It’s tough out there.
The last three years have seen a seismic shift in workplace dynamics. COVID’s shelter-in-place mandate opened our eyes to our colleagues’ humanness while simultaneously accelerating productivity culture. When work and life were merely divided by the door to your home office, it quickly became easier to complete more work over longer hours at the expense of your personal time.
Our professional and personal lives also collided when 2020’s social unrest again intensified a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the business level. Socially and politically charged conversations continue to blanket the airwaves, brands and executives are navigating “cancel culture,” and leaders are tasked with balancing evolving company cultures while remaining diligent about their businesses’ bottom lines.
It’s really tough out there.
These factors are certainly not unique to one industry or business function, but as communications professionals, we’re watching marketing leaders maneuver a particularly complex set of management challenges. In addition to overseeing their own multi-disciplinary teams, CMOs and other heads of marketing are charged with preserving their brand’s reputation while diligently driving revenue in collaboration with or in support of the entire sales organization. In a perfect world, the bridge between these two teams is solid and synergistic. But we know that is frequently not the case.
Breakdowns in communication between marketing and sales combined with a lack of alignment in business strategy can lead to an erosion of trust between sales leaders and marketers. Such degradation fosters frustration and cynicism, plummets motivation and, at worst, causes complete disengagement—all indicators of burnout.
The solution? Throw a pizza party!
Just kidding. Try these trust-building activities for burnout relief instead.
Establish a set of team values you can all be proud of
Every company should have a set of values that guides why you come to work every day. An extension of your mission and vision, company values are the playbook by which employees should operate and behave to meet their collective goals. Sound familiar, marketers? You probably wrote them!
In addition to company-wide values, marketers should embrace specific principles that map to their unit’s objectives and working style. Establishing such values gives marketing employees a sense of purpose, a guiding light that defines why their work matters and how it contributes to the greater good of their team and ultimately the business. In her article for The University of Texas’ Center for Professional Education, behavior scientist and corporate learning and development leader, Tanya Tarr, notes that establishing a purpose statement helps drive motivation and encourage focus.
For example, at Red Fan, one of our core company values is “Fire in the Belly.” We bring a hunger to learn from and succeed on behalf of our clients every day. Our Services team—responsible for executing on a diverse set of projects for our customers—finds purpose in empowering our counterparts in Success—responsible for managing client goals and resources—to exceed client expectations. We “Fan the Flame” through data-backed, creative and exhaustive recommendations.
Exemplify the power of breathing
In a state of burnout, employees feel extreme tiredness, reduced ability to regulate cognitive and emotional processes, and mental distancing. Employees can reconnect with the present, calm their nervous systems and gain clarity on tasks by practicing slow, deep breathing.
Epigenetic coach Rajkumari Neogy explores the power of diaphragmatic breathing in one of his contributions to Fast Company. Diaphragmatic breathing is slow abdominal breathing that can lower stress responses associated with “fight-or-flight” mechanisms. Neogy states, “If during moments of stress we are able to apply diaphragmatic breathing, we can immediately gain greater resilience. This in turn gives us space and time to step into our care circuitry to get curious about the situation rather than become defensive.”
As leaders, it’s important to embrace the benefits of breathing and encourage others to leverage the same power. In your staff meetings, add a moment of shared breath work at the beginning of your conversation. When tense situations arise, pause to take a moment to breathe yourself or encourage your team to participate in a group deep breathing exercise, then continue.
Tarr also suggests inserting a short burst of physical activity when you’re experiencing a moment of high stress. She notes that holding a plank position for a minute or doing 20 jumping jacks can help close the neurological and physical stress cycle, at least temporarily. If you’re at home, just make sure that the Zoom camera is off. At the office? Don’t let that stop you. Close your office door or recruit a colleague to dance it out with you. You’ll both be better for it.
Host team-building activities that stimulate mirror neurons
Scientific American defines mirror neurons as neurons that fire when performing an action as well as when the subject is seeing that action performed. The publication suggests that the synchronous action from which mirror neurons activate can play a part in “forming and strengthening alliances among group members.”
In the workplace, creating activities to energize mirror neurons within your team can drive trust, reduce stress and create a feeling of belonging among colleagues. A brief game of Simon Says, Seven Things or Scattergories at the start of a meeting engages our humanistic desire to connect with each other.
“Burnout is not created or solved by the individual nor by simply piling on self care,” Tarr told Red Fan. “It is resolved when we feel we’re not alone and managers provide an opportunity to create group care. When you engage in mirror-neuron-building activities, it encourages people to act with benevolence. They pull together as a team—even if they’re frustrated with each other.”
In today’s working world, we can’t ignore the social unrest and societal pressures that plague us all. Every leader is tasked with managing a diverse, often hybrid, multi-generational workforce, presenting interpersonal challenges that compound those of their existing job duties. Leaders who take the time to understand and deploy burnout relief tactics will nurture dedicated, productive and connected teams that remain united under a common goal, even when stressors intensify.
