Burnout and Project Teams

 

I recently read an article by Rasha Mourtada titled Bosses Fan the Flames of Burnout. In discussing the real cost of employee burnout Mourtada suggests, "It is estimated to cost $300-billion in lost productivity in the U.S., causing financial damage through high turnover, reduced productivity and absenteeism, as well as hurting employee engagement and morale." Wow... that's $300 billion with a "B". No matter how you slice it, that's a lot of money.

You might be asking yourself, why am I writing about this, overworked and even "burnt-out" employees are something we all have to deal with from time to time, don't we?

We've been talking a lot lately about empowering team members to be a bigger part of the process, I believe that when people are engaged and take ownership of what they're doing, among other things, burnout becomes less of a problem for organizations. And, I'm not alone. Ellie Maggio, managing director of Emend Management Consultants feels the same way. As cited by Mourtada in his article, "The number one issue for executives is that they have to have more trust in the people they work with," says Ms. Maggio, explaining that less micro-managing gives the executive more time, but also gives employees a greater sense of ownership over their work, which increases engagement and combats burnout."

Although she is not talking about project teams, I think it's very easy to make the connection. What's more, she makes a very good argument for increasing organizational transparency up, into strategic plans and organizational goals. "Transparent communication is essential," says Ms. Maggio. "If management is open with staff about the future plans for the organization and employees, that leaves them feeling settled and secure in the job. It's important but a lot of employers overlook it."

In the context of our recent conversations about the "strategic" nature of projects, project plans and project leaders, I think it's pretty obvious (at least to me) that everyone on the project team should, at the very least, understand the strategy and vision behind every project they are working on. That is the way to drive ownership and engagement within the team. That's how we start to elevate the role of project leaders to someone organizations turn to for strategic thinking and how we eliminate or reduce the costs associated with burnout.

"To avoid burnout in the first place, Ms. Maggio stands by a strategic approach," writes Mourtada. "'Burnout is the antithesis of employee engagement,' she says. '...If an organization is strategic about human resources, they're going to have higher engagement and less burnout.'"

The costs of turnover and burnout may be difficult to calculate within your organization, but they are there—and they are expensive. I think it's encouraging that some of the actions required to reduce burnout within our project teams are the very things that encourage efficiency, team member engagement and the successful execution of projects.

As a project leader, if you don't understand the strategic value of the project you are assigned to plan, ask. Find out why the organization is doing what they're doing. If you don't want to ask, shame on you. How can you successfully execute a project if you don't fully understand its value? What's more, how can you expect your team to take ownership of their contribution to the project if they don't understand why they are doing it?