3 Ways to Heal Workplace Burnout & Stress in Mission-Driven Organizations

As we turn our attention to closing out the year, it's time for a heart-to-heart about our culture of overwork and burnout.

Here's the deal: There’s what you got into the social sector—a deep desire to build a better world—and there’s what you experience on a near-daily basis . . . an inability to even take care of yourself due to the limited time, staff, and resources to do your work.

And yes, you know your well-being should be a top priority if you want to be effective over the long haul. You even double-tap and “like” the nuggets shared on social media about “not being able to pour out from an empty cup.”

Yet, the number of urgent and important items on your never-ending to-do list doesn’t seem ever to change. Instead of fight or flight, you often freeze or flurry. According to thought leadership expert Regina Anaejionu, freezing is getting stuck in a cycle of inaction because everything seems equally important and overwhelming. And flurry-ing is doing a bunch of immediate tasks in a flurry, even if they aren’t the most meaningful things to do. You end up being busy being busy because there’s simply too much to wade through.

When you add your perfectionist overachiever tendencies and desire to change the world to a lack of organizational support and unrealistic expectations, you arrive at the overwhelming weight changemakers like you in do-good organizations carry on their shoulders every single day.

Your top priority is to do right by your organization’s mission and your colleagues. If you add yourself and personal obligations to that list, your needs often come in last place. Every single time.

Pause here and assess. Give me your gut reaction: Do you even believe it’s possible to permanently shift your organization from a culture of burnout to a permanent culture of well-being? And do you think you can consistently put yourself at the top of your own to-do list?

What if I told you that I’ve been teaching practices inside changemaking organizations (for nearly a decade) that actually start with you and move outward, layer by layer, to shift the culture in your organization away from burnout or fruitless striving toward sustained well-being and an increased capacity for well-doing?

These practices relate to: (1) the sphere of impact you’re tapping into at any given moment, and (2) the quality of action you choose to focus on inside that sphere.

Why am I sharing these practices today?

Over the course of my career in the government and nonprofit sectors, I experienced my fair share of burnout and overwhelm in the name of saving the world. I also witnessed countless friends and colleagues have similar experiences.

According to the WellBeing Project, a global non-profit organization focused on catalyzing a culture of inner well-being for all changemakers, changemakers are facing increasing levels of burnout, stress, depression, chronic illness, and weak personal and professional relationships.

I’ve also heard from many changemakers, about how today’s rapidly changing world and workplace has resulted in increased stress, uncertainty, and social isolation, as well as a decrease in overall well-being.

I know you’re doing great work. But the truth is, you can’t give your best if you’re not at your best. And if you’re not around to help create a positive impact in your community, then who will be?

I want to share this set of practices with you today to help you get absolute clarity on where to start (on your mission to replace burnout culture with a true culture of well-being).

Creating a healthier workplace for yourself and your organizations requires a long-term commitment to transforming burnout culture, where exhaustion is an accepted norm, to a culture that supports our whole health and fuels us to do good work in a sustainable way for the long haul. It’s about more than occasional gift cards, branded swag, and virtual happy hours. It’s a continuous journey of aligning your organization’s mission and values with how you treat your team and do the day-to-day work—and this doesn’t happen overnight.

And if you’re in a position to influence culture change in your organization, you have a sacred opportunity to co-create with your colleagues a vision for a permanent culture of well-being and enroll your team in helping you fulfill that vision. Ultimately, a healthier workplace isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. The benefit is more resilient, productive, and successful employees and a greater positive impact in your community.

To support your journey, here are three ways you can get started with cultivating a culture of well-being for your organization:

1. Replenish your closest sphere of impact.

You have many spheres of impact representing the different levels at which you can create a positive impact through your work. The first place to start with organizational change is with your closest sphere of impact as a changemaker—you!

As flight attendants remind us, you must secure your own oxygen mask first before assisting others. This concept also applies to pouring into yourself personally and professionally. If you’re consistently pouring from that full or overflowing cup we discussed earlier, you set yourself and your team up for sustained long-term success. The result is a sustained flow of ripples of positive change through your spheres of impact.

