Have you ever postponed a task and promised yourself to do it the next day, only to put it off again and again? Everyone has at some point in their life.
But when does it become extreme and even chronic procrastination? And how can you break free from this vicious cycle that ruins so many people’s lives?
You need to reprogram your mind. Let’s look at how.
What Is Chronic Procrastination?
Dr. Joseph Ferrari, a leading expert in the study of procrastination, says, “Everyone procrastinates but not everyone is a procrastinator.”[1]
When you put off a task once off, we can say this is situational procrastination. When the frequency is more often, you procrastinate for longer periods, and are aware of the negative consequences, we can say this is extreme and even severe procrastination. This depends on the degrees of the above.
When you start putting off your important tasks daily and continuously for a few months, this is habitual and becomes chronic procrastination. When your work promotion or results are undermined and procrastination stops you from functioning normally, this can lead to feelings of guilt and shame, limiting beliefs, and depression.
When it becomes part of “who you are”—like a negative identity that you cannot separate from—it is chronic.
Are You a Chronic Procrastinator?
Do you procrastinate daily, not only in your work but in your personal life, too? Is your sleep, health, self-esteem, and self-identity negatively affected? Do you continue to procrastinate even when there are severe negative consequences over and over?
Most people suffer when they are habitual procrastinators and in a bad emotional state. So, why is it so hard to stop procrastinating if we suffer so much?
If it was so easy to just take action with so much advice out there, why are more and more people experiencing chronic procrastination?
There is a wealth of information out there, but we are not often working on the root cause of the problem. There is more advice on situational procrastination, and chronic procrastination is not an overnight change. It requires a change in your mindset and behavior.
To deal with chronic procrastination effectively, it is important to separate the symptom from the problem. The problem is not procrastination. It is a symptom of the problem as we know it.
Below are the most common causes of chronic procrastination with three tips on what you can do to break your patterns and create the change you desire. If possible, I always recommend getting professional help first.
How Can You Find the Root Cause?
The cause of your chronic procrastination might not be that obvious to you at first. Remember that you want to get to the root of the problem, not work on the symptoms for real change.
Here’s how you can find the root cause of your procrastination behavior:
5Actions
Get into a quiet space, clear your mind and body, and get relaxed.
Think about the things you put off, and ask yourself questions such as: What is the reason I am procrastinating on this task? Write down the answer.
Looking at your answer, ask yourself, what is the reason I ____? (This is your answer.)
Keep digging by asking yourself, “What is the reason?” The cause is hidden under the symptom. You will know the real answer because it will resonate with you. There might be a few reasons why.
Write them down, and then take a step back. Look at your answer. Is it clear? Does it relate to any of the points above? Or maybe something else is preventing you?
You know why you are holding yourself back, you just need to create the space and ask the right questions and gain insights to see it. Don’t judge yourself through this process. That is key.
If you judge yourself, you cannot influence yourself.
The Root of the Challenge and How to Overcome It
1. ADHD Chronic Procrastination
This isn’t a condition, but it has been associated with conditions such as anxiety, depression, and ADHD. Procrastination is not a symptom of ADHD, but it can result from it.
For example, ADHD procrastination happens when you are feeling disorganized or easily distracted when you’re unable to prioritize anything. You start to feel overwhelmed, and this leads to procrastination.
What Can You Do?
3Actions
Get a realistic sense of time, and create more awareness around how long things take. This will help you to not only show up on time but also get better at estimating how long things take to support you in better time management overall.
Set deadlines and use the Pomodoro technique to help you to focus and get things done.
Focus on completing one task at a time and remember not to overwhelm yourself by thinking of everything you have to do and attempting to do it all in a short period.
2. Emotional Distress
Like ADHD, anxiety and depression can lead to chronic procrastination. When you have anxiety, your mind is your worst energy and tends to focus on everything that can go wrong, and it’s constantly worrying about what you need to do and avoid.
When you are feeling down, you have no energy to act. You feel bad about yourself and life overall, and finding the motivation or inspiration to do something can almost be impossible.
What Can You Do?
3Actions
Start focusing on what can go right. Don’t focus on the things that will make you feel bad. If you focus on the outcome that you want instead and why you want it, it will be easier.
Challenge your thoughts. Use the Byron Katie technique. Just because we think something, it doesn’t mean it’s true. A thought is a thought. However, thoughts create emotions—emotions that help us take action or hold us back. If we can change our thoughts, we can change how we feel and change how we act.
Do a fear-setting exercise from Tim Ferris, associate more pain with taking no action, and get motivated by the purpose to take action and the pleasure of how you will feel and what you will achieve.
3. Perfectionism
Do you have a belief that making a mistake is unacceptable? When you feel you need to do everything perfectly to the point that you are anxious about starting the task, you will hold yourself back repeatedly.
Perfectionism comes from beliefs such as, “if I do this and it’s not perfect, it will be a disaster.”
What Can You Do?
3Actions
Shift your perspective and belief, and start to strengthen new beliefs, such as, “I can and will make mistakes because I am human, and I can still be very successful.” You need to make mistakes to be more successful, learn, grow and enjoy the ride. That is what life is about.
Separate yourself from the outcome. Take failure at a goal as a goal failure and not as a personal failure.
Start doing things that you might not be so good at or that you don’t care about. This will help you to get used to letting go and doing things you are not perfect at, proving your fears wrong.
4. Low Self-Esteem
If you consistently doubt yourself or have limiting beliefs, such that you can never finish anything or that there is no point in starting because you won’t achieve success, a lot of resistance will come up when you want to do something.
The irony is that the more you procrastinate, the more you lower your self-esteem.
What Can You Do?
3Actions
Ask yourself, “What do I believe about myself, about what I’m doing, the outcome of what I am doing, and my ability to do it?” Write down all of the beliefs that come to mind. Looking at them, are they holding you back? What do you need to start believing about yourself instead? Learn how to condition new beliefs, learn how to love yourself again, believe in yourself, and become your best champion in life.
