Written by: Sarah Wood, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
In 2023, I beta tested my 1:1 programme – burnout to balance – to gain a deeper understanding of the root causes of burnout specifically in coaches and online service providers.
I’ve always believed recovering from burnout is just the first step – without addressing the root causes, most people will go back to doing things the same way they’ve always done them when their energy returns. I know from personal experience this is likely to lead to another burnout at some point down the track.
In the scientific literature on burnout, the job demands-resources model is the most frequently used scientific theory to explain both the causes and consequences of burnout. It offers a simple, elegant model to understand burnout within a range of contexts (Demerouti et al., 2021).
The research shows there is a significant positive relationship between job demands and exhaustion in that, as job demands increase, so too does exhaustion. There is also a significant negative relationship between job resources and disengagement and/or cynicism, such that as job resources decrease, disengagement and/or cynicism go up (Demerouti et al., 2001).
In the absence of quality, peer-reviewed research on burnout in entrepreneurs specifically, I like to use the lens of the job demands-resources model to inform my understanding of the more nuanced root causes of burnout in the coaches and online service providers I work with.
Here is what I’ve found.
While each of my clients has unique reasons for their chronic stress and burnout, there are four root causes I’ve identified as the common drivers of increased demands and decreased resources in my clients’ businesses.
People pleasing – my clients want to help others and there’s nothing wrong with that. Service-based businesses exist for that purpose. But when we do it without healthy boundaries, we tend to: undercharge; do out-of-scope work without charging extra for it; overpromise when it comes to turnaround times; agree to in-person meetings more often than we’d like and ultimately increase our workload while reducing the rewards we get for that work i.e., revenue, profit, a sense of fairness, accomplishment and control.
When we learn to set and uphold healthy boundaries, we start to consider our own needs and limits as well as our clients. We set realistic expectations and give ourselves the space and time we need to accomplish tasks without so much time pressure. This allows us to relate more authentically with clients as a partner – rather than feeling like an employee – which does wonders for our sense of satisfaction and fulfilment and the client’s sense of respect and trust. Everyone wins.
Spreading themselves too thin – taking on too many projects at once, resisting delegation, automation, outsourcing and other sources of support, along with time blindness will lead to diluted effort, overload, and a reduced sense of accomplishment. No amount of productivity hacks will make up for this.
When we learn to use time as a helpful constraint, rather than fighting or ignoring time, we prioritise and leverage support to achieve the outcomes we want without the overwhelm and time pressure. It’s all about working smarter – not harder.
Deprioritising self-care – hustle culture promotes pushing hard and pushing through as the path to entrepreneurial success. It glamorises the 80-hour work week and encourages positive identity-building around being ‘busy’ and under constant time pressure. This creates a complicated relationship with rest – most of us desperately need more rest, but we feel like we’re not entitled to take it!
This depletes our internal resources – our mental, emotional, and physical energy and motivation – which increases our risk of burnout.
To perform at our best, we need to recharge – and this means getting enough quality sleep, eating nourishing food, hydrating, moving, and investing in quality social connection.
Athletes prioritise recovery as much as they prioritise their training because they KNOW if they don’t recover sufficiently their performance will go down. Long-term underrecovery can lead to overtraining syndrome – and then it’s a long road back to optimum performance and may even spell the end of an athlete’s career.
Burnout is to entrepreneurs what over-training syndrome is to athletes.
Hustle Culture gets this completely wrong. Pushing hard and pushing through creates chronic stress in most people and chronic stress leads to decreased performance and well-being. I encourage my clients to reject hustle culture and adopt a high-performance mindset – incorporating recovery strategies and habits that support them to feel energised and engaged in their business and lives.
Disempowering beliefs – at the heart of all these behaviours are core beliefs that unconsciously drive burnout behaviour. A few of the most common are:
“I’m not enough” – not good enough, qualified enough, experienced enough, old enough, young enough, I’m not doing enough, I don’t have enough money, followers etc.
“I’m not worthy” – of success, of the price I want to charge, of support, of time off, of rest etc.
“I’m not allowed” – to be in charge, to say no, to set boundaries, to do business on my terms, to be financially independent, to express my opinion, to have a strong voice, to own my superpowers.
“Asking for support means I’m weak/struggling, therefore I have to do it all myself or I’m a failure”.
Disempowering beliefs, like these, cause us to give our power and authority away. Most of my clients created their businesses to feel empowered – to have time freedom, financial freedom and work hours that support them to spend time with their families and live their best lives.
When we change our external circumstances without upgrading our beliefs, we’ll often recreate the same reality we wanted to get away from e.g., by putting our clients in charge, we wind up with 20 bosses instead of the one boss we had in our corporate job!
Core limiting beliefs are often formed in childhood as we try to make sense of the world around us before our analytical brain is fully developed. They’ve been part of our personality for so long that we’re not usually conscious of them and yet they drive so much of our behaviours and reactions.
With a skilled coach who’s trained in evidence-based coaching techniques and creates a safe, curious environment in which to explore the connections between thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, it’s possible to make significant shifts in limiting core beliefs. These shifts make it easier to change our behaviours to align with our vision, values, and goals.
By understanding the root causes of one’s burnout, the opportunity for making lasting change emerges which is the beginning of becoming burnout-proof.
Instead of cycling through burnout every 6-12 months – experiencing that Christmas energy crash every year, or getting sick every time you take a holiday – you can learn to restore the balance between the energy you’re giving out and the energy you’re taking in.
It takes a willingness to dig a bit deeper and challenge some of the cultural norms you may have unconsciously absorbed, but if you’re willing to go through the discomfort and learn to think more like an athlete, implementing simple, doable recovery strategies as well as realising some efficiencies in your business, you’ll be able to recover without breaking your business and kiss burnout goodbye – for good!
Wouldn’t that be nice!
Sarah Wood, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Sarah helps women in business who want time and financial freedom, but are struggling with feelings of burnout, to master boundaries so they can liberate themselves from people-pleasing and overfunctioning, break the burnout cycle, and love their business again.
As well as running her coaching business, Sarah is a single mum and Psychology major at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch New Zealand where she lives.
References:
Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2001). The job demands-resources model of burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 499-51. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.499
Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Peeters, M. C. W., & Breevaart, K. (2021). New directions in burnout research. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 30(5), 686-691. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2021.1979962
