PPP 448 | Drifting Toward Burnout? How to Thrive When Demands Pile Up, with Marie-Helene Pelletier

In this conversation, Andy and Marie-Helene Pelletier explore the concept of resilience, particularly in the context of workplace challenges and personal well-being. They discuss the importance of understanding resilience as a state that can fluctuate rather than a fixed personality trait. Marie shares insights from her book, The Resilience Plan: A Strategic Approach to Optimizing Your Work Performance and Mental Health. She emphasizes the need for strategic planning to enhance resilience and manage burnout. The discussion also covers cognitive patterns that can hinder resilience, the balance of life's demands and supplies, and practical steps to create a personalized resilience plan. Additionally, they touch on the role of parents in fostering resilience in children.

This episode prepares you to handle the demands that come with leading teams and projects. Enjoy!

• “The class went great. I was a wreck.”
• "We know from research that resilience is not a personality trait. It’s a state, which means it will fluctuate over time, which also means we can influence it."
• "Resilience is our ability to go through adversity and come out even stronger."
• "People will tend to minimize the demands they have, and then on the supply side, people will tend to overestimate the sources of energy they have."
• "I think we too easily sacrifice our self-care. We wait for things to fall apart and then we’re like, ‘Oh, I hit burnout.’ What if we were able to put together a resilience plan?”

• 00:00 Introduction
• 02:02 Start of Interview
• 02:14 What Got You Into Psychology?
• 04:00 Understanding Resilience Misconceptions
• 05:45 Is Resilience Just Genetics And Personality?
• 08:01 The Role Of Context In Resilience
• 10:43 BEAR Thinking
• 14:25 Supply And Demands Inventory
• 18:13 The Role Of Values
• 26:02 Applying Resilience Strategies To Parenting
• 28:42 End Of Interview
• 29:07 Andy Comments After The Interview
• 32:17 Outtakes

You can learn more about Marie-Helene and her work at DrMarie-Helene.com/.

For more learning on this topic, check out:

• Episode 398 with Dr. Neha Sangwan about her book on burnout.
• Episode 132 with StrengthsFinder author Tom Rath about energizing the burned out project manager.
• Episode 106, also with Tom Rath, about his book Eat, Move, Sleep.

Thank you for joining me for this episode of The People and Projects Podcast!

Talent Triangle: Power Skills

Topics: Resilience, Burnout, Mental Health, Self-Care, Leadership, Personal Development, Emotional Intelligence, Workplace Wellness, Project Management

The following music was used for this episode:

Music: ImageFilm34 by Sascha Ende License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Music: Chillhouse by Frank Schroeter License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license