Build your self-confidence by doing small things that you fear, and show yourself you can do it. This is one of the best ways to build our self-esteem.
Do cognitive exercises to improve your self-esteem, do exercises that build self-love, and watch the language you use—this becomes your truth. Use language that lifts yourself and doesn’t take you down.
5. How You Grew Up
Chronic procrastination is more nurture than nature. You are influenced by your education, your attitudes, how strict or relaxed your parents were, and what they taught you, such as self-discipline.
This creates habits and behavior that can be counterproductive when you are an adult.
What Can You Do?
3Actions
Learn self-discipline and how to act when you need to. Self-discipline is a muscle that needs to be strengthened and trained.
Focus on the rewards, and learn how to break your pattern when you are procrastinating. Understand what triggers you, how to prevent it, and what you can do to motivate yourself in the moment to keep going.
Learn how to influence your emotions and behavior positively with CBT Techniques. You cannot wait to feel good anymore to take action. You have to learn how to get yourself to feel good to take action or simply how to act. Often, motivation comes after.
Final Thoughts
Lastly, when you are hard on yourself, you will procrastinate more. Learn how to be more compassionate with yourself overall. Let the past go, stop reinforcing it by believing the future is going to be the same, forgive yourself, and commit to a new future.
Don’t let procrastination take over your life and steal your happiness and success. You’ve only got one!
Before we get to the heart of using project milestones for our goals, we first need to look at what a goal is. A goal’s purpose is to take something you are not satisfied with and create actionable steps to achieve your desired result.
Common goals include achieving a weight gain or loss, making financial purchases, or finishing a personal endeavor like running a marathon.
Therefore, choosing project milestones is key to reaching your desired goal. This helps you stay on track and keep you focused when achieving that goal may seem impossible.
Goals and Project Milestones
A goal’s purpose is to change something permanently, for the better.
If you set a goal to save $10,000 over the next twelve months, the purpose is to change from being a spender into a saver.
You may say that a goal to complete a full-course marathon (26.2 miles) would be complete once you finish the marathon. I would argue that, on the contrary, completing a full-course marathon has turned you into a marathon runner.
This contrasts with a project. A project is something you do in a given period. Once complete, you move on to the next project.
For instance, you may have a project to create a marketing campaign. Once the campaign finishes, the campaign is over. Done.
You may have learned a few things along the way, but for all intents and purposes, the project is finished, and you move on to the next one.
How Can We Combine Both Parts to Achieve Our Goals?
A goal is your higher purpose, and a milestone is a way to measure your progress.[1]
To give you an example. Imagine you set the goal to save $10,000 in 2022, starting on the first of January.
You could set a monthly milestone of $834.00 sent to savings. This way, you ensure that you have sufficient funds at the end of each month to send $834.00 to your savings account.
However, milestones are not always as simple to set. For example, let’s take the marathon running goal. How would you set milestones to achieve that goal?[2]
It would depend on where you are starting. If you are already a runner, running five miles may not seem very much of a milestone. You may already do that several times a week.
However, you could set yourself milestones for running a 10K race and a half-marathon (13.1 miles). In this scenario, you would give yourself six months to prepare for your marathon.
After two months, you want to run a 10k race in under one hour. That would be your milestone and then, set a milestone to run a half-marathon in under two hours at the five-month mark.
The Benefits of Project Milestones
Meaningful goals need to be beyond your current abilities—they need to stretch you.[3] By “stretch”, I mean they have to pull you out of your comfort zone to help you expand your capabilities.
Often, when we set a goal, we have no idea how to achieve it; all we know is we want to achieve it.
If you set a goal to become the CEO of your company within the next ten years, but currently, you are on the lower rungs of your company’s corporate ladder, it may seem impossible. However, if you break that goal down into milestones, you could set a milestone to be a manager of your own department after two years—a much more realistic achievement.
Once you achieve that milestone, you would set yourself the milestone of becoming a director and then on to the leadership team.
Milestones are stepping stones towards a bigger goal. All you need to do is focus on the next milestone.
If you focus on achieving your milestones, then step by step, you move closer to your bigger goal. It’s more motivating because the next step is always just a few months away.
Big Goals, Manageable Milestones
Let’s say you run your own company, and by the end of the decade, you have the goal to have revenues of $10 million. This allows you eight years to achieve your goal.
Often, a goal that far away will seem impossible because you are looking at it from where you stand today, which may be owning a business with a $50,000 annual revenue.
For you to own a $10 million business, you will need to change.[4] How a person who runs a $10 million company today will be different from how a person who runs a $50,000 business. To become a $10 million business owner, you will have to go through a series of targets and change as a business person along the way.
In this case, you could set yourself eight milestones. Then, you would need to calculate how much you need to grow your business each year to achieve that goal.
For example, in your first year, you could set the milestone of doubling your growth to $100,000. That’s all you would need to focus on. What do you have to do to double your business revenues?
If you achieve that in the first year, your next milestone might be to double it again. You will have learned a lot from that first year, and you can use that experience to work out how you could double again.
In this example, your milestones are breaking down a goal that may initially seem impossible into achievable steps that, taken together one after the other, will ultimately have you reach your goal.
You could break annual milestones down still further. For instance, if your yearly milestone is to achieve $100,000 in revenues, your quarterly milestone would be $25,000. So now, the question becomes: what do I have to do to bring in $25,000 in revenue over the next three months?
This means you do not have to worry about what will happen in eight years. Instead, you only need to focus on the $25,000 in the next three months.
Milestones Give You Data Points and Direction
Milestones act as the waypoints to show that you are moving in the right direction towards the bigger goal. If you find yourself falling behind, you can review your approach and adjust it to get back on track.
For instance, you may find that after two quarters, you are behind in achieving a revenue of $100,000 for the year. You might be on $35,000. This now gives you two choices. You can either adjust your milestone for this year to $75,000, or you could modify your sales strategy.
Milestones give you data points you can use to adjust your approach if you fall behind your goal.
