Canadian HR Reporter

N E W S 10 www.hrreporter.com Are business leaders in danger of burnout? A new report highlights sobering numbers around high-level managers and how they are coping, suggesting there's a real risk that organizations could face an exodus of senior executives due to exhaustion, writes John Dujay "What he says is that stress is caused by a lack of control, that's number one; number two is a lack of certainty, so things are uncertain and also not having a say in the matter of things. What I'm finding with COVID is that's a perfect storm," says Sollors. While lack of control could be one of the main reasons causing burnout, the overwhelming "emotional exhaustion" also plays an outsized role, according to Allen. "When you are in a state of strain for a long period of time, in the beginning, you can have adrenaline, but at a certain point, that adrenaline wears thin; you can't sustain it, so you feel depleted, you feel exhausted. You haven't lost motiva- much more apt to want to consider leaving their organizations," The survey spoke with 1,158 senior leaders from 11 organizations in both the public and private sectors, of which 66 per cent were from Canada. For a senior member of Deloitte, the scale of the results was unexpected. "Leaders are suffering from more stress and it's flipped around from pre-pan- demic — the triangle was inverted the other way," says Zabeen Hirji, execu- tive advisor, future of work, at Deloitte Canada in Toronto. "We all have stress and lots of people have anxiety, but normally, because leaders have more control over their environments, they're better than the rest of the workforce and this was actu- ally not the case now. That inversion was a surprise to us." The report, Inspiring Insights: Wellbeing and resilience in senior leaders, also showed other alarming health statistics: 59 per cent of leaders said they cannot relax; 49 per cent have trouble getting to sleep; and 43 per cent feel more irritable than they were pre-pandemic. 'COVID, that's a perfect storm' But why is this effect happening so acutely to senior leaders? A lack of control and uncertainty could be two factors, says Glen Sollors, partner at Kwela Leadership, an executive coaching and training consultancy in Vancouver, citing the research of Gabor Maté, a physician based in Vancouver who researched how people process stress, and what happens to their bodies and immune systems. tion, but it's harder for you to experience feeling motivated because you just don't have that energy." Workload increased Workload was also highlighted as a big issue, with 68 per cent of the leaders surveyed reporting an increase in the volume of work since COVID-19 struck. "This then connects to one of our find- ings in the research, which is around the importance of peer relationships," says Hirji. The report found that 32 per cent reported deteriorated relationships with peers and, of those, 65 per cent said they had experienced worsened mental health. "We've seen the relationships, the deterioration — and so how organi- zations actually think about that to go from… empathy, and whether it's leaders or peers… saying, 'OK, I under- stand that your workload is too high,' but compassion is saying, 'I understand your workload is too high and here's what we can do about it and actually make it better,'" says Hirji. Coming in just below workload as a top stressor was not being able to adequately HOW ARE BOSSES MANAGING? 41% Percentage of leaders who find it hard to acknowledge a problem 10% Percentage of executives who don't prioritize time for their own wellbeing 38% Percentage of senior managers who have lower levels of energy 51% Percentage who have thought about leaving their current jobs have all read the stories and heard from our colleagues that employee burnout during the pandemic is a real and measurable thing — but is this risk the same for managers? Yes, if not more, according to the results of a LifeWorks Research Group and Deloitte Canada study that found 82 per cent of leaders surveyed have expe- rienced a form of exhaustion that could manifest itself as burnout. The research came about after surveys showed frontline managers, in many areas, were doing worse than the average employee, says Paula Allen, global leader and senior vice-president, research and total wellbeing at LifeWorks in Toronto. "Their mental health scores were lower, which is different than it was pre-pandemic [and] they were feeling "Leaders are suffering from more stress and it's flipped around from pre- pandemic [when] the triangle was inverted the other way." Zabeen Hirji, Deloitte Canada Source: LifeWorks Research Group and Deloitte Canada WE

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