Burnout is chronic stress on steroids. It can affect our work, our relationships, our health, even our brain structures. So what does it mean to be burnt out? Complete emotional exhaustion and an attitude of cynicism. Burnt-out employees feel “I don’t have anything else to give.” They develop negative attitudes toward themselves and those with whom they work. Burnout is especially prevalent in work settings where involvement with others is intense. Healthcare settings are frequently used as examples (e.g., physicians, nurses) but burnout can occur anywhere.
 
In the February 2016 issue of the Association for Psychological Science’s Observer, Alexandra Michel discussed burnout research and the effect of burnout on the brain. Here are highlights from Michel’s article:

• Burnout characteristics: “extreme fatigue, loss of passion, and intensifying cynicism and negativity” (p. 28)
• 2013 survey of human resource managers in the United Kingdom – 30% reported burnout widespread in their organizations
• All demanding jobs with long hours do not lead to burnout
• Burnt-out employees may have “crisis in feelings of professional competence”
• “Ultimately, burnout results when the balance of deadlines, demands, working hours, and other stressors outstrips rewards, recognition, and relaxation” (p. 28)
• Major contributors: work overload, lack of autonomy (too much control over work by others), few healthy relationships in the workplace, perceived unfairness (lack of trust, openness), incompatibility between individual values and company values.
• Burnout accelerates the normal thinning of the frontal cortex (cognitive functioning).
• Burnout negatively impacts “creativity, problem solving, and working memory” (p.29)

 
My take-aways:

1.  Burnout is an issue for leaders. They should be aware of their own potential for burnout, but more important, they should understand their role in mitigating burnout among those they lead. There are clearly individual differences toward burnout but it is also clear that organizational culture and climate are major players. The leader sets the tone. Be open. Be trusting. Set healthy norms about work hours. Insure those leaders who work for you do the same.
 
2.  Know your people well enough to recognize possible burnout. How does your organization help those suffering from burnout? Are those who make use of HR policies concerning burnout viewed negatively?
 
3. It is possible to be burnt-out and not know that you are. Others will often recognize the change in your attitudes, the negativity, before you do. Be open to feedback. Recognize we are all human and have limits. We are not supermen and superwomen.
 
4. Manage your stress before it becomes chronic and debilitating. Find ways to relax. Exercise, exercise, exercise. I agree with Abraham Maslow that we all have much potential. Sometimes we just have to work harder to take care of ourselves.
 
Michel, A. (February 2016). Burnout and the brain. Observer, 29 (2), 27-31.
 
Gaither, C. (October 14, 2014). “6 Job Mismatches that Cause Burnout.” Retrieved from http://www.clarkgaither.com/6-job-mismatches-that-cause-burnout/

Image by Geralt. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/stress-man-hand-flames-burn-fire-864141/

Modified from my blog, 2/20/2016. © John Ballard, PhD,  2023. All rights reserved.
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Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook, and CD, are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

Should employees be treated equally? In my consulting experience the manager who treated everyone equally was usually a poor leader. Equal opportunity and equal treatment are not the same. The key is to treat people equitably, to treat people fairly. As one manager told me, “Why should I treat people equally. They don’t perform equally.” The employee who is more productive probably deserves more rewards. Good managers reward performance.

Peggy Drexler discussed this in a 2013 Wall Street Journal article, “The Upside of Favoritism.” Drexler gives examples of two types of “favoritism”. One type is simply treating people equitably based on their performance. As one manager stated, “I rewarded good work on its own . . .”  You do better work than your peers, you reap greater rewards, or should. This is not favoritism. Just good management. The caveat is the manager needs to be sure everyone who wants opportunities to excel have them, that is, equal opportunities.

But Drexler’s other type is clearly favoritism and not good. She described a manager who did not use work-related criteria for rewarding subordinates. Rather the manager rewarded based on friendship, common interests, etc. Drexler noted that  this type of favoritism can “be damaging to morale and productivity."

In some cases favoritism may be illegal. Lisa Guerin, J.D., in an online article states, “If favoritism is rooted in discrimination, harassment, or retaliation, however, it crosses the line from poor management to illegal behavior”(para 2).

