Quite often in my coaching sessions, I hear leaders proclaiming that their staff is burnt out. I often question it further because it could be symptoms of other issues, like frustration. In today’s post, we’ll explore the difference between being burnt out versus being frustrated. Our goal at the end of this post is to help you answer a very important question, “Are our employees suffering from burnout or frustration?” Let’s break it down.
Burnt Out, Frustrated, What’s the Big Difference?
As I mentioned earlier, I like to probe leaders who have a simplified excuse for their team of ‘being burnt out’. Often, my follow-up question is, “Are your people burnt out from working excessively or are they frustrated by their current environment and its lack of clear direction and focus?”. There is a distinct difference between the two situations and even more important, they require different solutions.
Let’s take a look at their definitions.
- Burnt out: This means a person is tired of doing their job. They need a change because they no longer enjoy the work. They may even feel that the reward is no longer worth the effort.
- Frustration: The current situation is chaos with little direction, and they are working blindly with no light at the end of the tunnel. They tend to feel like as though they are often running in circles and in many instances, they are right.
How Can You Effectively Apply These Terms?
As a Leader in the Middle, it is important for you to recognize the symptom so specific treatment can be applied. If you are unable to distinguish between the two, you will often exasperate the issue. This can further devolve into employee friction and cultural problems.
“A football player rarely feels an injury after scoring a touchdown in the endzone. This is because the pain is out shadowed by the sense of success. But many players are hurt on the one-yard line or short of the end zone because the victory was not achieved.”
–Nathan Jamail, Keynote Speaker, Bestselling Author
I have found that when we as professionals are working hard and producing with clearer directions, we are happier and have a greater sense of success. When teams are floundering and not producing, despite efforts, there is chaos and grumbles which translates to frustration with the job, not burn out. Luckily, this can be a temporary challenge and with the correct intervention can be fixed easily.
So Why (Erroneously) Blame Being Burnout?
From my interactions with leaders, at all levels, I have observed that it is often easier to blame burnout as a deflective coping mechanism. It is simpler to say it is one of three issues:
- The workload
- The employees’ inability to handle their job
- The business’ lack of adequate personnel that limits effective functionality.
This is a faulty and dangerous outlook because it impedes a solution. Even worse, in today’s current environment, organizations are dealing with employee shortages, supply issues, upset customers and ever-increasing government restrictions. Given these challenges, employee frustration is at a record high. There can be no room to misdiagnose and thus exasperation of the chaos.
How Can We Fix Their Frustration?
“We are judged on our obstacles and how we overcome them. It is also well known that we cannot control what happens to us or our team. We can only control how we react and rectify the issues.”
–Nathan Jamail, Keynote Speaker, Bestselling Author
Your goal as an effective leader is to create an environment that promotes high production and job satisfaction while limiting employee frustration. I recommend you first take a step back and look at the organization’s priorities and responsibilities.
Then I recommend taking the following crucial steps:
- Look at the situation your team is in today and use your leadership role to outline what we can do to help our people do less with better results
- Communicate with the team daily, address their frustration and not their workload.
- Avoid being overwhelmed by taking on too much at one time. Instead, find the biggest issue and resolve it first. If the issue is not your responsibility, don’t blame others. it’s still on you to work with others to find an effective solution.
In our leadership role, we must help our employees focus on their activities. The light at the end of tunnel should not be viewed as ‘when the job is done’ or ‘when we get to stop or take break’, it should be viewed as ‘we are working as a team and finding success and solutions’.
The Final Word…
As a leader there can be no room for blame; you are tasked to help your people and lead them to solutions. Whether your employees are suffering from burnout or frustration, you must focus on helping your team feel a sense of achievement. It may even mean helping specific team members to find some place else to work- if that applies and is needed. Using this outlook, I guarantee they will work through the pain and struggles. Life is better for all when you ensure reward is a part of the game.
I’m passionate about employee engagement and effective job performance. You can rely on my 20+ years experience in sales and leadership to create a #winningteam. Check out my books, The Leadership Playbook and Serve Up, Coach Down for even more leadership solutions.
