Fiona Stevenson and Shelli Baltman

April 16, 2021

This month marks Stress Awareness Month –  an annual designation founded 28 years ago but perhaps more relevant than ever this particular April. More than a year after the pandemic took hold and had profound impacts on our personal and professional lives, stress and burnout levels are at an all-time high.

Burnout is defined as a combination of feelings: exhaustion, cynicism and a lack of professional efficacy. (Maslach Burnout Inventory). Many experts say that a lot of the factors contributing to burnout are workplace related.  However, even for employers with the best intentions, many of the realities of the workplace are beyond our control.

In speaking to many of the individuals in our network and inside the client organizations we work with, workplace demands are higher than ever before.  Not only have employees been asked to completely transform their approaches to working over the past year, while dealing with unprecedented business challenges born out of the pandemic, but they are working longer hours – with many reports suggesting that employees are working on average an additional three hours per day. Based on our conversations, Venture Capital, deal speed has increased dramatically since remote working commenced.   The natural pace of deals was previously constrained by travel and booking dates to travel to investee companies.  Now, they hop on a Zoom and make a decision.  They’re competing in a marketplace where speed of deal is a key success criteria – so they have no choice but to move more quickly.  That leads to increased stress, more work and more projects to manage for each of them.

Actively addressing the issue of burnout as an urgent priority is critical – and we believe that not doing so will surely undermine our recovery from this crisis.  Ultimately, a business is only as strong as its people – and it only follows that a workforce on the brink of burnout is an early sign of impending business decline.  This is compounded by the fact that research shows it’s often our best performers who are more likely to burn out yet also less likely to tell us that they’re getting close to burnout.

Our perspective is that leaders need to take responsibility for addressing burnout in their people by providing them with habits, tools and approaches that can help them to take control of their own experience, so they can feel energized (to combat exhaustion), more optimistic (to combat cynicism) and more effective at what they do – and helping each and every one of them to make it through what is one of the most challenging experiences of our lifetime.

Last month we gathered virtually with some fellow CEOs to discuss the unprecedented toll that the COVID-19 experience has taken on the workforce, with 70-80% of the working population reported to be showing signs or symptoms of burnout.  We knew that to affect positive change, we needed to share expert knowledge and insight with all the HR professionals and business leaders who have the desire to make a change in their organizations from the inside out. And so united by our passion to address this looming crisis, we decided to come together – and also called on some of the leading-edge experts in our networks – to found the first ever Banish Burnout Summit, which will take place on May 5 and 6, 2021-  This a 2-day virtual conference will provide practical solutions, tools and techniques to help business and HR leaders support, connect and energize their workforce, and help them thrive in a distributed work environment.

We’re honoured to share the stage with this amazing lineup of accomplished, internationally renowned speakers.  Each one is bringing their passion, unique perspectives and relevant experiences to help attendees make positive, lasting change in their workplaces at a time where it’s needed more than ever before.

Joey Coleman – at Design Symphony & Bestselling Author of Never Lose A Customer Again
JJ Virgin – 4 x NYT Bestselling Author, Nutrition & Fitness Expert
Tracey Ivanyshyn – Founder of UPLevel & Good Grief At Work
David Burkus – Organizational Psychologist & Bestselling Author of Leading From Anywhere
Kristi Herold – Play Expert & Founder of Jam
Cameron Herold – “CEO Whisperer” & Founder of COO Alliance
Lindsay Sukornyk, CPCC – World Renown Keynote Speaker & Founder of AliveandAwake
Shelli Baltman and Fiona Stevenson – Founders of The Idea Suite & Energy for Growth

Please join FREE as a guest of Energy for Growth using this link: https://lnkd.in/eRRkSRe

Hope to see you there!

Fiona & Shelli