How to Stop Silent Burnout Before It Stops You

0:09So what we are going to talk about today is the silent burnout. Now I'm talking about the kind of burnout that isn't necessarily obvious. The burnout that happens behind the scenes, behind the LinkedIn posts, behind the business meetings, behind the strategy sessions that isn't obvious. Because on the surface, as a business leader, we often put ourselves out to the world and it all seems like everything is fine. But the reality can often be that behind the scenes, there's something very, very different going on. And it's so important. I'm so passionate about this topic because, you know, I've been in business for 30 plus years, both as a corporate CEO running very, very large global travel businesses.

1:05You know, when I was the MD of the emerging markets at TUI, when I was the CEO of the travel division at Saga and throughout my career, but also as a multiple business owner today and as an entrepreneur. So, you know, I've seen this so many times. And I also have been on a bit of a personal journey with this, which I'm going to share with you a little bit around how this showed up for me as well. So it's a topic that I care deeply about. I love business. I love people. That's why I created Brave Bob Brilliant. That's why I do everything that I do. It keeps me so close to my purpose. But actually, we've got to keep it real, you know, as well as being able to celebrate the success and talk about how we improve our businesses day to day.

1:55We also, it's important to recognise when the things going on in leadership that maybe aren't talked about so much, because it isn't always perfect. and this is something very close to my heart so I know you're going to really enjoy this episode. Now if we are not connected on social media let's get connected. You're going to find Brave Bold Brilliant and Jeanette Linfoot all over social media. LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok so let's get connected. We also have an incredible website www.brave-bold-brilliant.com where you're going to find incredible resources for yourself as a business leader, but also for your teams.

2:44So make sure you jump onto the website and subscribe to become part of the community. We have weekly content, weekly business content that comes out. We have daily content on our YouTube channel and also we have our podcast as well, Brave Bold Brilliant. So hit the subscribe button on YouTube for Brave Bob Brilliant and also subscribe to iTunes, to Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcasts because we are here to help. And as I say, I'm all about keeping it real, helping organisations, helping business leaders step up into their best version of themselves really. So, you know, why is it so important this topic then?

3:27Well, it's so important because quite frankly, you know, when you're in a leadership role, whether you're running a team, whether you're the CEO of a large corporate organisation, or maybe you might be a founder of your own business, it can be so lonely at the top. And we often have to make tough decisions in very limited time and be able to still keep the wheels on the bus. But we can pay the price sometimes from a health point of view. So, you know, there's quite a bit of content on burnout, But to me, that's more of the obvious burnout stuff. And that is critical as well. But the silent burnout, the burnout behind the scenes that creeps up on you is arguably more dangerous, in my opinion.

4:14So we're going to cover that today and we're going to cover out why it's important. But most important, importantly important, is how can you take steps to reset so that you put your own oxygen mask on first so you can be the best leader. You can be the best business owner. You can be the best husband, wife, partner, friend for your loved ones. so let's get into this and I would recommend you grab a pen and paper make some notes and of course if there are any situations you're dealing with right now where you could just do with a little bit of advice a bit of support from someone that's not so involved in the day-to-day of your world then reach out I'm more than happy to have a conversation send me a dm drop us a message on their website, whatever works for you.

5:06But we are here to help. And I genuinely care. And I've been there myself. So I know how tough it is. So before I get into the sort of the how it shows up, really, I'm going to talk a little bit about my personal journey. Now, as I say, you know, I have been in business a long time. I've been around the block. And as a result of that, I've had, you know, great success, which I'm incredibly proud of. But I've also had lots of times where things haven't gone so right as well, where maybe I didn't get the promotion, or I backed a business that wasn't successful, or I invested in a project that didn't return what we were hoping for.

5:45And, you know, so it's really important. But when you're in those senior roles, the pressure is enormous. You know, and I remember when I was the managing director of the emerging markets at TUI, you know, I had a big global team. I had my team in Delhi, I had my team in Beijing, I had the team in Germany, in South America, in Sao Paulo, in the UK. And I was traveling, I would say 60 to 70 % of my time, I was away from home. And that puts a huge amount of strain, a huge amount of strain on your sort of physical well-being, on my physical well-being at the time, but also on, you know, your relationships, your personal life, all that stuff, which very often you can take for granted.

6:31So I know myself, you know, I would be jumping on a flight on a Monday morning, commuting to Hong Kong or Beijing, a 12-hour flight, an eight-hour time difference, coming back on a Friday. And at the time when you're in it and when I was in it, I didn't realise quite how much of a toll that was taking on me, both physically and emotionally, because I absolutely loved the role. I loved what I did and I was so passionate about it. And I was so focused on delivering the results for the business that I actually neglected parts of my personal life. And at the time, my now husband, Chris, he also had a very big corporate job as well.

