HEALERS & LEADERS Need Nurturing Too

I spent the first half of my adult working life in the people-helping industry as a pastor. It didn't take me long to notice that my colleagues and I, in the midst of all the caring, giving, and shepherding we continually gave to hurting, grieving, suffering, dying, and despairing people, often didn't have anywhere or anyone to go to for our own self nurture. In spite of all the talk, the organizational support was never adequate.

Healthcare is one of those industries that is facing a huge crisis - not just in patient care or in financial sustainability but especially in nurturing its caregivers.

According to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll:

• 3 in 10 health-care workers have weighed leaving their profession;

• more than half are burned out.

• 6 in 10 say stress from the pandemic has harmed their mental health;

• 1 doctor is dying from suicide every day (more than double that of the general population).

Burnout and Stress are not just an individual healthcare worker's problem. It's an organizational systemic issue that must be addressed wholeheartedly. Not just patient lives are at stake. So are the caregivers' lives.

The same applies to almost every industry.

If you are a leader, you, too, deserve support from your organization to provide all the tools and resources needed for your personal wellbeing. This is not a luxury. It is crucial to the success and effectiveness of everyone's work. It must become an organizational priority.

Here are some of the pressures that too often lead to chronic stress and anxiety and burnout. These are issues that every organization needs to address creatively and collaboratively.

• workload pressures

• staff shortages

• long hours

• lack of peer support opportunities and the time off needed for this to take place

• mounting paperwork and email exchanges

• expectation of being on call 24/7

• a stigma around getting mental health help

• not enough access to mental health therapies

• lack of autonomy and a voice in organizational changes

• more emphasis on productivity than self care (personal development)

• shortage of providing professional development and training for leaders

• fixing people instead of fixing systems

Every organization must address these issues that are tragically impacting leaders from so many industries. If they don’t, their people will continue to suffer and end up leaving as a result.

We have to care for the healers, too!

SELF CARE IS NOT A LUXURY, IT'S A MANDATE

Especially during this work-at-home pandemic (Thank You, COVID-19), it's easy to get confused about taking breaks to pay attention to our mental health and overall self care. We might be tempted to feel guilty if we're not working long hours every day, maybe even on the weekends. Or we might be tempted to see our amazing attention to productivity and its corresponding busyness as a badge of honor, a symbol of how important and necessary we are. 

But unfortunately, with either of those approaches, the foundation of our self worth and self esteem get all confused and mixed up. We end up believing the lie that our worth and value come from what we produce rather than who we are as human beings. 

And our wellbeing and resilience lose. 

That's why I love a meme I put together showing a sleeping kitten with the caption by Liane Davey:

Investing in your resilience isn't indulgent; it's mission-critical.

What a pithy reminder. When you and I invest in our self care, it isn't a luxury, it's a mandate. It's perhaps one of the most countercultural, courageous acts we can engage in.

We cannot achieve our full humanity with its glorious potential without taking intentional times to stop (what I call strategic stops) for rest, recovery, having fun, building our healthy relationships, investing in the social causes that inspire us, and paying attention to our emotional and physical lives, too.

Liane Davey, in her recent article in the Harvard Business Review, gives this challenge to the leaders of every organization:

It’s time to take those hackneyed words, 'our people are our greatest asset,' to heart. If you are an important asset, how could depriving, devaluing, and depreciating that asset by running it in harsh conditions, powering it with improper fuel, and neglecting routine maintenance possibly be good for your organization? Let’s cut to the chase: It’s not! ... From now on, tell yourself, 'It’s so busy at work right now, I can’t afford NOT to take care of myself!'"

If you have the courage to do this for yourself, it will be powerful evidence that you are a great leader! And that kind of modeling and permission-giving will empower the people around you. And you'll have the energy to engage in the mission of your organization in creative, innovative, and bold ways. Everyone wins!