Burnout was officially recognised in 2019 by World Health Organisation (WHO) as a state of physical and mental exhaustion. Most recently, Mental Health UK conducted a study of over 2000 employees citing a staggering 91% of people experiencing high to intense pressure in the workplace. The data and official recognition of burnout suggests that the resilience of employees in the workforce is in need of support to develop and maintain a better balance between professional and personal lives.
So how can executive coaching support leaders and managers find a healthier balance and help to promote overall well-being?
1.Time to slow down and reflect
An executive coach offers a confidential, psychologically safe space to talk without judgement. Coaching offers busy executives precious time to take a long deep breath and slow the mind down from all the busyness of our lives (both professional and personal) to focus solely on yourself and what you need in the present moment. Through the use of open questioning a coach can help you to reflect introspectively about how you are experiencing life as a busy executive and raising your awareness of what might be getting in the way of creating a healthier work-life balance. Often the time to talk and reflect without judgement leads to breakthrough insights leading to actions that when practised consistently, lead to greater well-being.
2. Support to establish healthier boundaries
Creating a healthier balance between professional and personal life can take time and knowing where to start can be challenging. An executive coach can help by applying empathetic listening at a deeper level, helping to raise to your consciousness of where the blurring of boundaries between professional and personal life might be getting in the way and the potential impact on you and other areas of your life. Often, I find that people are too busy and often override their own boundaries by putting other people and work priorities above them in priority. Coaching offers a safe space to surface barriers and obstacles that might be getting in the way, without your conscious awareness.
3. Establishing the importance of self-care practises
Work-life pressures can mount up especially in the current technological, ‘always on’ culture we work and live in. It is easy to get swept up and override your own personal self-care needs in favour of work pressures or tending to family responsibilities. An executive coach can help you to examine where you might re-direct your (physical, mental and emotional) energy to promote a better felt sense of well-being and resilience through targeted self-care practises. Once these are in place and consistently practised, they become new behaviours over time and help you to recover better and faster from set-backs.
4. Identify beliefs and values
Executive coaching supports deeper, introspective dialogue leading to greater self- awareness of your stress triggers and how they affect your day-to-day response to stress as well as impacting on your well-being. Coaching offers the opportunity to delve below the surface and examine values that might be in conflict and hence triggering a stress response, unconsciously. A coach can encourage and champion you to think mindfully and develop strategies that are more in alignment with your values. The outcomes of which enable you to re-direct your response to stress to one that is nurturing and supports greater resilience over time.
5. Enhancing your ability to say ‘No’
I was once told by a good friend that the word ‘No’ is a complete sentence! Quite revelatory and yet we don’t always have the courage to say ‘No’. Our minds conjure up a number of fears or scenario’s that might manifest if, we were to say ‘No’. This is a pattern that invariably keeps us stuck in unhelpful and limiting ways. A coach can listen with genuine curiosity and empathy to those fears. They are there to encourage you to establish healthier thoughts and behaviours promoting your ability to say ‘No’ when it counts the most. This is especially important when facing the unique challenges of balancing a sense of well-being and the myriad of roles we try to balance across our lives; an executive leader, manager, parent, a carer, etc.
These are just a few ways in which executive coaching can create a psychologically safe and nurturing environment to help you to find a healthier balance, promoting your sense of well-being and preventing burnout.
I wish you well on your journey towards developing a greater sense of well-being and resilience.
Sasi Panchal
Over the last decade I have specialised in coaching individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds on corporate leadership development programmes with the aim of accelerating and progressing individuals from diverse backgrounds through the talent pipeline.
