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The Challenge: Feeling burned out and overwhelmed and doesn’t know how to get back to doing the work she loves.
HELP, I’m feeling burnt out and have felt this way for a long time.
My works can be hard and challenging emotionally. I used to have an Operations Manager who carried a lot of the load for me, but when she left, I took on all of this extra work. Now I just feel dread and overwhelm when I think about the work.
The How to CEO Solution:
First, please ask yourself these questions:
- Is it the subject matter or the way it’s being done?
- Are you saying this isn’t my passion or are you saying there is too much emotional work involved in it?
- Is there a buffer you could put between yourself and the pieces that are too emotionally taxing?
- What would be the options on the table?
- What would be the implications of those options including pros and cons?
- What do you think your ability is to attract the right candidate to do the work you don’t want to do?
My definition of burnout is being overtasked for sustained periods of time with insufficient recovery and returns.
It just doesn’t give what it used to give in terms of joy, excitement, investment and feedback. Did you used to feel that way? You want all of this success to equate to more freedom, not more money and more problems.
You are in a yucky place.
Remember, It’s the messy part of the operations that you don’t like, not the business itself. (make this a pretty pull quote)
That may be hard to receive right now, but you know it’s not what you are supposed to be doing. You shouldn’t be in that role for any business.
You are the visionary. You are the person who determines how you build it into a profitable business and build wealth for your family. So to a certain extent, this really is a good thing. This discomfort is just telling you that you are in the wrong place. It’s an indicator to hire a good Ops Manager. You would have to do that anywhere you have a direct service business.
Disassociate the discomfort from what the business is. If you hired someone to backfill you as CEO and you put what you are doing now in the job description, they would tell you that you are hiring for an Ops manager not a CEO.
Go back through the workbook (get your workbook, by joining How to CEO) and use it to help you design a job description with all the things you want that Ops Manager to do and that you don’t want to do.
Keep the good stuff in your CEO job description and let the other stuff go. You aren’t doing the good stuff right now and you weren’t made for that. That’s why you are successful and considered an expert in your field. You are not an excellent Ops Manager and that doesn’t mean you are not an excellent CEO. It means you are in the wrong place and that discomfort is on purpose.
When things go wrong or get hard, it’s very common to feel like the pressure of your role is closing in on you. It’s a great indicator to stop and take a deep breath. Nothing has gone wrong. You always figure it out, one priority at a time. Start at the heart of your business and work your way out until you start to see a path.
Manage your thoughts, delegate where you can, and continue to stand in your power as the CEO of your business.
What is the biggest challenge you are facing in your business? Is it managing burnout or managing a diverse team? Kris and her team within How to CEO want to help get you to a solution for your most pressing challenge. Join How to CEO today and get help within the week.