In 2012 Forbes article Jacquelyn Smith cited several consultants who indicated favoritism was common in the workplace. However they differentiated the “teacher’s pet” syndrome from “performance recognition." But one source suggested not treating people equally could sow seeds of unrest and demotivate. So how to resolve? 

My take-away:
 
I think the key is transparency. How can one be a transparent leader?  According to Collen Payne-Nabors:

• Share information
• Convey your principles and belief
• Be trustworthy and reliable
• Listen to your inner voice
• Admit when you are wrong and learn from it

 
For a discussion of these suggestions, see an earlier blog.

Favoritism? Be transparent, treat people fairly, provide equal opportunities
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​Image by geralt. Obtained from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/woman-stairs-career-business-woman-6583628/
 
Modified from my blog, 6/10/2013. © John Ballard, PhD,  2023. All rights reserved.
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Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook, and CD, are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

What behaviors are typical of ineffective managers? In a classic Harvard Business Review article in 1977, Wickham Skinner and W. Earl Sasser discussed behaviors characteristic of less effective managers. Almost 50 years later their observations are still valid. Here are a few of the behaviors of an ineffective manager that they identified: 

• accepts conventional company wisdom without question; for example, “we always promote from within”  
• acts too slowly when changes are needed now
• tolerates subordinates who are ineffective, hinting at improvements needed instead of taking decisive action
• doesn’t challenge the way things are done, for example, this is “the way we have always done it”
• doesn’t handle priorities
• doesn’t takes calculated risks, lack of  “boldness, nerve, and self-confidence”
• doesn’t ask for help or advice when needed
• doesn’t recognize own weaknesses 

A pretty good instrument to measure the effectiveness of managers could be made from this list. Let me address one area: handling priorities. 

We live in workplaces where increasingly we have to do more with less. Technologies sometimes increase workload where one might think workload should decrease. Organizations downsize but the work remains. Is it any wonder that in this environment our days are filled with the busywork of staying afloat?

As a young manager I found my days fully occupied with solving problems, making decisions, communicating, and so forth. But one evening I was reading Peter Drucker’s Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices and I realized I was not doing my job. Nobody noticed and probably no one would ever notice – but I was not thinking about where I wanted to lead my part of the organization. The next day when I came to work, I asked my secretary to hold all calls. I spent the day in my office letting the busywork pileup while I drank coffee, Dr. Peppers, and thought about what we were really about. I came up with direction, a vision of where I wanted us to go, and how we might get there. At our next meeting I bounced the ideas off my teams and they agreed. Over the next year we focused more on effective, meaningful training. With better skill sets came more success at our primary mission. Together we made an impact. 

I had not been handling my real priorities, leading and visioning. It was hard to find time at first and only got harder as I climbed the ladder. When it was impossible to take a day during my work week, I made it a Saturday. After one Saturday thinking about the organization and after having conversation with my teams, I presented our ideas to my boss.  He liked them but was amazed, “How on earth did you find time to do this?” 
 
If you understand your priorities, you make time -- at work and in life. 
 _____________________
Skinner, W., & Sasser, W. E. (1977). Managers with impact: verstile and inconsistent. Harvard Business Review, 55(6), 140-8.

​Image by Mohamed_hassan. Obtained from https://pixabay.com/vectors/overthink-question-doubtful-7185863/
 
Modified from my blog, 10/29/2012. © John Ballard, PhD,  2023. All rights reserved.
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Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook, and CD, are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

Memorial Day is a solemn day for me. I have known my share of friends and acquaintances who died in service to our country. Some were lost in Vietnam. Others in the Cold War. Still others due to terrorism. People I knew in high school, people with whom I shared the rigors of the U.S. Air Force Academy, people with whom I served during my time in the Air Force. 

Veterans Day in November honors those living who have served in the military. The lesser celebrated Armed Forces Day, also in May, celebrates those currently on active duty in our armed services. As the United States Census Bureau states, "Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who died in service to their country." In fact this is only partially true. 

Memorial Day honors service men and women who died serving our country and also civilians who actively worked in support of the military. But there are others not in uniform on the front lines who lose their lives defending our nation. Memorial Day does not honor diplomats, CIA agents, and others who die in the line of duty. For example, between the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, the United States lost more diplomats in the line of duty than those in our military. The U.S. Department of State has one day, Foreign Affairs Day, to honor active diplomats, retired officers, and those who have fallen. The CIA also has a separate memorial day. 

