What can we learn from Jacinda Ardern?
Recognising the moment to move on can be a tough pill to swallow. Sometimes what’s working for us professionally might be impacting us too heavily personally and at some point the bubble bursts when you have to recognise it’s time to change. New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern announced this morning that she’s stepping down from her role realising she has “nothing left in the tank” to give the job in hand. In any profession, that’s a big admission to make but even more so as the leader of a country. So what can we learn about walking away from a job from her departure?
An admirable and hugely inspiring move to make. I feel like we start too many sentences with “since the pandemic”, but since the pandemic, there’s an epidemic of burnout amongst us. After two years of being restricted on where we can go and what we can do, the pressure to spread our wings wide once the lockdowns lifted was immense. So much so, that we have come to forget many of the calming elements of lockdown isolation. It’s no longer feasible nor realistic to live a life permanently on the go. Many of us have recognised that giving ourselves breathing room at work and at home, helps drive more clarity in our lives. And ultimately helps us have a little more fun in life. Laden with the burden of navigating the pandemic for her country, an economic meltdown, a series of tragic events in New Zealand including the Christchurch terrorist attack on two mosques and not to mention a volcanic eruption must have been exceptionally challenging in a five year period. By identifying that leadership had become too all consuming on her life, shows us exactly what leadership really is.
Personally, I’ve faced true burnout at least twice in my career. The first time was whilst working in-house at a big corporate company. I had become quite simply obsessed with my job to the point I couldn’t differentiate my personal life with my work life. I worked every hour of the day, barely slept and it caught up with me via what can only be described as a monumental break down. That break down changed everything I thought I knew about work and ultimately, how well I knew myself. The benefit of working for a corporate meant I could take a bit of time off to breathe and figure out how to move forward. My journey out of it involved therapy, exercise, scheduling time for myself, focusing on improving my sleep, spending time with people that I could be wholly myself around, and restricting screen time. Whilst many of those learnings have fast become habits, particularly since working for myself, there are certainly still moments where the cloud of burnout doom comes looming over.
How I recognise signs of burn out:
Lack of concentration - losing the ability to focus in on conversations or tasks in hand because my mind is all over the place
Inability to sleep - regardless of how tired I’m feeling, as soon as I get into bed, my mind fills with all the things that I need to get done, haven’t done or negatively reflecting on things that happened in the day
Irritability - my patience completely dwindles, particularly with my nearest and dearest
Loneliness - despite being in a room of people, I feel entirely alone and detached from the world
Self-doubt - I begin to question my ability to do just about anything
Overwhelm - I lose the ability to say yes to doing anything because I can’t physically take anything more on
These may be slightly different from person to person but shared experiences make way for learned experiences.I’ve tackled burnout in different ways over the years but here’s what’s worked for me:
Drive change - identify the things causing the burn out. Is it that you’re “always on”? If so, set clear working hours and restrict your availability to everyone to key times. Lay out those times in your email signature too! Are you hating a certain area of your job? For me, getting bogged down in admin fills me with dread as it takes away from doing what I’m best at so working with someone for support on that helps alleviate that pressure. You are the only one in control of driving change and without changing something, there’ll be a repeated pattern of burn out throughout your life.
Get outside - never underestimate the power of some fresh air when you need to see the wood through the trees. On days that feel impossible, taking yourself on a walk (I like to stick on a good motivational podcast), does you the world of good.
Scheduling - I’m a scatty worker - some days my productivity doesn’t kick in until late in the day and I end up working most the evening. Other days I am productive in the morning but flop in the evening. Every day is different. But when I’m battling burnout, I have to be stricter with scheduling time for specific tasks but personal and professional. Even things like putting my phone away for a certain period of time. It’s the only way I can stay on track and the only way I can give myself the headspace I need to clear through the fog.
Communication - life is a team sport. Without letting people in, you set yourself up for failure. Talk to your nearest and dearest about how you’re feeling. Let your employer or clients know what you’re facing. Be human about it. If you need more time to complete a certain project, ask for it. If you need more support to get a task done, ask for it. People are not mind readers.
