608: The Mindset Leaders Need to Address Burnout, with Christina Maslach

Dec 12, 2022

Christina Maslach, a pioneer in burnout research and author of *The Burnout Challenge*, discusses the complexities of this pervasive issue. She emphasizes that burnout isn't just an individual problem but a symptom of toxic workplace environments. Leaders must adopt a systemic view, enhancing workplace culture and context while focusing on open communication. Christina highlights the importance of proactive management strategies and aligning job roles with employee needs to combat burnout effectively.

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ANECDOTE

Canary Analogy

The canary in the coal mine wasn't the problem's source, but an indicator of danger.
Similarly, burnout signals a toxic work environment, not individual weakness.

INSIGHT

Burnout Defined

Burnout is a response to chronic job stressors, not just exhaustion.
It includes cynicism towards work and self-doubt about one's effectiveness.

INSIGHT

Burnout Stigma

People with burnout are often stigmatized and considered responsible for fixing it themselves.
This assumes burnout is dispositional, ignoring external factors.

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Christina Maslach: The Burnout Challenge

Christina Maslach is the pioneer of research on job burnout, producing the standard assessment tool called the Maslach Burnout Inventory, award-winning articles, and several books, beginning with Burnout: The Cost of Caring, in 1982. Her research achievements over the past five decades have led to multiple awards from the National Academy of Sciences, Western Psychological Association, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and many others.

Christina has received awards for her outstanding teaching, including USA Professor of the Year in 1997. She has been a Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley since 1971. Christina is now a core researcher at the Healthy Workplaces Center, at Berkeley, and the author along with Michael Leiter of The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s Relationships With Their Jobs*.

In this conversation, Christina and I address the reality that burnout is often perceived as an issue with just the individual. We explore how leaders can begin to look at the larger picture: context, culture, and management, in order to address burnout more proactively. We discuss key mindsets that will help and a few tactics that almost every leader can use to get started.

Key Points

The canary in the coal mine is an indicator of a problem, not the source of it.
Our tendency is to focus on the person (the figure) and to miss all the context and environment factors (the ground).
Burnout is first and foremost a management issue. “Fixing” the person should not be the focus — instead, get curious about where there is a mismatch.
Instead of focusing on what’s wrong with the person, shift to what may be wrong in the relationship between the person and situation.
Ensure you have a plan for communicating survey results. If you’d done surveys previously, share those results and also the actions the organization had taken before engaging in more surveys.

Resources Mentioned

The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s Relationships With Their Jobs* by Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter

Interview Notes

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