An example would be if you find that May and June are poor sales, but August and September are great sales. You may not be aware of this in your first year, but once you know this information, you can use it to maximize sales in those months in the following year.
Key Takeaways
Milestones and goals go hand-in-hand. Your goal needs to seem impossible (or almost impossible) when you set it. Luckily, having a way to track your progress will help you keep your eyes on the bigger picture.
Your milestones give you mini-celebrations along your journey. They inform you that you are either on or off track and provide you with data you can use to course-correct your journey towards successfully achieving your goal. Use these key takeaways and the combination of goals and milestones to achieve success in all areas of your life.
The genie is out of the bottle, and organizations cannot go back to the way things used to be. The aftermath of covid is going to be felt by leaders and organizations for years to come.
If you are currently feeling the stress and burden of leadership, you are not alone. Many leaders are being challenged by a new and more complex landscape.
Why will some succeed and others fail? The secret to leaders thriving in this new landscape is resilient leadership.
But what is resilient leadership, and why is it so important? How do you build your resilient leadership skills, so you can thrive in challenging, disruptive, and turbulent times?
In this article, I give you five key strategies to thrive as a resilient leader.
What Is Resilient Leadership?
According to Professor George Kohlrieser,[1]
“Resilient leaders can sustain their energy level under pressure. So that they can cope with disruptive changes and adapt. They bounce back from setbacks. They also overcome major difficulties without engaging in dysfunctional behavior or harming others.”
New Scientist reports that “your reaction to stress and how quickly you return to normal when the stressor has passed is called resilience.”[2]
This definition tells us that stress and resilience are inextricably linked. Leaders stuck in stress states will find it much more difficult to be resilient. Managing stress becomes a significant factor in building leadership resilience.
According to the Center for Creative Leadership,[3]
Resilience is “our ability to respond adaptively to challenges. It’s what helps us get back up again, stronger, after meeting life’s hurdles, disappointments, and failures. It’s more than simply bouncing back from adversity or not breaking in the face of hardship. Resilient leadership also includes growth.”
This definition highlights the importance of self-growth. For growth to occur, there has to be change. Change isn’t always easy, but it’s necessary.
To build your resilient leadership skills, you will need to learn to adapt and embrace change.
Is Resilient Leadership Critical to Leadership Success?
According to a study by Zenger Folkman, “building resilience is vital to becoming a leader who can successfully navigate through challenges and guide others with courage and conviction.”[4]
Folkman found that leaders with high levels of resilience are viewed as being more effective by their managers, peers, and direct reports.
According to an in-depth study of leadership and resilience, “resilience is not an end state of being, but rather a process of adaptation and growth within a risky landscape. A resilient organization not only survives but also thrives in an environment of change and uncertainty.”[5]
In more compelling evidence, Harvard Business School Professor Nancy Koehn states,[6]
“Resilience is the capacity to not only endure great challenges, but get stronger in the midst of them. This is such an extraordinarily important capability because we live in a world that’s one nonstop crisis—one calamity, one emergency, one unexpected, often difficult surprise—after another, like waves breaking on the shore.”
Added to this, leaders through their position strongly influence and impact the people around them. Making it even more critical for leaders to be resilient and thrive under pressure.
If the leader goes down. The team goes down. As a leader, you are the captain of the ship. Building your resilient leadership skills ensures that you and your team reach your destination unscathed.
For some, this will be easier than for others. However, the good news is the more you are exposed to challenging situations, the greater the opportunity to build your resilient leadership skills.
Your brain can assist you with this because it is designed to help you grow, learn, and adapt. This is part of its inbuilt survival mechanism.
Therefore, the greater the challenges, the greater the opportunity for growth and resiliency.
5 Ways to Build Resilient Leadership in Challenging Times
1. Growth Mindset
Developing a growth mindset is an essential ingredient to building resilient leadership. Resilience is your ability to respond adaptively to challenges. Being able to adapt requires change, and positive change leads to growth.
The quickest way to grow and create new opportunities is through adversity. Without adversity, there would be little growth, and without growth, you cannot realize your potential.
Learn to see every challenge as an opportunity to step into the greatest version of yourself. Trust that you will always find the answers. But first, you have to seek them out.
You do not have to figure it out by yourself. Leverage the power of the collective mind power of your team and work colleagues.
Putting It Into Action
Next time you feel stressed or overwhelmed by a situation, ask yourself: How could I either approach or think differently about this situation? Who would be the ideal person/s who I can explore this with?
A greater you always exists within. Do not pass up any opportunity to awaken that greater self.
The reality is you do not have to stay stressed or stuck. A solution always exists when you embrace a growth mindset.
2. Mindfulness
Scientists and self-help gurus often times argue that some sources of stress and misery are caused by ruminating on our worries while robbing us of the present. Mindfulness and mindfulness tools such as meditation have proven to boost our moods and our overall health. [7]
I am sure you are familiar with that voice inside your head that never shuts up. It continually wants to judge, complain, compare, and assess everything as good or bad. It is constantly interfering with your concentration, clarity of thought, decision-making, and peace of mind.
It is often this same voice that interferes with your ability to be a resilient leader. How much more productive and positive would you be if you could tame this inner critic?
Putting It Into Action
Mindfulness and meditation practices can help you tame your inner critic. If you are new to these practices, the following are two simple and effective techniques that can help.
Do Not Resist Your Thought or Feeling
Next time you have a thought that is making you feel uncomfortable, such as feeling bad, guilty, inferior, worried, or any other negative emotion, stop and allow the thought or feeling to just be without trying to resist or judge it.
If your experience is anything like mine, you will find the thought or feeling just disappears. If you do not get this result straight away, stay with it. It works.
Just make sure you are meeting the thought/feeling head-on without resistance. When you embrace and accept it, suddenly it disappears.
Perform a Breathing Exercise
The first technique is great for getting rid of unwanted thoughts and feelings in the moment. However, if you want to lessen them over time, the following technique will assist you.