Otherwise, your cup runs dry, you burn out, and your organizational change efforts stall or do more harm than good. This burnout usually results from trying to tackle outer spheres of impact first (e.g., being laser-focused on your organization’s or client’s needs at your own expense) without nourishing yourself first. As a result, you may often feel like you’re being crushed by the weight of the world.

Start securing your own oxygen mask today by pausing and asking yourself: What’s one small step I can take in the next seven days to improve my well-being?

This should be something you can do in 15 minutes or less. Here are a few ideas:

• Call human resources to see if mental health services are included in your insurance plan. This directory of resources is available if you need help finding affordable mental health treatment without insurance.

• Find a supportive community of like-minded peers. Here are a few places to start:

• Thriving Mindfully Academy: A resource network grounded in mindfulness, self-love, and self-care.

• NTEN: A community of nonprofit professionals who are using technology to change the world.

• Nonprofit Professionals of Color Collective: A curated convening for people of color who are committed to their professional growth, giving and receiving support, and networking with like-minded peers.

• Ask a Manager: Insights on hiring, firing, promoting, managing, and navigating workplace weirdness.

• Order a standalone alarm clock to replace your smart device alarm so that you can get a better night's sleep.

• If you have a primary care doctor, make an appointment for a check-up. Sometimes prolonged burnout and overwhelm can be signs of a health problem you may not be aware of.

• Call human resources to see if you have free or discounted access to wellness apps like Insight Timer, Calm, or Microsoft Office 365 Viva Insights (your IT person might be the right point of contact here).

• Check with your supervisor to see whether your organization provides a professional development budget. Research conferences, courses, and coaching programs you can register for with that professional development budget, if applicable.

• Time block your daily start and stop routines on your calendar.

• Request time off. Take a look at the calendar for the next 90 days and identify a few times to take time away from work, whether that’s taking a half-day on a Friday or a long weekend, or formally requesting time for a pre-planned vacation or holiday.

Once you identify your one small step, write it down.

Next, schedule a 15-minute appointment with yourself for the next 7 days. Yes, an appointment just for you! Put yourself on your calendar—seriously. During your appointment, focus on accomplishing the one small step you identified. When you’ve completed your one small step, pause, appreciate your accomplishment, and identify your next step. Rinse and repeat.

2. Check on your team.

When was the last time you asked your team if they were OK? We take the basics for granted in our rush to keep the trains moving while juggling impossible workloads and navigating disruptions like optimizing hybrid work, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), or keeping up with the newest social media platform.

But if you manage a team or project, intentionally checking in with each of your direct reports or stakeholders on a regular basis is more critical than ever, especially in the hybrid workplace.

But what do I say? How do I know what my team needs? I get some variation of these questions from team leaders all the time. The simple answer is to ask questions. You don’t need to be a mind reader. You’d be surprised what asking the right questions yields. In fact, many times, people aren’t looking for a tangible solution—they just want to feel seen, heard, valued and affirmed. Simply asking and really listening is a huge first step. Sometimes there may not be much detail to share or a reluctance to speak up at first, which is completely fine. But intentionally making space so your team knows they can come to you is huge.

Here are some questions to get you started:

• What’s the single biggest challenge you’re facing with work right now?

• What do you need to make work work better for you right now?

• When was the last time you took time off work (and really unplugged)?

• What projects would you like to work on or be more involved in?

• Where do you need help?

• Are you waiting on anything from me?

• Where would you like me involved more in your day-to-day? Where would you like me to be involved less?

• Is our level of communication working for you? How would you change it?

Here are some ways to take meaningful action on feedback from your team and stakeholders:

• Be a good role model for your team. Practice what you preach.

• Don’t ask if you don’t really want to know. If you ask, acknowledge that you heard them and appreciate their feedback, even if you can’t act immediately.

• Be honest and upfront about what’s possible and what’s not (honesty builds credibility).

