might try offering some ideas of what might be contributing to overwhelm and see what resonates with their reality.

  • Work-related overwhelm says there is not enough time in the day to get things done. The to-do list is too long. It’s impossible to prioritize. I’m pulled in too many directions. 
  • Confidence-related overwhelm is more internal than external. Not feeling supported or able to get help or maybe a little “imposture syndrome” has set in.
  • Mission-related overwhelm says that if you slow down the mission is compromised. Doing less means that someone isn’t going to get what they need. 

 

LENS OF EMPATHY

Stepping back and pausing to acknowledge that it’s hard. And that it’s real. Living from urgency to urgency isn’t the way it should be – even though that’s what it might be right now.

It’s easy to miss the signs that people are getting tired, frustrated, discouraged. You get used to living in “crisis” and it is hard to break that cycle.

What if instead of dismissing it AND before starting to solve it, you acknowledged it? Let people feel it. Talk about what makes it hard. How it feels to be overwhelmed in this moment.

LENS OF ACTION

But, there is that lens on taking action. It's the one that we normally look through FIRST. We want to solve it, manage it, stop it >> any action that is going to help us overcome it. 

Overwhelm is risky business. 

If you are going to assume the risk and just keep doing what you are doing knowing that it’s risky because your mission needs it to happen then your “action” lens is to:

  • Tell everyone what you are doing and why 
  • Add in a high dose of empathy 
  • Hire more people and assume the financial risk to get the work done

 

If you want to mitigate the risk and reduce your chances of experiencing all those nasty side effects of overwhelm, your “action” lens might be: 

  • Make sure people use their PTO
  • Increase PTO if the overwhelming season is getting long
  • Plan brain breaks and body breaks in the middle of the day
  • Make small shifts based on how each person describes their own overwhelm

I

f it’s really bad and you and your team have been overwhelmed for a while, it’s time for an intervention – you probably need to eliminate some of the risk:

  • Sort through all the things and decide what not to do
  • Prioritize everything and then draw a line – focus above the line 

 

I hope the conversation stirs up more questions for you and I hope you ask away!! You can submit your questions HERE! Let’s dig into those real-life, feet-on-the-ground kinds of questions!

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