Find a comfortable seated position where you will not be interrupted for five minutes. Place your smartwatch or phone’s timer on for five minutes. Close your eyes and breathe slowly in and out through your nose, focusing on just your breathing.
Use the system of breathing where you inhale to the count of four, hold for seven, and then exhale to the count of eight.
Also, make sure you are breathing from the diaphragm. You know you are doing this when on the in-breath, your stomach pushes out and on the outbreathe, it moves in.
This technique has two benefits. First, you are training your mind to stop its incessant chatter.
Second, it will effectively slow your heart rate and increase oxygen into your bloodstream, which can act like a mild sedative. It will instantly relax your heart, mind, and overall central nervous system.
This type of breathing helps regulate the part of your brain responsible for the fight, flight, and freeze responses. Doing this exercise regularly makes you less likely to experience these states when under stress.
Start by doing this practice twice a day, once in the morning and again at night. It is easier to make this a habit if you choose the same time each day like as soon as you get up and just before bed.
Also, if you find things getting out of control during the day, use it to get yourself back on track.
Being in the present moment is powerful because you are not bound by limiting beliefs and past failures or worried about the future. Instead, you have full access to the power of your mind when you are in the present moment.
To demonstrate the power of being in the present moment, consider the example of elite athletes. Why is it that they can excel one day and perform poorly the next? Did their skills suddenly disappear overnight?
Let’s imagine a tennis player who is about to serve the ball. They look up and see that it is break point. Their thoughts and focus suddenly jump to the future and what happens if they lose the point. That means less energy and focus on hitting the ball.
However, what would happen if they forgot about the scoreboard and entered the present moment?
They do this by placing all their focus on serving the ball. They are so focused that their mind may even alert them to their opponent making a slight movement in a particular direction. This enables them to adjust their serve and easily win the point.
This is how great players consistently win matches. They realize the power of placing their mind and focus on the present moment. Being a scoreboard watcher will always take you out of the present moment.
As a leader, your ability to succeed lies in accessing the power of the present moment. It also means that your need for resiliency becomes obsolete. This is because resiliency is a natural byproduct of being in the present moment.
Putting It Into Action
So, how do you practice living in the present moment?
Focus on taking one step at a time. Move from one moment to the next, just as a tennis player focuses their mind on playing one shot at a time.
Start by taking a small task you complete most days like communicating with a team member.
Now, pretend you are the tennis player and the ball is the team member. Place all your focus and attention on the team member and take one step at a time.
If thoughts come in to distract you, move through them as discussed earlier. Then, refocus your attention on the team member.
The more you play with this, the more interesting it becomes. Every time you practice this, you will gain greater insight and clarity because you are bringing all of you to the task and not just part of you. All of you include both your conscious and your creative unconscious mind.
4. The Power of Purpose
Let’s look at an example that shows how the power of purpose builds resilience.
Imagine taking a road trip. However, not long into the trip, your car breaks down. Fortunately, you find a car mechanic who fixes your car, and you set off again.
Because of the length of the trip, you have booked overnight accommodation. You arrive at the motel a lot later than expected, tired and exhausted. You approach the reception area only to be told there was a mix-up, and they gave your reservation to someone else.
You are ready to scream. Left with no alternative, you decide to sleep in your car.
You set off again early the next morning. As you are driving along a deserted road suddenly a wild hog runs out in front of your car. You swerve to miss the hog and end up in a ditch on the side of the road. Your car becomes bogged because of a heavy downpour of rain during the night.
At this point, you think, “you know what? This isn’t meant to be. I am having way too many problems. I think I will go home.”
As you are thinking this, a man in a four-wheel drive stops and helps get your car out of the ditch.
After thanking the man, you set off again. After a couple of hours of driving, you decide to stop and get something to eat.
As you go to pay for your meal, you notice your wallet is missing. You realize it must have slipped out of your pocket when you were trying to get the car out of the ditch. At this point, you are well and truly over your road trip and definitely decide you are heading back home.
Leadership is like this. Sometimes, you run into one problem after another, leaving you feeling stressed and defeated.
Returning to our example: What would you have if upon setting out on your trip, you had a strong purpose for reaching your destination?
Maybe the purpose was to see your parents, who because of unseen foreseen circumstances, you have not seen in two years. It is the longest time you have ever gone without seeing them. They are so looking forward to seeing you, and you cannot wait to see them.
What do you think your decision would be when you realized you had left your wallet on the side of the road? Would you decide to go home? Or would the motivation of seeing your parents encourage you to drive back, find your wallet, and continue your trip?
This is the power of having a purpose. When things get tough as a leader, you will always find the motivation to be resilient.
Putting It Into Action
Why do you do what you do? Why did you become a leader? What is your big “why”?
Having a big “why” is essential to building resilient leadership. When you develop a big enough “why,” nothing will ever stop or defeat you again.
5. Keep It Real
Putting things into perspective and being realistic is another simple and effective way to build resilient leadership. Here are a few simple strategies to make it easy for you to do this.
Circle of Influence, Circle of Control
Popularised by Stephen Covey, this strategy has 3 key components:[8]
The Circle of Concern – This contains the wide range of worries/concerns you might have about a topic.
The Circle of Influence – Here, you narrow down the first circle into those worries you can do something about, either directly or indirectly.
The Circle of Control – The 3rd circle is an even smaller circle, representing the things you can actually directly do something about.
circle of control influence and concern
Putting It Into Action
Grab a piece of A3 paper and some colored marker pens. Draw a large circle that fills the page.
Then, draw another circle inside the first one.
Next, draw a third circle inside the second circle. Make sure you leave enough room in each of the circles to write notes.
If you wish, you can just create lists instead of using circles. The advantage of using circles is that it will increase your brain’s cognitive thinking abilities, making it quicker and easier to complete the activity. This will also be enhanced by using different color marker pens for each circle.
Using the model above in the first circle, list your concerns. In the second circle, list the things you can influence. In the third circle, list the concerns you can do something about.
