Self Care: Objectives: Avoiding Burnout at Work Learn how to - - PDF document

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Self Care: Avoiding Burnout at Work

Elizabeth Brown Director of Human Resources Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County

Objectives:

• Learn how to identify burnout and leverage

the skillset of your leadership team

• Learn how to foster and support a culture

that prioritizes self-care

• Create an action plan and execute in 30 days

What is Burnout?

Two key definitions of burnout are:

• “A state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by long term

involvement in emotionally demanding situations.” Ayala Pines and Elliot Aronson (Career Burnout: Causes and Cures)

• “A state of fatigue or frustration brought about by devotion to a case, way of life,
• r relationship that failed to produce the expected reward.” Herbert J.

Freudenberger (Burnout: The High cost of Achievement) In essence, burnout is a mixture of stress, exhaustion, and long-term disillusionment. Primarily strikes people who are highly committed to their work.

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The Yerkes-Dodson Law

… dictates that performances increases with physiological or mental arousal, but

• nly up to a point.

When levels of arousal become too high, performance decreases. (BURNOUT)

How Does this Apply to Leaders in Legal Services?

• Burnout affects high achievers
• Burnout affects you and your team emotionally and physically
• Hidden cost of empathy
• Burnout affects the objectives of the organization
• Burnout affects performance negatively
• E.g., paralysis, desensitized, overly sensitive and/ or anxious
• Burnout affects outcomes for the population we serve
• Poor performance from advocates

A19 A20 A21 A22 A23 A24

We want to avoid this: Recognize and Identify Burnout

• …

within yourself

• Manage
• …

with your team

• Manage stress and stress factors—different from burnout
• Eustress vs. Distress
• How does this effect the Yerkes-Dodson Law Bell Curve?
• E.g. New hires, new attorneys will have curves with peaks to the left. They can easily tip into overwhelm

and distress as they are being exposed to so much new information

• Experience moves the peak to the right

A25

Slide 6 A19 You cant expect the same level of performance from a new hire or new attorney compared to an experience attorney. Of course they will be slower. The biggest complaint I hear from managers is that the newer attorneys need more cases, they are slow. If you rush them, you will increase their stress levels and their performance will decrease. Give them time to dvelop habits and assimilate the knowledge they are leaning.

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A20 Take the time to build relazation techniques into your days to reduce stress levels and keep to the left of the curve

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A21 Increase your self awareness to recognize when your stress levels are increasing and determine whythis is occuring, when you recognize a pattern developing take action and reduce this

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A22 Burnout Symptoms: Having a negative and critical attitude at work, dreading going into work, wanting to leave once you're there

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A23 Having low energy and little interest

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A24 Having trouble sleeping, bring absent from work, having feeling of emptines, experienceing phsycial complaints, beeing irritated easily by team member, having thoughts that your work doesnt have meaning or make a difference, pullilng away emo0tionallyy from your collegues or clients, feelinf that your work and contribution goes unrecognized, blaming other for your mistake, thinking of quitting work

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Slide 8 A25 Recognize Eustress is healthy stress. It moves you to increased performance Distress is unhealthy stress and tips you to the right of the curve where performance decrease and the effects of stress increase. E.g. New hires, New attorneys will have curves with peaks to the

• left. They can easily tip into overwhelm and distress as they are

being exposed to so much new information Experience moves the peak to the right

Author, 3/23/2017

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What is the Key to Avoiding Burnout?

SELF CARE

Identify your own needs and take steps to meet them.

Personal

• Care for yourself first.
• “Do no harm to yourself when helping
• thers.”
• Prioritize your physical, social,

emotional, spiritual needs. Examples?

• Be aware of the emotional and physical

manifestations of burnout.

• E.g., empathic resonance, anger, sadness,

hyperarousal, hypersensitivity

Identify the needs of your organization and take steps to meet them.

Organizational

• Infuse self-care philosophy in

Leadership Team

• Regular supervision and ongoing

support

• Continuous communication and

feedback

• Infuse self care philosophy in meetings

and staff interaction.