7:14So we were like ships that passed in the night. And there was a point where when my dad actually passed away and got very sick. He had a, unfortunately, had a really bad stroke. And the pressure built even more because I was then, you know, flying out to China or to India, coming back, jumping in the car, driving up to Manchester to see dad in hospital, all that emotional pressure that was going on. And then, you know, my dad did pass away. So we really miss him dearly. But at the time, the pressure was enormous and you know during that that period I was still keeping the wheels on the bus I was showing up and not dropping any balls in the work environment but behind the scenes it was really tough and I literally used to you know the phrase put your face on you know so you know putting your makeup on literally you're putting your face on to show up to work and that was me but behind the scenes I was you know really struggling and actually there was a time when, as I say, Chris and I, our relationship was, we were like ships that passed in that.

8:19And we really had to say, no, we need to come back together. We need to regroup and we need to put some boundaries in place here, you know, and then the other example I'll give you. So that was a real wake up call, how to actually deal with some of this stuff. And then, you know, there was another example last year, actually, where I was so busy building the business, Brave Bulber, and I love it. I love what we do. I'm so proud of what we're achieving and how we help our clients and organizations but actually I got really sick you know I ended up being rushed into hospital I had it was my gallbladder actually you know my liver wasn't working properly and I had to have my gallbladder removed which thankfully wasn't too serious but I am sure that that was stress related and the lead up to it just creeps up on you so this is a watch out for all of us I think and used to think I was invincible, but I'm clearly not.

9:15We're all human. So I wanted to share a couple of those personal stories with you just to really, you know, show that we're all in a scenario where this can happen to us. So it's so important that we take care of ourselves. You know, and if you think about the external world, there's so much pressure, so much pressure. We're in a world where it's instant gratification. we're bombarded with social media whatsapp messages emails you know how ai is disrupting our industries and the pressure that puts on you know this constant never off environment that we're in and that actually makes it even harder so you know the way it can actually show up it could be sleep it could be exhaustion it could be you know that you start eating quite poorly because you're just grabbing whatever's convenient.

10:08Maybe your exercise that you used to be pretty disciplined around goes out the window. It could all be consuming about work, long hours. Maybe all of a sudden you're not seeing family and friends in the same way and you think, oh gosh, I haven't caught up with that person for 12 months. So it can be really, you know, impactful when this does happen. So that's why it's so important is how it showed up for me. Now, I regrouped. I regrouped on multiple occasions through my career in different circumstances, both in that corporate pressure, but also as a business owner very recently. So I want to take you through eight steps that you can also take.

10:50If you're feeling any of this, maybe it's going on in the background, but you're showing up and everyone thinks you're fine, actually, you know, it's time to stop.

11:04So before we continue, I want to speak directly to those of you who are listening and thinking, I know I'm capable of more, but I need structure. I need some help. Because here's what I've actually learned after, gosh, more than three decades in business. You know, ambition without clarity creates frustration. And motivation without structure, it really does fade very, very fast. So that's exactly why we created Rise Academy. You know, and Rise Academy, it's not theory. It isn't fluffy motivation, although you will be motivated. And it certainly isn't another online course that you never finish.

11:48It's actually a fully structured growth environment for ambitious entrepreneurs, leaders, and founders who absolutely are ready to do all of these things, sharpen their strategy, elevate their leadership, increase revenue with intention, and build businesses that actually support the life that they want. And inside Rise Academy, we focus on the foundations most people skip. Leading yourself, leading your teams and leading the business. It's about clarity, standards, decision making, commercial intelligence and execution. Because scaling, it really isn't about doing more. It's actually about doing the right things and doing the things right consistently.

12:35So if you're serious about stepping up into your next level of your leadership, your business life, you know, and not just consuming content, but actually implementing it, then Rise Academy was absolutely built for you. So you can find all the details on our website, go to www.brave-bold-brilliant.com. And now, let's get back to the show. you need to stop right before something happens that actually could create a really difficult situation for you so and i'm not saying any of this to preach i'm not saying any of this to say i'm the oracle on any on these topics i'm just talking from a very personal experience of myself but also the clients that i work with because when i work one-to-one mentoring executives, mentoring entrepreneurs and founders, we often end up talking about how we can show up and be the best version of ourselves.

13:37And that includes health, well-being, mental ability to actually deal with stress, et cetera. So eight steps, grab a pen and paper. You're going to want to write these down. The first one is you need to recognize it, right? You've got to be honest with yourself, hold a mirror up and recognise what's going on. So if you are feeling any of these sort of symptoms, if you like, on a regular basis, I'm not talking about just the, you know, the odd stress that happens regularly, you know, it's really where we're talking about consistently these signs showing up. So the first thing is you've got to recognise it.