Last, prioritize the list of items in the 3rd circle according to importance. Develop implementation strategies for your top two priorities.
Facts vs Feelings
Added stress occurs when you mistake feelings for facts. Being able to distinguish between the two is another great way of building resilient leadership.
Putting It Into Action
Every time you are feeling stressed or worried about a situation, ask yourself: What evidence do I have that supports my concern about this situation?
Note that you need actual evidence that would stand up in a court of law. Feelings and assumptions do not count. These are coming from past experiences or future worries. They have nothing to do with the current situation.
Most of the time, you will find that your concerns are not based on facts. Instead, they are a story you have created in your head. It is not fact, but fiction.
Make a commitment to stick to the facts and not your stories.
The Catastrophe Scale
This is a great technique for putting things into perspective. Use it when you believe a situation couldn’t get any worse.
Putting It Into Action
Grab a piece of paper or imagine this visually in your mind.
Draw a horizontal line and divide that line into ten equal parts.
Number each part from left to right from 1 to 10. (1 = minor situation; 10 = totally catastrophic situation)
Bring to mind a situation that feels to you catastrophic. Then, place an X on the line that matches your level of concern.
Now, place an X on the line of how you would feel if you broke a cup.
Next, place an X on the line that indicates how you would feel if you were involved in a serious car accident and became a quadriplegic.
Revisit your current situation and make another X on the line that matches your level of concern.
Often, you will find there is a marked difference between your first and second assessments.
It is so easy to pull things out of proportion and cause undue stress and worry. Every time you do this, you diminish your problem-solving and decision-making abilities. This is because the part of your brain responsible for higher-level cognitive thinking shuts down under stress.
Final Thoughts
As a leader, you are in a position of great power to influence and impact the lives of the people around you.
Leadership in today’s turbulent climate isn’t easy. It is easy to become stressed and lose focus on your goals as well as what truly matters. Today, more than ever, leaders need to be resilient.
Every journey begins with a single step. Choose one strategy from the five listed. Then, commit to taking action on it.
The impact you have as a leader can only be as great as your decisions and actions.
I would like to conclude this article with the last stanza of the poem Invictus, written by William Ernest.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
The poem is said to have provided Nelson Mandela with the needed inspiration to survive during his most difficult times, allowing him to become a great leader who had a big impact on the world.
Being part of an innovative team is exciting. The energy, the creative process, the relationships, and the satisfaction of doing the work are all products of a high-level team. A group of this quality feels like a dream when you are a young leader.
It is easy to think that limitations do not apply. In some ways, limits do not apply—until they do.
Limitations are our body’s way of saying, “I have had enough.” Often, this will show up in the form of tiredness, fatigue, brain fog, decreased passion, increased cynicism, and many other symptoms.[1]
But ignoring these limit markers can be the cause of team burnout. We see the team lose innovation, productivity, and momentum when it loses its edge.
The Reality of Team Burnout
According to Dictionary.com, burnout is fatigue, frustration, or apathy resulting from prolonged stress, overwork, or intense activity.[2] In other words, burnout is what happens to the body when you ignore the signs of stress and refuse to do something about it.
Similarly, team burnout is when a group of individuals ignores these same signs. Instead of it affecting one person, burnout affects the entire team.
Team burnout is much worse than navigating the everyday stress and fatigue of accomplishing team goals and responsibilities. Teams experiencing this often develop pessimistic attitudes, emotional distance, lowered production and productivity, and higher irritability.
The stark reality of team burnout is that most team members face what I like to call functional burnout. Functional burnout is when team members are living in a state of burnout but somehow find the will to keep showing up and pushing through.
After 20 years of leadership development and my personal experience with burnout, I am convinced that most teams live in a state of functional burnout.
Functional team burnout takes its toll on the team’s mental, physical, and emotional stability. Team burnout is a real thing, and leaders who do not take this seriously will quickly see failure knocking at their door.
Some Symptoms of Team Burnout
Here are the different ways in which team burnout manifests in teams.
Mental
Dreading the thought of coming to work
Decreased motivation and interest in working with the team
Increased avoidance and procrastination of team members and responsibility
Increased brain fog and decreased interactions
Physical
Chronic fatigue and stress
Unexplained illnesses
Insomnia and other sleep disturbances
Frequent physical symptoms like headaches, gastrointestinal issues, and so forth
Increased absences from team meetings
Emotional
Cynicism toward others
Anger, irritability, and frustration when interacting with others
Feelings of emptiness, hopelessness, and numbness
Feelings of isolation even while working with the team
Mood swings that are often projected on the other members of the team
4 Signs of Team Burnout and How to Cope With It
Team burnout is apparent if you know what you are looking for. As a leader, you must understand who your people are, how they usually behave, and how they operate.
When you have a baseline for each team member, seeing the signs becomes easier to notice. If you are not aware of who you work with, then the symptoms of team burnout will go unnoticed and thus surprise you when you realize what is happening.
Let’s look at several signs that your team is facing burnout.
1. Decrease in the Quality and Output of Work
One of the telltale signs of team burnout is that the quality and output of work decreases. This is why having a baseline for your team’s ability and production is essential.
A red flag should be raised when you see a mild drop-off in the quality and output of work. A mild drop-off indicates that the team might be overworked, unclear about expectations, or experiencing higher stress levels.
However, if you notice a significant drop-off in the quality and output of work, this is a clear sign of team burnout.
How to Help Your Team Cope
Be Proactive
This is why it’s important to have a baseline for your team’s ability and production. Keeping tabs on the quality and output of the group is a crucial indicator of where they might be emotionally and mentally. As a leader, knowing this information will allow you to be proactive.
Being Proactive Can Show Up in Different Ways
Allowing your team time to decompress
Promoting physical exercise as part of the work schedule
Giving your team a safe space to “check-in” and talk about areas they may be struggling in
Giving your team some mental health days they can take
2. Regularly Acting Out of Character
Another telltale sign of team burnout is when your team begins to act out of character.
