Burnout by Definition

In January 2024, the World Health Organization approved a formal definition of burnout, classifying it as a Occupational Hazard. As a coach of burned out and overwhelmed professionals and entrepreneurs who also happen to be parents, I both understand the WHO's approach but feel that an important element of home workload is missing in the assessment. Nonetheless, what gets measured gets done, as the saying goes.

3 Scales

The Bergen Burnout Inventory consists of three scales, identified by answering three questions. This is a self-assessment that represents a snapshot in time. As you move through challenging transformations, at home or at work, feel free to take this assessment to rate your current level of burnout.

The first scale deals with exhaustion. This is the physical element of burnout that includes overcommitment. Counterpoints to this scale include productivity hacks, time management, and prioritization.

The second scale deals with cynicism. The scale...

 Collaboration Requires Different Perspectives

 Skilled Trades and Vocational Training are important elements of the manufacturing base in the United States, as well as in the rest of the world. Recently, many government and manufacturing entities have come together to highlight the need to reintroduce skilled trades into schools. Offering a vocational path not only supports the business needs, but it supports the individual who finds joy in moving their body while also using their brain.

Parents. It has been my experience that parents hold children back from exploring Vocational Trades. They are afraid the child "won't get a job." Many in the current generation were told to get a college degree in order to "get ahead." Yet, many people in corporate jobs have lost them as companies change focus or location. Job loss is not related to degree level.

In this podcast, Kevin explores his past with a degree that did not serve him. In contrast, I tell my story of success through...

Overwhelm is...well, overwhelming. I have been chatting with many of you offline regarding overwhelm. You have described it to me in a variety of ways. I have tried to summarize your input in the following list. Let's take a moment to look at what overwhelm looks like in our everyday lives.

Overwhelm is...

• Too tired to feel emotion
• Soreness in our "bones"
• No longer having energy to take action
• Working in a bubble
• Saying "whatever" in the face of conflict
• Too tired to "care"
• Unable to take an action, even when you know what to do
• Unable to answer a question, even when you know the answer
• General feeling of malaise

It is important that many of these descriptions are similar to depression, but perhaps at a milder level. If you struggle with depression, I ask you to get help. If you have historically had stable mental health, but do not take action dealing with your overwhelm, you can slip into depression.

Disclaimer:

This blog series is a coaching series focusing on moving from the...

Happy Sunday! Thanks for joining me again. Today, I'd like build upon three recent blog posts: A Time for Self-Care, Joy in Gifting, and Finding Peace in Goal Setting. We are here to celebrate.

Let's start with a story:

I used to have a pup named Sequoia. She was my heart and soul and best companion. To know her was to love her. The neighborhood saw us regularly walking, roaming, exploring. Through our roamings, we became a neighborhood identity. Somehow in my memory, these walks were just like a 1950s sitcom: perfect weather, perfect people, smaller homes, and happy smiling children.

Sequoia was my introduction to a type of peace I had never known. She greeted our neighbors with joy. Children would come to her house to play with her. She was gentle and patient. Through her, I made many friendships I would not have otherwise been able to make. One such lady was named Susie (name changed).

Chapter 1: Susie

Susie was fiercely independent. She also loved dogs and nature. She read the...

Recently, we talked about Email Etiquette. One topic I'd like to highlight more specifically is the advantage of using a deadline or timeline in the Subject Line. When we are writing and considering our positions as servant leaders, our objective should always be to seek clarity and connection.

Including the deadlines for the action you request in the email borrows from the marketing concept to

• improve clarity,
• drive action, and
• increase time efficiency.

Clarity

Servant leaders understand the pressure of time on their (our) readership. We talked about crafting emails using the Call to Action or Cover Your Asset layouts. In a Call to Action (CTA) email, we are asking the readers to accomplish a specific task. As business leaders, we need tasks to be accomplished by a set time. Help your readers by putting that deadline up front in the subject line.

Marketing

The Rule of 7 in marketing was developed in the 1930s, while the principle is a very different in today's world, we can...

Etiquette | 'et * i * ket

: the conduct or procedure required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be observed in social or official life (Merriam-Webster, 2021)

As leaders reaching out to our team members, it is both helpful and mindful of their needs to follow email etiquette. For those of you working in manufacturing (and increasingly other industries as well), you will be very familiar with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Etiquette is a bit like these SOPs, with a nice name. Following standards helps readers quickly identify the information they need, so they can gain and retain information efficiently. If your life is busy as a leader, the statement is also true for the people reading your emails. As a servant leader, try to help them by following etiquette. So let's dive in and take a look at email etiquette.

The Writing

Subject Line

As they sang in Sound of Music let's start at the very beginning. The subject line is important. We will devote an entire...

Hello Succulent Sunday Readers. Happy Valentine's Day. As I write this post, I am waiting for my family to drive home through a snowstorm. It has been long week with some exciting developments and a bike crash, so today has called for a bit of self-care. Honestly, I recognize my next statement is generally impossible for most moms: I slept all day. For my self-care this week, I went to bed on a Friday night at 5:30 pm and slept nearly 24 hours.

It is a testament to my personal journey that I have been able to do this today without feeling guilty. I am not sick, although I am recovering from the soreness of an unexpected bike crash. I have many things that I wished to accomplish today (including publishing this post earlier than usual.) I am not even feeling guilty that I haven't cleaned the house to my personal satisfaction. It is Galentine's day, my body clearly needed rest. I chose to rest without guilt.

Self-Care without Guilt

As we talk about Overcoming the Overwhelm, we must...

Hey Succulent Sunday readers! Thanks for joining me again. I love sharing this blog with you each Sunday. Your questions help me through targeted, quiet reflection on these topics.

Today, let's chat about finding joy and regaining some power and control through joy. Today's blog post will turn from our focus on the physical elements of overwhelm to the spiritual and mindset elements.

Powerless in the Face of Overwhelm? No.

Overwhelm by definition indicates that we are not in control of the emotions and activities throughout our day. However, we are in control our our actions. We may not be in control of the day to day events that we face. A few weeks ago, we talked about setting inch-by-inch goals to help us find and achieve peace. Setting these small, achievable (sometimes even laughably small) goals helps us regain some power in our day.

Joy helps us face the overwhelm head-on.

You (we) are not powerless in the face of overwhelm. You can regain your power by asking for help,...