14:16The second thing is you need to stop, right? You need to stop and you need to review where you are. Take a little bit of an audit, a bit of a checklist for yourself and score yourself one to 10 on the burnout on the burnout spectrum. All right. So one being I'm not getting enough sleep. I'm low score up to 10 being high score where you're actually really happy and you feel like you're in a good place. And there are areas, there are sort of five areas that I would recommend you score yourself on sleep. sleep all right so if you're having disruptive sleep you're not sleeping you're waking up in the middle of the night you can't get off to sleep or you know you're constantly waking up in the morning feeling exhausted then you're going to be scoring yourself low if you feel you're getting a good night's sleep generally speaking you know you're going to be up at the eights and nines the tens maybe so sleep diet where do you think you are in terms of your kind of what you're putting in your mouth shall we say because rubbish in is rubbish out so where are you on your on your diet Have you got into sort of bad habits?

15:21You're eating junk food, you're snacking throughout the day. Or actually, are you really having quite a healthy, balanced diet? So again, one is a low score, 10 is a high score. Exercise. Where are you on exercise and movement? Now, you don't have to be an elite athlete, but you do need to move, right? You do need to move. So, you know, where are you on that? And then the fourth area would be socially. you know are you finding time to socialize spend quality time you know with with externally outside of work and then you know the final but I would say the most important is your loved ones you know where are you on your relationships you know are you satisfied do you feel you have quality time together enough of so again just do a little bit of an audit and then the third step once you've done that it's time to really prioritize your health and then you can say okay well if there are certain areas where you're scoring yourself low what can you actually do to address that to get yourself in a better place then we get to the reset and the reset is about decluttering declutter your life are you a busy fool are you spending time on things it's adding a lot of stress a lot of potential burnout but actually you could be delegating that or maybe delaying a project because you're putting yourself under too much too much pressure and remember I've done posts on this in the past but a very simple way of doing this is the four d's okay the four d's so what are you going to ditch what are you going to delay what are you going to delegate and what are you going to do and you know that's a great way to really reprioritize the important things and then of course you need to be looking at your diary how you're spending your time declutter your diary, take out those non-essential meetings, look at your environment.

17:10If your office is a complete chaotic mess with papers everywhere, that's probably not helping. Subconsciously, that is, you know, making you probably more stressed as well. Look at the people in your life. Are you spending time with the right people? Are you spending time with people that are draining your energy and actually adding to that burnout, you know, scenario that we're talking about? So just really reset and declutter. And then the fifth thing is really reconnect with your purpose, your reason why. Why are you doing stuff? What's important to you? Why do you get out of bed in the morning?

17:50Are you aligned with your purpose or have you gone off track, actually? Maybe you've taken on some extra projects or started some new businesses that actually really, when you look at it, are not really aligned with your purpose. So, again, get reconnected with your purpose and your reason why, because that's going to certainly help you. Number six, you've got to create new boundaries and expectations. All right. So once you've got yourself in a better place, you need to make sure that your team understand kind of the way you're going to work. what are those new boundaries there may be some non-negotiables in there like for example it might be that you protect the first you know the first hour of your day so that you can get yourself set up might be that you have to leave at four o 'clock for your you know your gym session on certain days of the week so set new boundaries and expectations with people around you the seventh point is implement it it's great having a plan but if you don't put it into into practice it's nothing is it so you've got to implement it and then the eighth is review review how you're going actually over time check in with yourself maybe weekly maybe monthly um certainly certainly no don't leave any longer than monthly and you can always go back to that sort of little health checklist that we did and see where you're scoring yourself now so you know listen there's a lot in this i appreciate it but at the end of the day for you to be the best leader the best business person the best you know person for your loved ones it's so important that we don't have this silent burnout going on behind the scenes because it can explode like it did for me on a couple of occasions in my my professional life and my personal life so don't let don't let don't let that happen to you and you you know you might be saying oh well you know I haven't got time for doing all of this but that's exactly why you need to if you haven't got time and you're not able to prioritize yourself then you really need to take stock of that.

19:49And of course, there's no better time than now, is there? So really take action. I think there's a saying, when's the best time to plant a tree 10 years ago? When's the second best time today? So take the action today. And what I would say to you is, if you need help, remember at Brave Bold Brilliant, we work directly one-to-one with individuals. I work directly from a business mentoring perspective with executive, with business owners, with entrepreneurs. If you need help, not just with this stuff, but also your business strategy, the accountability and the actual knowledge and experience that I can bring to help you on your journey is going to absolutely help you reset in a significant way.

20:35So do drop me a message drop me a line if you're interested in in one-to-one mentoring because we're here to help and as i said before make sure that you are subscribed to the youtube channel we have daily business content going out on youtube brave bold brilliant make sure that you take advantage of that subscribe to the podcast as well itunes spotify and of course make sure that you go to the website www.brave-bold-brilliant.com and join the community and then you can benefit from all those incredible free resources that we have for you in your teams so don't be alone whatever you're doing remember it is by being brave and bold that you will unlock your brilliant i really hope you've enjoyed this episode of brave bold brilliant remember check out our new website www.brave-bold-brilliant.com you're going to find loads of resources on there that's going to help you with your leadership journey and with the businesses that you're trying to scale up and grow.

21:36So take care everyone and remember there are no limits to your growth but it is by being brave and bold that you're going to unlock your brilliance.