From a firefight in the jungles of Vietnam to a downed plane in its skies, to terrorist bombings, to events never made public, we are fortunate to have brave men and women willing to put their lives on the line to preserve our nation and our freedoms. Memorial Day is a day to remember. 
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Image by Charles Thompson.  Obtained from https://pixabay.com/photos/veteran-cemetery-flag-memorial-1885567/
 
© John Ballard, PhD,  2023. All rights reserved.

Fear can be an obstacle to being an effective leader. We all have fears of different types, at different times. Confronting fears that debilitate us and overcoming them is part of growing as a leader. Fred Stuvek, Jr., asked me and 14 others to contribute chapters to his book The Experience of Leadership. One of the things I wrote about in my chapter is confronting your fears. I share part of my chapter here: 

In the fourth grade I decided I wanted to be an architect and attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. By the seventh grade I wanted to be a pilot and that year I learned there was a West Point for the Air Force, the USAF Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Attending the Air Force Academy became my dream, my goal. I knew it was physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding but I thought I could survive. Only one thing truly disturbed me. I saw a film of cadets jumping from a 10-meter platform into the swimming pool. It looked so high. I knew sometime as a cadet I would be required to jump from that 10-meter diving platform into the water below. The thought of having to make that jump frightened me. It was my biggest fear. 
 
I was fortunate and received a Congressional appointment to the Air Force Academy. That first summer was basic training, grueling, difficult, and demanding beyond anything I could have imagined. We just tried to survive from hour to hour, to get through the day. The only free time was a few hours on Sunday afternoons. 
 
I knew what I had to do. So on that first Sunday I went to the Athletic Center, to the Natatorium with its Olympic-size pool, to my nemesis, the 10-meter platform. It looked so much higher than its 33 feet. Several upperclassmen (i.e., sophomores, juniors, seniors) were taking turns jumping from the top of the tower. I watched for probably half an hour, then approaching one of them. 
 
“Sir, what do I need to know to jump off the tower safely?”
 
“The main thing is to jump away from the platform, cross your legs, try to enter the water as upright as you can. You going to do it?”
 
“Yes, Sir.”
 
Slowly I climbed the stairs, occasionally looking down at the water.  With each step fear in me grew. I arrived at the top scared, alone, the water far below. My heart pounded, my body weak, my breathing labored. I walked to the edge. I did not look down. I stepped off away from the platform and crossed my legs.  1.4 seconds later at 35 mph I hit the water just slightly off center. For two days my body was sore but my mind was at peace. I had done it. I had conquered my biggest fear. I knew when the time came when I would be required to make that jump that I could do it. The fear of that tower was behind me. 
 
Later at the Academy I had to make that jump surrounded by my classmates. Some jumped with no problem, a few even enjoyed. But some were clearly scared. I was not. I had dealt with my fear privately. My demeanor was that of a leader -- calm, assured. 
_______________________

Ballard, J. A. (2021). Be prepared to lead. In F. Stuvek, Jr., The experience of leadership: Proven examples from successful leaders (pp. 79-94).Triumvirate.  
 
Image from video by Joe Lesar used with permission. Obtained from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ldNJBj-q_s
 
© John Ballard, PhD,  2023. All rights reserved.
______________________
Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook, and CD, are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

Why are some people more successful than others at work, home, life? All things being equal, much success comes from within ourselves. There are psychological characteristics that are related to being successful.
 
Two stalwarts of psychology addressed this topic in the September 2017 issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science: Angela Duckworth, known for her work on grit, and Martin Seligman, known for his work on learned helplessness. Their article focused on the importance of self-control but it summarizes concisely three psychological factors affecting success:

• self-control – “the capacity to regulate attention, emotion, and behavior in the presence of temptation.”
• grit – “passion and perseverance for long-term goals.”
• conscientiousness - being careful, being thorough; desiring to do a task well (one of the Big Five personality factors). 