• Follow up promptly, even if it’s just to provide an update on something that’s still in process.

• Do what you say you will do, and don’t overpromise.

• Make meaningful check-ins a regular thing.

Next time you see your colleagues, I invite you to go beyond a simple “How’s it going?” or “How was your weekend?” Ask specific questions about challenges and what supports would be helpful. Wait for the entire answer. Really listen, and then take action based on what you’ve been told.

3. Create an organizational well-being vision statement.

This statement is a few sentences that succinctly describe what your ideal culture of well-being looks and feels like. This exercise can be done individually or as a small group.

Start small by considering this question: what’s our vision for what we want well-being to look like for our team and/or organization over the next 90 days?

Your response can just be a few rough aspirational bullet points to start with and can evolve over time. If 90 days feel like too much—or too little—time to wrap your head around, consider adjusting the time period to what works better for you, such as the next seven, 30, or 60 days. You might find it helpful to imagine what your team’s well-being would be like if you knew it was impossible for you to fail and you had every resource—money, board support, external consultants—you needed at your disposal right now.

Here are a few additional questions that be helpful as you map out your vision:

• How do our organization’s current mission, vision, and values connect to employee well-being?

• What core values are important for promoting well-being within our organization?

• Who are the primary beneficiaries of our efforts (e.g., employees, their families, the community, etc.)?

• What specific areas of well-being will our organization focus on?

If you already have a vision statement, I invite you to review it and assess how well you’re doing at realizing it. Your vision is the foundation of your organizational roadmap to a healthier workplace culture for the long haul. Your workplace well-being roadmap outlines the steps to advance your organization's well-being. It’s a plan that clarifies your priorities, which tasks you will focus on to achieve your goals, and holds you and your organization accountable for achieving the defined goals.

Your roadmap also supports you in integrating well-being activities into your organization at all levels intentionally while allocating the appropriate resources. This type of planning moves you away from superficial wellness benefits and one-off activities to embedding well-being into your organization's core. Before putting a plan into action, creating a vision is the first place to start.

Next Steps

If you don’t know where to start to create a healthier workplace culture, start by taking 15 minutes for yourself, then gradually expand your focus to your team and organization. The process of taking small steps to improve your own well-being and then replicating this at the team and organizational levels create a sustainable path to healing burnout culture and creating more ripples of positive impact over the long term.

It’s also important to remember that in an attempt to create a sustainable culture of well-being on their own, many organizations simply scratch the surface. But workplace well-being is about more than flexible schedules, the occasional lunch-and-learn, and branded swag. If the deeper structural issues in your organization that perpetuate a culture of overwork, burnout, and disengagement aren’t addressed at the root level, superficial “wellness benefits” become a band-aid covering a deeper wound that has yet to heal. The reality is that you can’t fix the enormity of workplace mental health and well-being challenges with duct tape. That’s where workplace wellness consultants, experienced mental health and wellness staff, and strong peer networks come in.

Your organization may benefit from hiring a workplace wellness consultant and/or dedicated health and wellness staff who can support your organization’s journey to creating a more sustainable culture of well-being. Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Each organization is unique, and your workplace well-being strategy should be tailored to your specific needs and goals. However, if your organization is committed to creating a healthier workplace culture for the long haul, a workplace wellness consultant and/or dedicated health and wellness staff can be a valuable partner in achieving this outcome.

You can start by considering this question: Which resources do we need to improve the well-being of our team that we don’t have currently?

If something seems impossible, I invite you and your team to think about why and what it would take to create the necessary conditions where aspirational changes eventually could become part of your organization’s culture.

But you don’t have to figure it all out on your own. I invite you to consider what type of support, accountability, coaching, and community you need for your journey.

This is one of the reasons I created the Virtual Wellness Retreat for Changemakers. It’s a 2-day experience where we dive into the inner and outer work of increasing your well-being while well-doing for the long haul. Are you looking for a deeper dive into how to create a permanent culture of well-being for you and your team? Join us at our next retreat. Learn more at www.mindfultechie.com/retreat.