As a Certified John Maxwell DISC Consultant, we learn that there are patterns to people’s personalities. These patterns give us strong indications of how people will act and behave under normal conditions.
When the personality pattern shifts dramatically, we instantly know that the person we are consulting is under great stress. This means that the person, under tremendous pressure, is demonstrating a pattern that is remarkably different than their usual pattern.
If the pattern shifts occasionally, we should start having conversations proactively. If the pattern shift is becoming more regular, the leader has to start engaging in the beginning stages of crisis prevention.
The closer to burnout the team becomes, the more frequently they behave out of character.
How to Help Your Team Cope
Here are some questions to ask when you notice out-of-character behavior.
How do you feel, energy-wise, during and after work?
What causes the most worry for you while you are at work?
Do you feel as if you are valued as a member of the team?
What are you doing that you should stop doing?
What are you not doing that you should start doing?
These questions are not an exhaustive list of possible questions to ask your team. The goal is to determine where they are, how they feel, and what they need to do for the work they were hired for.
3. Increased Complaining and Cynicism
Cynicism is a primary aspect of those who struggle with burnout. When team members are unhappy, the whole team feels it. When these emotions are unchecked, they can stray into hopelessness, isolation, and even bitter despair.
The impact of such negative emotions manifests itself through cynicism and complaining. The more burnt out the team member becomes the more profound cynicism and complaining become.
Emotions are contagious. It doesn’t matter if the feeling is negative or positive.[3] Strong emotions have a way of permeating through the entire team.
How to Spot a Cynical Team Member
The team member complains about fellow team members, staff, and clients.
The team member becomes more combative and confrontational.
Team members are no longer coachable, teachable, or open to correction.
The team member openly speaks negatively about the team and the company.
How to Help Your Team Cope
If the team member is at the level of burnout where cynicism has taken control, then you’ll need to refer them to a professional. This level of burnout will require the individual to work through inner challenges.
These challenges can be work-related, home-related, connected to childhood trauma, or developed due to a lack of self-care. Whatever the reason the person is dealing with, this isn’t as important as recognizing that they need help and that you are most likely not equipped to help them.
Even though this individual may be dealing with this deep level of burnout, there are still some things you can do that can benefit the entire team.
Have fun together (even if it’s just ten minutes a day)
4. Continual Energy Depletion and Chronic Exhaustion
We all have those days when it is hard to get out of bed. This is part of the typical human experience. We push ourselves too hard and suddenly do not want to leave our bed for a few days to recuperate.
However, a different story begins to unfold when we speak of burnout within the team dynamic. Instead of feeling tired with no energy, you start to feel chronically fatigued. Also, there is a dramatic increase in disengagement, isolation, and absenteeism.
As the team member’s energy decreases and chronic fatigue sets in, the team member becomes a liability within the team. The disengagement, isolation, and absenteeism put pressure on the other team members to carry the weight of the member who has burnt out.
This is a tough place because the team member is usually aware of what is happening. The tension created can become overwhelming. A thriving team can quickly become demoralized and fractured due to the excess challenges.
How to Help Your Team Cope
Seek to understand how they got to the place they currently find themselves in.
Spend time locating the source of the energy depletion.
Do a survey to see where the team can pivot towards a healthy work ethic without grinding themselves into a place of burnout.
Determine if the members are correctly placed within the position that they operate in.
General Practices to Help Combat Team Burnout
It may feel counterintuitive to teach life skills within the professional team context, but the reality is that the more successful the team is in life, the greater success they will create for the company.
Great leaders know that teaching life skills helps the team cross the finish line together.
Invest time encouraging and providing resources for your team to understand and engage in:
Regular exercise
Eating right
Self-care
Asking for help
Final Thoughts
Being exposed to continual stress can cause us to burn out. Feelings of exhaustion, anxiety and isolation from our professional and private lives can add up over time. The key is to manage the stress early by knowing the signs and being proactive enough to do something about it.
The biggest mistake of any team is to ignore the signs of burnout. A warning ignored today will be a problem you deal with tomorrow.
Instead, focus on the continual health of your team. Invest time and energy in developing a healthy team mentality—the team will carry the company mission across the finish life.
It is up to you to discover the signs of burnout and help your team learn to cope with it. In the end, the team’s success depends on the team’s longevity and how well you manage and prevent team burnout.
Leadership can come in various forms, and that’s a good thing because we all learn, communicate, and adapt differently to individual leadership styles.
Leaders of the future understand the complexities of humanity and can appeal to all aspects of our quirky personalities because of one thing: emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence in leadership is far more than being nice to people. It’s a state of mind that allows us to place ourselves in someone else’s shoes, show empathy, and dissociate ourselves from our egos to understand someone else’s perspective rather than strive to be understood.
Here are the four main reasons why emotional intelligence is important to be a good leader.
4 Reasons Why Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Matters
1. Emotional Intelligence Empowers Us and Everyone Around Us
Emotional intelligence empowers us to be present and in the moment, which allows us to genuinely listen to someone, not just hear what they have to say. Listening takes intention and focus. Hearing is passive and lazy.[1]
High levels of emotional intelligence also facilitate a peak state of performance from everyone involved, creating a cascade of events in the brain that promote a flow state of mind that can help leaders accomplish more tasks during their day with less effort. In addition, it fertilizes the soil of productivity, which can have a ripple effect across an organization.[2]
Leaders who understand these concepts know how impactful they can be within their companies because they’ve witnessed firsthand how beneficial intentional actions can be for cultivating high-quality teams. And once they get a taste of what peak performance and highly efficient teamwork look like, it is nearly impossible to forget.
Emotionally intelligent individuals don’t have to tell you they’re emotionally intelligent. People who regularly interact with them know how they feel in their presence. These people have “something about them” and can light up a room upon entering.
Whoever said “business isn’t personal” clearly didn’t understand business because all business is personal. It’s all about building long-lasting relationships. And relationships are essential for success.