SELF CARE: What is it and Why is it so important?

A26 A27 A28 A29 A30 A31

SELF CARE:

How do we foster self care in our

• rganization?

Fostering, Supporting, and Prioritizing Self-Care in your Organization

The CLT Model

• Culture: Change; Awareness
• Leadership: Accountability; Manage

with care in mind

• Training: Learning; Utilizing and

leveraging internal skills; Practice

Culture Training Leadership

Slide 10 A26 Implement De-stress and Di-gest meetings

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A27 We value the body more than the mind. We should actually value the mind more - Physical health and physical hygeine, What did

• ur parent teach us, do we teach our children? Do we teach our

families? We sustain psychological injuries more. We must care fo

• urselves

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A28 Examplet of an oxygen mask on a pkleane

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A29 Easiest thing to forget

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A30 Talk openly with a trusted friend, sit outside wand listen to births, practice breathing

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A31 Make sure you are eating a well balanced diet, get enough sleep, make room in your life for a nap, make exercise a regular part of your routine, listen to music you enjoy, yoga, reading, plant a garden, buy yourself something, attend a class, spa

Author, 3/23/2017

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We need to incorporate self care in our

• rganization…

WHAT NOW? Executing Self-Care Principles: Create an Action Plan

• List three stressors in your
• rganization that you would like to

eliminate.

• Identify what you can change about

these situations and what you cannot.

• List two methods of dealing with those

stresses.

• Think about the stressors and ways to

incorporate self-care within your

• rganization.
• Make your action items measurable.
• Based on the three stressors, how can

you apply the CLT Model?

• How will you ensure your action items

will foster, support, and prioritize self care in your organization (Culture, Leadership, Change)?

Discussion: Feedback and Questions

Resources

ATKINSON, MARY. (2005) A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO SELF-MASSAGE. BERNARD, PATRICK. (2004). MUSIC AS YOGA. DISCOVER THE HEALING POWER OF SOUND. GREENBLATT, EDY. (2009). RESTORE YOURSELF: THE ANTIDOTE FOR PROFESSIONAL EXHAUSTION. SCOTT, S.J. (2016). DECLUTTER YOUR MIND: HOW TO STOP WORRYING, RELIEVE ANXIETY, AND ELIMINATE NEGATIVE THINKING. JARMEY, CHRIS. (2001). BOOK OF MEDITATION. LEARN HOW TO USE MEDITATION & VISUALIZATION FOR INNER CALM & PHYSICAL & SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING. MANSON, MARK. (2016). THE SUBTLE ART OF NOT GIVING… A COUNTERINTUITIVE APPROACH TO LIVING A GOOD LIFE. TANNEN, DEBORAH. (2001). TALKING FROM 9 TO 5: WOMEN AND MEN AT WORK. TANNEN, DEBORAH. (1999). THE ARGUMENT CULTURE: STOPPING AMERICA’S WAR OR WORDS.

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Reference List

YERKES-DODSON LAW GRAPH ANDERSON, LIANE. RETRIEVED FROM HTTP:/ / WWW.MORNINGTONPENINSULAPSYCHOLOGIST.COM.AU/ STRESS-- BURNOUT.HTML STECKLER, TAMARA AND LIGHT, VICKI E. THE HIDDEN COST OF EMPATHY: HOW TO ADDRESS SECONDARY TRAUMA STREET IN A CHILD LAW OFFICE HTTP:/ / WWW.AMERICANBAR.ORG/ PUBLICATIONS/ LITIGATION- COMMITTEES/ CHILDRENS-RIGHTS/ ARTICLES/ 2017/ HIDDEN-COST-OF- EMPATHY-HOW-TO-ADDRESS-STS-CHILD-LAW-OFFICE.HTML THANK YOU! ELIZABETH BROWN Director of Human Resources Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County elizabethbrown@nlsla.org

You will always get a high ROI when you invest in SELF CARE.