'Andy, have you ever suffered from burn-out?'
Can the 3S's help here? 🤔
Yesterday was a wonderful day as I got to spend 4 hours shooting new and improved content for my YouTube channel. I am exceptionally grateful that my ‘studio’ is either right outside my house and our middle floor living space.
After recording some #giftbites relating to the publication of my first book ‘The Rocking Chair Test’ we focused on a series of deeper topics such as empowerment, retention of people, acts of leadership, goals (no surprise there!), what to think about when you want to launch a side hustle or business and more.
One topic I was keen to record some thoughts on was burn-out as this is being raised with me more frequently on workshops, whilst coaching or via social media enquiries.
Personally, and I am immensely grateful for this, whilst there have been times of significant pressure and disappointment, I have never felt burnt-out.
Since I left the corporate world, this is undoubtedly due to the fact that I am the ‘CEO of my own life’ - I love GiFT631, I love my purpose, what I do, who I work with and the difference the work makes to other people’s lives. When you love what you do and do what you love there is a deep connection to the work. I have a positive and healthy obsession, I want to grow and scale, I want to work and I love the ‘hustle’ of being self-employed. I literally get out of bed (move/mind-cleanse/meditate/Mozart time) and then I am on! The only pressure I feel, I apply. I am patient with GiFT631 and impatient with Andy Fell - I push myself to excel at the controllables whilst I know it takes times to build a game changing business (or series of businesses).
Prior to that, in my corporate days, I do believe there were a few crucial and not surprising factors that enabled me to avoid burn-out. Working for great leaders in a vibrant, inclusive and empowering culture made all the difference. Building great teams packed with a diverse group of A grade players was essential as was gaining clarity on who I was and what really mattered most.
How then could I add further value to the conversation on burn-out?
This morning I was meditating in the sun, a little restless. This was not because of the heat or that I had forgotten my sunglasses but more because I kept thinking on the question of burn-out and the 3Ss.
During yesterday’s recording, when I had answered the question on burn-out I had mentioned and then skipped over the 3Ss:
Strategy
Structure
Systems
I believe those feeling any sense of burn-out should revisit each of these areas. This applies whether you are a business of one, an individual contributor, team leader, entrepreneur, middle manager or business leader.
Let’s keep it simple.
Strategy. Quite simply this is about making decisions about what you do and what you don’t do! For everything you decide to do, what are you stopping doing? What something goes in, what goes out? How good are you at keeping 3 top priorities as 3 top priorities? When you decide to do something, how committed are you and those around you to see it through to completion? Finally, are there clear linkages between your vision, your strategy, your goals and your actions?
Structure. I see structure in two ways. If you are a leader of people, have you got the right people structure in place to deliver your strategy? In essence, have you got the right people, doing enough of the right things at the right times? The other form of structure is your operating rhythm or cadence. Again this can be you as an individual, a team or a business unit. Do the most high value activities go in your diary first and without fail? Have you reassessed your meeting and communication structure? Do you have the right people talking about the right things at the right times? Are you communicating effectively - with clarity, consistency and simplicity. Too much and too little can cause anxiety, overwhelm and buring-out.
Systems. I love the Disney Institute quote that success is ‘95% systems and 5% magic.’ What is your personal success system? For me this is includes my morning 4M routine ( a definite burn-out buster), fantastic time-blocking, consistent and ongoing debriefing to find continuous improvement, my Friday 15 process, ruthless prioritisation to consistently relook at what I am doing and the value I am gaining from my core activities. What do you do? What are the core activities you expect your team to do? Do you have a system to access and review key data points to find insights to inform decisions that support your strategy and influence your structure? Do you have a system to drive innovation and continuous learning to ensure you grow and stay relevant. Do you have a system to ensure you utilise your chosen social media platforms effectively?
This is the type of commentary and questions I wished I had added to my #giftbite video recordings on the topic of burn-out!!
If not you, do you know someone who is feeling either a sense of overwhelm, a degree of work related anxiety, pressure or stress? If so, do you believe reviewing the 3Ss could help them? If so, please do share this article.
If you can add your own thoughts to inform this debate, please do - either publicly or directly to me at andyfell@gift631.com or via Linkedin, What’s App or Messenger.