2. Sharing Is Caring, Especially When Building Relationships
In today’s modern workplace, showing vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness. The old days of being afraid to show emotions, be honest about feelings, and openly share sentiments of insecurity have long passed.
In today’s world, emotional intelligence in leadership is necessary, especially with the recent changes in workflow that have become the norm in the COVID-19 era. Whether working from home or back in the office, there are ways to cultivate relationships without being right next to someone.
Being open about emotions and feelings and sharing your thoughts will open up discussions for others to do the same, creating an environment of psychological safety and a foundation of trust with colleagues. When colleagues can express their opinions openly and freely, the best ideas are brought to the forefront, allowing highly productive teams to solve problems and create solutions as quickly as possible.[3]
When hierarchies exist and people are scared of being judged for their ideas, the bottom line suffers. And this turns into bad business, as people rarely stay with companies where they feel their voices aren’t being heard.
The best ideas rarely come from the top because leaders at the top are usually working on the business, not in the business. And that’s okay! But it also means they can be disconnected from the real problems in public and on the ground.
Having humility with your colleagues is pivotal because high-level leaders understand their place with their direct reports.
3. Great Leaders Work for Their People, Not the Other Way
This concept might be a big pill to swallow, but they say the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Leaders with high emotional intelligence work to support their colleagues, not the other way around.
Why?
Because leaders with high emotional intelligence realize that supporting their people is the most efficient way to empower them to own their results, facilitate growth, and allow psychological safety to make mistakes on the job in the pursuit of bettering themselves.
This concept is one of the most efficient long-term plays an individual could utilize because once teams become self-sufficient, emotionally intelligent leaders become freed up to continue to work on the business rather than in the business. It also creates a situation where employees gain confidence to take on new tasks, try new things, and continuously work on finding new solutions to existing problems.[4]
This process is why the Toyota Production System (TPS) was so effective in vastly expanding Toyota’s reign within the car industry. It created a hub of experimentation and learning within every step and individual who worked on the line.[5]
As Charles Darwin so elegantly stated,
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, but rather, that which is most adaptable to change.”[6]
Teams that learn fast and quickly adapt to change will win the long-term battle of business and problem-solving. And while you can’t put a price tag on emotional intelligence, your bottom line will show the true colors of your organization and the people you surround yourself with.
Humans are social creatures. We always have been and always will be. Here’s how you can use this to your advantage.
4. Emotional Intelligence Appeals to Our Core
We’re all emotional beings. Good luck getting away from that one.
Emotions appeal to the center of who we are as humans, which is why emotional intelligence in leadership can play a significant role in developing great teams and executing at the highest levels.
The lower emotional centers within our brains play an essential role in our actions, how we interpret our world, and how we respond to our environment.[7] The hard part about this is that our subconscious processing is faster and more efficient at processing data than our conscious processing, making it a bit complex to understand how or why people respond to situations the way they do.[8]
Triggers and underlying experiences can change the way we interpret conversations and discussions.
By utilizing emotional intelligence in leadership discussions and coaching situations, you will be able to optimize growth and sustainability and improve connections with your colleagues.
If we can truly meet people where they’re at emotionally and psychologically, then we can create a foundation of trust and acceptance, once again allowing people to be their best and show their best both in the office and at home.
This unique marriage of vulnerability, trust, and communication is the bedrock of a highly functioning team and business.
Final Thoughts
Creating an optimal workplace environment may seem daunting, but it isn’t. It starts with individual discussions, consistent follow-up, and continuously setting intentions. It manifests through the small interactions with peers, simple gestures with colleagues, and ensuring that you show up with your best foot forward in every possible situation.
Does this mean you need to be perfect? No, far from it. But it does mean that you must show up and give the best of what you’ve got every day. Amateurs are inconsistent, but professionals show unwavering consistency with their work.
And as the brilliant Ankur Warikoo writes in his book, Do Epic Sh*t,
“The pro is the amateur who simply showed up every day.”
Start small, stay consistent, and know that your emotional intelligence in leadership will allow you to shine in every aspect of your life.
The law of diminishing returns is one of the most important principles in the world of economics. It helps you find the right balance in production in your organization.
Regardless of the products or services you provide, understanding the law of diminishing returns will have a huge impact on your organization’s efficiency. The concept of diminishing returns applies to you if you:
Complete a report but still work on bits and parts continuously, thinking it’s not good enough
Research for many hours trying to find more and more resources and support for a project, but not yet started the actual work
Spend extra time and effort (more than needed) to make a project better.
It takes knowledge and effort to find the right balance between factors of production. Understanding the law of diminishing returns will boost your productivity and performance. In this article, I am going to help you understand the law of diminishing returns with clear examples.
What is Diminishing Return?
In the world of economics, the law of diminishing returns states that in every production process, there is a point where adding an extra production unit while others are constant will lead to a decline in the overall output. It is also known as the law of increasing costs since adding an extra production unit decreases returns and the cost of production eventually goes up.
In terms of productivity,[1]
The point of diminishing returns refers to a point after the optimal level of capacity is reached, where every added unit of production results in a smaller increase in output.
The biggest issue is knowing when you have reached this point. As a leader, you need to ask yourself this question:
How long do I continue working on a project until I declare that it’s good enough? – And this extra time spent will not affect the outcome significantly.
Examples of Diminishing Return
The law of diminishing returns applies in different areas of your life. See if these examples resonate with you:
You’ve been working non-stop on a work project to complete it on time and achieve the objectives. While you might think that working all the time will help you be a step ahead, the reality is you’ll get diminishing returns in your productivity and performance in the long run. Worse still, you will be stressed and exhausted, and your health and even your family relationships will be affected because you simply neglect other aspects of life trying to make that project perfect.
For meetings at work, the first hour tends to be the most productive. Adding a second or third hour usually doesn’t contribute to the outcome significantly. A lengthy becomes tiring and boring for everyone involved and is not productive at all.
How Perfection is Related to Diminishing Return
How many times do you find yourself stuck collecting data and analyzing a problem for weeks or even months before coming up with the best solution instead of taking action to actually resolve the problem?
