Burn out in small business (Part One)
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Do you manage a team who are feeling depleted? Have you asked your team if they are feeling burnt out? Or, as a leader, have you scheduled your own self-care? What strategies do you have in place to help your team stay happy and connected?
Burnout can impact anyone. Creating awareness and prevention strategies is essential. Did you know that it’s estimated that work related absenteeism due to burnout costs the Australian economy upwards of $14.81 billion per year?
What’s being done in your workplace to prevent being a statistic?
In today’s HerCanberra column (part one of a two-part small business series) I’ll be sharing how Capital Hydrotherapy and Exercise Physiology prevents burnout in our workplace. Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and chronic stress. I’ll share three tips that I recommend for keeping the leader fresh, the team connected, and energy aligned.
First up, some business background: I established Capital Hydrotherapy with $80.00 in my personal savings 13 years ago. The business started with six Hydrotherapy sessions a week, and one practitioner – me. We now host over 220 Hydrotherapy sessions a week and a tribe of 10 loyal teammates.
In Australia, it is estimated that one-in-three new small businesses fail in their first year of operation, two out of four by the end of the second year, and three out of four by the fifth year. As a small business owner, I’ve created a system and culture within our Capital Hydrotherapy brand to help our team prevent physical, mental, and emotional burnout. Remember, we are not government funded, or a large corporation – it’s a small local business.
There are five stages of burnout:
- Stage One: Honeymoon.
- Stage Two: Onset of Stress.
- Stage Three: Chronic Stress.
- Stage Four: Burnout
- Stage Five: Habitual Burnout.
Habitual burnout takes a lot of time to recover from; recognising the early stages of burnout is the key. Prevention is everything.
- Education
- Awareness.
- Planning.
- Reassessing.
At Capital Hydrotherapy and Exercise Physiology holidays are encouraged, mini-weekends are supported, and if you need a pre scheduled wellness day, it isn’t questioned. Take it before you need it! Hello and wake up, small business owners! Gone are the days of your team’s four weeks annual leave, where you must get approval months and months in advance. That isn’t going to cut it in this fast-paced, “instant” new world.
People need flexibility, they need scheduled time out before they get run down and should be encouraged to look after themselves. Your team needs connection and empathy to avoid habitual burnout. As a leader, it is your job to create this culture – or your team will move on.
As a business owner or leader, you can’t look after others, if you’re not looking after yourself….
Hello energy, goodbye exhaustion. Here are my three top tips to keep your happy culture alive and team connected:
- Time-blocking self-care
- Revisit core values
- Build a support network around you
It starts with you.
Time-blocking your self-care
Do you regularly time-block your self-care in your diary? For your team? And yourself?
Don’t “think” about that walking meeting, or your run at lunch – plug it into the diary in advance! Having scheduled time out of the office keeps our team fresh, happy and supported. Take a day off – no worries. Block it in the diary! Don’t wait for a funeral to have a Friday for R&R.
Exercise is magic for mood and productivity. Moving boosts decision making skills, it promotes growth of new nerves and blood vessels, and improves multi-tasking and planning. Here’s one of my favourite workout routines for burnout.
- Cat and camel post
- Thread the needle full rotation
- Bridge with pelvic tilt
- Lying supine twist
- Heel slide in supine
- Hip extension in 4-point kneeling
- Clam shells
- Supine knee hugs
I’ve also got the same workout for you, but in the pool.
If you want to hear more about Burnout prevention and exercises you can do if you are feeling exhausted, tune in to ABC Radio Canberra Mornings for the “Movers & Shakers” segment on Tuesdays at 10 am. The exercises above will all be discussed, and how they can help you.
Self-care looks different on everyone. Self-care can look like a team coffee, or a solo quiet coffee. At Capital Hydrotherapy we love a team coffee together.
Journaling, mindfulness, gratitude, meditation, sauna/plunge, 5 deep breaths or a long walk in nature without headphones are my go-to self-care rituals.
Revisit core values
Chronic stress leads to burnout. Sometimes, the simplest of strategies are often the most effective. Understanding my “why” often assists me to make the correct business decision (which leads to less stress). Would you agree? Addressing our core values with the team regularly is essential. We address them at the team induction, we have core value posters in every room for a gentle reminder and every day we live them through our daily huddle and work ethic.
Whenever there’s a concern at the clinic, I go back to the business’ core values – these values ground me and create instant clarity.
Here are our core values:
- Create a happy and supportive environment.
- Go above and beyond.
- Respect peoples time and goals.
- Be open and inspire personal and professional growth.
- Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Have you revisited your core values recently with the team?
Build a support network around you
Personally, I have a reliable energised team around me. Everyone feels empowered and takes ownership over their schedule. It’s taken years to find the right scaffolding system and balance (and lots of education and reminders to the team!).
I’ve had my accountant from the first day I started the business, however over the years I’ve created an external team to the clinical team at work. I now have an HR specialist (Merisha from Scalable HR) who has saved me on too many occasions; I have a professional photographer who specialises in small business, who helps with branding and marketing language (Jade from Small Business Growth Club); and I have a few close mates who all own their own businesses – it’s these women that have helped me through the challenging times, and that’s essential if you want to be in business for the long haul.
It takes a village to prevent burnout – and you need a solid, reliable sounding board, who understands. Learning to cope with the stress (as it’s inevitable in business) and manage the early signs of burnout is essential.
What strategies can you implement today to help your team (and yourself) stay happy, fresh and connected?
Our next Burnout in small business article we are discussing benefits of team huddles, celebrating small wins, sharing gratitude, weekly self-care planning and delving into more preventative time blocking.
Love, Kirra