Duckworth and Seligman discuss the pros and cons of lumping these together in studying success versus studying separately. The bottomline is both lumping and splitting help understand the differences and underlying dynamics. Here are some insights I noted:

• Self-control is important to outcomes in life, including income, finances, health, and “occupational prestige.”
• Conscientiousness includes self-control and is highly related to longevity, wealth, and health.
• In middle school students, self-control equaled intelligence measure in predicting grades and test scores but exceeded intelligence measures on predicting absences, procrastination, and time watching TV.
• Being able to delay gratification of “ill-timed or inappropriate impulses” is a hallmark of self-control and develops early in life, according to Freud.
• Gritty people have a “single-minded, sustained commitment” to “enduring goals of superordinate personal significance.”
• “A gritty person cannot be gritty about everything.”

My take-aways:
 
1. Many factors contribute to success. Your definition of success may be very different from another’s. I knew a local rock band that were truly outstanding, but when given the opportunity for national, even international exposure, they declined. Making music was a joy – not a lifestyle calling. Being a “rock star” was not part of their individual definitions of success. What does success mean to you?
 
2.  I see self-control and grit as important factors for individual success in any part of life. I have written about grit here previously. But grit is not necessarily predictive of organizational success unless the enduring goal is somehow tied to the organization. Given headlines about sexual harassment in the workplace, we can probably agree that self-control should have a greater emphasis in our training and conduct. Just how long can you go without looking at your smartphone?
 
3. On the other hand, conscientiousness is of great organizational and personal significance. We can measure conscientiousness, correlate with organizational outcomes, and design into selection systems. As I have written previously, it is the most important trait affecting health and success that you may have never considered.
 
4. Lumped or separated, these three factors offer a good self-assessment as to your success.

• How is your self-control?
• ​Do you have an enduring goal that you are pursuing with passion?
• Are you thorough in your work, striving for good outcomes in the various parts of your life? 

Duckworth, A. L., & Seligman, M. E. P.  (2017).  The science and practice of self-control. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(5), 715-718.
 
Image by Pfüderi. Obtained from https://pixabay.com/photos/rockclimbing-success-mountain-2040824/
 
Modified from my blog, 10/31/2023. © John Ballard, PhD,  2023. All rights reserved.
______________________
Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook, and CD, are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

“Have you noticed any changes in the businesses you’ve dealt with lately?” queried a friend. 
“Actually I have. Since the pandemic customer service doesn't seem to be as good.”
“Exactly,” he replied. 
 
I think customer service may get worse. One reason is that we are in the early stages of an AI revolution. Sure AI has impacted many areas in past years. I recall a 2019 convention of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology where it seemed that most of the exhibits were about AI products for human resources. In conference sessions presenters debated the pros and cons of AI. Some argued that AI was screening out job applicants who in previous times would have been hired and made good employees. 
 
In a recent Wall Street Journal article headlined, “AI Comes to the Office. It’s Bossy, Efficient, & Dehumanizing,” Lisa Bannon wrote, “A new generation of artificial intelligence is rolling out across American workplaces and it is prompting a power struggle between humans and machines.” More jobs will be automated. More employees will be impacted by AI used for efficiencies. The pendulum that swings between a people-orientation in the workplace and one that is technology-oriented is swinging strongly away from people. 
 
Customer value is often seen as a perceived tradeoff between the benefits and the sacrifices associated with a product or service. Many businesses fall short in understanding the benefits and sacrifices perceived by the customer. Unless you know your customers, talk with your customers, listen to your customers, you may not know. Just because you sell a product or service does not necessarily mean you really know it from a customer perspective. 
 
I would argue that missing in this understanding of customer value for most businesses is one factor suggested in my favorite book on customer value, Know Your Customer by Robert Woodruff and Sarah Gardial. A better equation: 
 
Customer Value = Benefits – Sacrifices x Relationships
 
Think about the people, the businesses with which you engage. It is the employees that make or break a business, all things being equal. As a customer I want personable, knowledgeable interactions. I have yet to have a chatbot who gets me, understands my question. Why do we often seek to do business with people we have done business with before? Business is about relationships. I have seen no evidence thus far that AI will build relationships. 

• Understand the value of relationships in customer value. 
• Get to know your customers. 
• Deploy AI in the workplace carefully and with consideration for the people who are the backbone of your company. 

 
Bannon, L. (2023, Feb 18-19). “AI comes to the office. It’s bossy, efficient, & dehumanizing. The Wall Street Journal. 
Woodruff, R., and Gardial, S. (1996). Know your customer. Wiley. 
 