Why do you do so? Are you trying to figure out a perfect solution and create the perfect condition so the outcome will be perfect?
But will your solution ever be perfect even after spending tons of time and effort on research and analysis?
The answer is likely no.
Paralysis by analysis happens when we try to seek for the best, or even the perfect way of doing something or solving a problem. In most cases, perfectionists have the fear of failure and tend to avoid potentially harmful situations. They don’t want flaws in what they do and in themselves.
But the truth is, perfection doesn’t exist. Waiting for the perfect time, or trying to make something perfect not only wastes effort but also delays making progress significantly. This is when perfectionism leads to diminishing return.
How Diminishing Return Affects Your Productivity
Diminishing return affects your productivity in four major ways:
Investing More but Getting Back Less
Spending a lot of time and energy on a task or project doesn’t always mean that you’ll get better results. A study conducted by Stanford found that you can get more done by doing less.[2]
The truth is, investing a lot of time and energy after reaching the point of diminishing returns does not affect your results significantly.
Not Completing Anything
When you endlessly invest effort into something, you delay completing it; so you will end up not completing anything.
Putting off Decision Making
To achieve an outcome for every task, you need to make decisions.
Some people tend to spend too much time researching and analyzing data in order to make the best decisions. While this sounds like a logical thing to do before making a big decision, most of them tend to get stuck at this stage and are not able to make a decision.
Wasting Time and Losing Opportunities
When you spend a lot of energy on a project and fail to achieve the objectives, you’ll end up wasting time and losing opportunities. I have explained this in my other article about opportunity cost.
Opportunity cost is usually expressed in terms of how much time and value must be forgone to pursue an opportunity. For example, if you choose to spend time researching and analyzing results, the cost of this is the value of the time you would have spent testing your ideas in the field and getting feedback.
What You Can Do to Prevent Diminishing Return
There are two effective steps that you can take to prevent diminishing return:
Step 1. Use the Superstructure Method
The Superstructure method is Lifehack’s unique method for quantifying the value of your tasks, so you can organize them in order of importance.
Once you adopt the Superstructure Method and begin prioritizing tasks in your daily life you’ll see BIG rewards.
These will include a huge jump in your productivity and work output. You’ll also feel less stressed and overwhelmed, which will give you time and energy to be more expressive and creative.
Just imagine…
The new you could be getting more done while also having better mental and physical health, and more spare time to do the things you love.
This is not some fantasy. This is the life I lead right now. And it’s the life you can lead too if you put the Superstructure Method into action.
Every task has three components namely:
1. Intention
Figure out why you need to do these tasks and find out how you’ll benefit by working on the task, and how it will propel you towards your goals.
2. Value
Organize your tasks into the three categories below:
Must-haves: Critical to achieving the objective. Without it, the outcome is meaningless.
Should haves: Important but not critical. However, leaving it out may lessen the impact of the final result.
Good to haves: Having it is nice, but not including it won’t have any negative impact on your objective.
How you decide to put them will be determined by your goals.
3. Time
After looking at your task’s priority, you need to evaluate the cost of each task in terms of time. The complexity of the task is reflected by the time you’ll need to complete it.
You can easily calculate time costs by splitting tasks into half-hour intervals. No task should be longer than three hours.
With limited time to complete something or make a decision, this method can help you get an optimal result.
Schedule the Tasks
By knowing the priority of your tasks and the approximate time each of them will take to complete, you now have the keys to taking positive, productive action.
And the good news is that it’s really very simple.
You just need to schedule your tasks on a weekly planner — choosing on which day and at what time should you tackle each task.
Once you begin following this Superstructure Method, you’ll quickly overcome any feelings of being overwhelmed. That’s because you’ll always have an organized weekly plan that allows you to master your time and achieve your goals.
And there’s more good news…
After a while of following the Superstructure Method, you’ll notice that you start to create a solid routine for some recurring task such as having regular meetings and replying to emails. And routines are a fantastic way of saving you time and energy, as they help you automate your tasks and keep you away from distractions. Learn more about the Superstrucuture Method here.
2Actions
Think of a goal that you want to achieve, and list out your Must-Haves, Should-Haves, and Good-to-Haves.
Then go to Step 2.
Step 2. Apply the 90/10 Principle
So now, you’re clear about the Must-Haves, Should-Haves and Good-to-Haves, let’s try to combine the 90/10 Principle too.
The 90/10 Principle is one of the most important principles for productivity and effective time management by Stephen Covey. It states that 10% of your actions account for 90% of your results. Trying to achieve 100% of the results is not so practical because as I mentioned earlier, perfection doesn’t exist. Good enough is good enough, and there’s no need in dragging to achieve the remaining 10%.
When people try to achieve 100% of the results, they essentially spend over 90% of their effort and resources to fulfill the remaining 10% of the results. This is more than needed and is when diminishing return happens. It is like spending 90% more of your effort to achieve only 1-2% of the results, which is not worth it.
Understanding the 90/10 Principle will help you set the right expectations and actually get things done. In fact, a study conducted by ResearchGate found that when workers are managing their tasks using the 90/10 Principle, they face less stress and become more productive at work.[3]
2Actions
Go back to your list and take away the “Good to Haves” items and ask yourself ‘Can I get an optimal result already with the remaining items?’
Then try to take away the “Should Haves” items and ask yourself again ‘Can I get an optimal result already with the remaining items?’ This can help you make decisions a lot easier.
Conclusion
The law of diminishing returns is an economic concept that applies to different areas of our lives. You can quickly boost your productivity and performance by understanding this concept.
As we have seen, the fear of failing and anxiety about taking action are the leading reasons for indecision and failure to take action. Coming up with ideas and implementing them on a small scale will enable you to get immediate feedback, improve business processes and boost your performance.
You can prevent diminishing returns by using the superstructure method and 90/10 principle. Understanding and using these two effective tools will help you set the right expectations and achieve your goals.
