When you first started your business or took on your role leading others, you were probably pretty darn excited, fuelled by ideas for positive outcomes, and excited to conquer your new endeavour!
I bet you didn’t sit back, look at your business model and think, “how can I make sure that I’ll be chronically stressed, burnt out and take my team down with me?”.
Well, I sincerely hope you weren’t asking yourself that anyway...
Yet, without actually asking themselves this question, too often leaders and their teams career towards burnout at breakneck speed. So let's take a different approach and twist the perspective on it. What if burnout was the goal? Well, here’s how you could do your best to make it happen for you and your team.
I know what you're thinking, and YES, writing this blog feels like a painful exercise in reverse psychology, especially as a coach and facilitator who specialises in preventing burnout, fostering work/life cohesion and promoting psychological safety in teams... But sometimes flipping the perspective is what it takes to get the message across, so... here we go.
21 Ways to Guarantee Burnout
(for You and Your Team)
Blur the boundaries: Make sure everyone is always "on" and accessible.
Check emails after hours: Stress about things you can’t resolve, or better yet, resolve them in your personal time.
Take work home: Sacrifice personal relationships and activities that nurture your soul - actively discourage work/life cohesion.
Celebrate busyness: Being on the go and chronically stressed is a badge of honour, right?
Skip stress management: Don’t offer any tools or education on handling stress.
Ignore high-stress habits: Let them fester; don’t bring it up and definitely don’t offer support or solutions.
Set impossible deadlines: Either ‘just’ achievable with extreme effort or entirely unrealistic.
Forget recognition: No need for meaningful praise—people work better when they're underappreciated. Pack that pressure on!
Avoid self-awareness: Keep your team in the dark about their strengths and weaknesses.
Stifle communication: Make sure there are no effective channels for raising concerns.
Create role confusion: Lack of clarity will kill confidence and effectiveness.
Push the high achievers: They’re easy targets—see how far they can go before they break.
Let toxic culture thrive: Don’t intervene; let it spread like wildfire.
Engage in gossip: If you hear it, join in—why not add fuel to the fire?
Skip breaks: Chain yourself and your team to the desk—no fresh air, exercise, or nutrition needed.
Embrace constant change: Poorly communicated, of course, to keep everyone on edge.
Reject flexibility: No flexible work arrangements—rigidity is key.
Discourage collaboration: Pit people against each other instead.
Lower psychological safety: Ensure fear of being chastised or penalized for speaking up or making mistakes.
Shut down ideas: Make it clear that vulnerability and new ideas are unwelcome, resist innovation.
Be under resourced: Need 10 staff to do the job? Push everyone’s limits and see if you can do it with half as many.
Signs Burnout is on the Horizon
Want to make sure your team is really hitting that deep, bone aching burnout? If they’re presenting with one or more of these symptoms you know they’re well on their way…
Mental and emotional exhaustion
Chronic fatigue and low energy
Mental fog and slow cognition
Missed deadlines and frequent mistakes
Memory issues and poor recall
Reduced performance and output
Low stress tolerance and sensitivity
Physical symptoms like headaches and stomach issues
Frequent illnesses and weakened immunity
Appetite changes and weight fluctuations
Cynicism and hopelessness
Ineffective stress management habits (like excessive drinking)
Your Reward for Burning Everyone Out
After all this effort to make sure of burnout out, these are the outcomes and rewards can you expect. It should excite you if burnout if your goal!
Project delays
Decreased quality of work
Lost revenue
High absenteeism
Sky-high staff turnover
Sparse talent acquisition
Low morale
Loss of client trust
A damaged brand
Ok, Time to Get Serious
Ok, ok, ok... Enough with the tongue-in-cheek approach. Writing from the perspective of how to burn out your team hurt my brain and my heart!
It goes against everything I stand for as a coach and facilitator. Burnout is preventable, and it’s not just up to individuals to fix it. Leadership, culture, and psychological safety in your business are critical to your team’s well-being, performance, and job satisfaction. In other words, it’s critical to your bottom line.
If you’re ready to do better, empower your team with corporate well-being programs or employee coaching that can make a real impact. I’d be honoured to support your team here in Tasmania or remotely. Take the leap and schedule a free 30-minute consultation with me, Steph, Certified Professional Coach specialising in sustainable excellence and work/life cohesion. Let’s make sure your team thrives instead of just surviving!
Creating a team founded in sustainable excellence is in your hands!
Steph Edmunds
Certified Professional Life Coach & Team Facilitator
About the Author:
Steph Edmunds is a Tasmanian based Certified Professional Life Coach, Speaker and Facilitator specialising in Work/Life Cohesion and Sustainable Excellence for driven individuals and teams. Visit the Success Coaching Tasmania website for more information.