Image, “Customer Service,” obtained from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/customer-service-care-call-support-4482159/​
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© John Ballard, PhD, 2023. All rights reserved.
 _________________________
Decoding the Workplace “deals with principles and practices that are timeless . . . Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Now also available as an audiobook and paperback. ​​

My annual blog about the importance of reading books, modified from my previous January blogs. 

My experience is the best leaders always have a book they are reading. Reading is essential to lifelong learning, which is essential to our growth.

What role do books play in your life? In your learning? My guess is that for many, we just don’t have enough time. Making time to read books is important. I usually have several books in my study that I am working through. On long trips I enjoy audiobooks. I have friends who like audiobooks best. The audio version of my book Decoding the Workplace has been and continues to be the most popular format.

How do you nurture book reading in those who do not enjoy reading? As leaders, we lead by example. We talk about books we are reading, we share stories, we talk about how books have affected our lives. I'm often asked what book influenced me the most as a manager and consultant. Easy to answer: Peter Drucker's Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, and Practices. I came across this book as a young manager when I was first building consulting capabilities in my teams. I have returned to it for knowledge, wisdom, and ideas throughout my careers.  

In 2022 the most enjoyable book I read was Surrender by Bono, lead singer for the Irish rock band U2. I am a big U2 fan but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. With my background in psychology and management, I was also surprised how much one could learn about life and business from this memoir. As Bono makes clear, he has learned that life is about relationships. As I have often taught, business is about relationships. An immensely satisfying read.
 
Have you ever thought about changing the direction of your professional life, leaving the corporate world, leaving your current job for something yet to be found. In 2021-2022 two friends of mine and their dog did just that. In a VW van in which they lived, they visited 49 states in the USA. I thought about them as I read Paul Millerd’s The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story for Work and Life. It is a good memoir about how he stepped off the "successful" path he was on and onto a new path with unknowns and uncertainty. Very thought-provoking. 

Another highlight was reading the play Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard, my favorite playwright. It follows the lives of a Jewish family in Vienna from 1899 to 1955. Brilliantly written, insightful, tragic, yet with humor, I look forward to seeing Leopoldstadt performed on stage. 
 
Last I will mention what I consider to be the most important yet unheard of book of 2022, Science of Life After Death by Alexander Moreira-Almeida, Marianna de Abreu Costa, and Humberto Schubert Coelho. This thin 80 page scholarly (and expensive) book is part of the Springer Briefs in Psychology series and should be in all university, college, and public libraries. You may say, “Surely you jest, John. The science of life after death?” Actually, I do not. As stated by the authors, “Around 150 years of survival research has produced a body of evidence that is larger and stronger than most people are aware of or have even imagined being possible to attain.” This volume sums up much of that research. Highly recommend.

As we begin 2023, here are a few of the books I am reading or that are on my reading list:

• Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee
• Mothman Apologia by Robert Wood Lynn
• Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sanction
• Napoleon: Soldier of Destiny, 1769-1805; Napoleon: The Spirit of the Age, 1805-1810; Napoleon: The Decline and Fall of an Empire, 1811-1821; three volumes by Michael Broers
• Classic Science Fiction Stories edited by Adam Roberts
• Visions of Innocence: Spiritual and Inspirational Experiences of Childhood by Edward Hoffman
• The Way of Splendor: Jewish Mysticism and Modern Psychology by Edward Hoffman
• A Song for Everyone: The Story of Creedence Clearwater Revival by John Lingman
• Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age by Dale Allison, Jr.
• If I Live To Be 100: Lessons from the Centenarians by Neenah Ellis

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them," Mark Twain. 

Or as the comedian Groucho Marx said, “Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.”   
 
What are you reading?
_______________________
Bono. (2022). Surrender: 40 songs, one story. Knopf. 

Millerd, P. (2022). The pathless path: Imagining a new story for work and life. Paul Millerd, Publisher.

Moreira-Almeida, A., de Abreu Costo, M., Coelho, H. S. (2022). Science of life after death. Springer.

Stoppard, T. (2020). Leopoldstadt. Grove.
 _______________________

 Image, my photo. 
​
© John Ballard, PhD, 2023. All rights reserved.
 _________________________
Decoding the Workplace “deals with principles and practices that are timeless . . . Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Now also available as an audiobook and paperback. ​​