Silverton McLagan Coaching | The Burnout Queens

Saluting International Women’s Day

March 8, 2019

Today is International Women’s Day, so we are saluting the fabulous women who we call our Burnout Queens. Who are these Burnout Queens?

They are an interesting and varied lot! Many are creative professionals; musicians, singers, artists, writers, poets, actors, screenwriters, jewellery designers, chefs, bakers, interior designers, event planners, fashion designers, theatre company managers and film production personnel. They are in business, education and health care. They are teachers, lawyers, health executives, social workers, pilots, financial advisors, academics, and business owners. Many work for themselves, or long to. They are entrepreneurs, solo-preneurs, and mum-preneurs!

Our Burnout Queens are strong, fabulous, creative, sensitive, and smart women. They come from big cities and small towns around the globe.

What they share is a personality that makes them prone to burnout. They are busy being their best! They are personal strivers, responsible, dependable, conscientious, perfectionistic, reliable, and, wow, they have drive and stick-to-it-ness. Throw in being creative, perceptive, sensitive, and intuitive, all it means to be a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), and you either have a recipe for burnout or the secret formula for high potential living.

We love our Burnout Queens. They dream big dreams; they dream of changing the world. They are inspiring and exciting.

We want you to value, accept, and learn to love the power and strength that comes from being a Burnout Queen! We want you to do your own thing, live your dreams your way because that will enrich the world for all of us and generations to come.

We salute and take our crowns off to all of you.

Love, Dr T & Dr B

Am I Burnt Out?

February 15, 2019

AM I BURNT OUT?

I am struck by how many women these days easily say, “oh I’m just so burnt out”. Sadly, I believe it’s a statement most of us seem to relate to in this fast-paced world today. Many of our clients come to us feeling down, depleted, and utterly overwhelmed…and you guessed it, they all say, I think I might be burning out.

What is this thing called Burnout?

We often ask people, ‘do you really know what burnout is’. We hear a variety of common responses some accurate, some not. Bottom line, if the information is not correct women don’t seek help and things get worse. It’s the way Burnout takes hold.

When people hear you say you’re burned out, they usually reply that everyone is stressed. If you think you are suffering from burnout and hear this, you walk away feeling foolish and inept for making a fuss, even though you feel about to drop from exhaustion.

Others talk about ‘being burned out’ in a manner that sounds like a fad or trend or something ultra-light. They are the ones who seemingly act like the ‘every-ready bunny’ and keep going, hardly skipping a beat. It makes it hard to believe they feel like you do, because you are struggling to keep up with everything. So you lie awake wondering what’s wrong with me that I can’t cope.

This would be a good moment to give Burnout some serious thought. What is it really and what does it look and feel like. The best medicine is to arm yourself with proper knowledge so that you can make decisions in aid of your well-being.

The Burnout Queens have put together this Simple Symptom Checklist for Burnout to help you identify whether or not you are burning out. See if you recognise any of the emotional, physical and mental changes for yourself.

Get immediate access to this Checklist

CLICK HERE:

Don’t dismiss your feelings and emotions. If it’s just stress it can’t be that bad, right? And if it’s really bothering you that much you must be depressed, right? Perhaps not.

Burnout is not stress and it’s not depression, although you just might ‘feel’ depressed and stressed when you keep trying to juggle all your responsibilities and never feel you get enough reprieve to feel well. If you are burnt out you keep trying to ‘keep going’, but with depression you just want to hide under the duvet forever!

Let’s nip burnout in the bud. Start by downloading our Simple Symptom Checklist for Burnout. This is the best and simplest way to check if you are actually burning out.

If you love downloading, you will love our Learn From Us page. Feel free to save and read as many of our resources that you think will help on your road to living a burnout-free lifestyle.

To your health!

Love, The Burnout Queens xx

The dreaded company retreat

August 23, 2018

Just have to share this with you. We hear about this dreaded event all the time from our VIP clients.

BBC business news has a great, bold and controversial article out today: Why corporate team-building events can be terrible. (love the title already)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45260246

There is nothing worse than opening up your email to an invitation to attend one of these company weekends. It leaves many of our clients with that ‘pit-in-the-stomach’ feeling.

You know you can’t get out of it. You know it will be a waste of time. And this is the important bit…you believe it will be a hornet’s nest of problems.

Have a read why. We are sure many of you will relate 100%.

These events require a solid and deep understanding of group dynamics, communication skills, trust-building, and a high level of crowd control. These skills are reserved for the professionals who know the psychology behind all of these seemingly innocent and fun weekends.

The article makes a great point at the end…good managers year-round should be able to avoid the necessity of having one of these retreats in the first place.

Our best advise to clients: Beware the facilitator, and if you have to attend one of these, put your game face on, keep your guard up, follow the instructions and get out of there at your earliest convenience. You are not weak, you aren’t the problem, and you should never be the scapegoat for the wrong facilitator.

And our next executive coaching session will be devoted to ‘the debrief’ with someone you already trust.

Reader Feedback we love

July 26, 2018

Reader Feedback!

Huge response both on and offline to our June 30th Feature Article on Bullying in the adult world [Stand Tall, No Sagging Allowed! HSPs Stand Up To Bullies]

Here’s a taster of the feedback from across the globe! Thank you all.

“Great ideas for coping with bullies! Thank you.” Deb V. Las Vegas, USA

“Hi there I’m not being bullied but was when I was a teenager and my daughter has been too.I used to have a background in HR. I would have loved to have shared these tips to our staff back then. Fab post 🙂 Have a lovely weekend x Wishing you fabulousness! ” Ruby McGuire, MCIPD, ASC (Visibility Diva, aka Queen of Connection Visibility Strategist, Trainer, Speaker, Author. UK

“I just had to tell you how timely your latest email was about bullying. I am currently going through the negotiations over dissolving the partnership in my business and everything in your email hit home for me. I was literally lying awake at 1am so upset over everything and I pulled out my phone and saw the headline of your email. Thank you! This will make me stronger throughout this time! ” J.G. BC, Canada

What if your workplace is toxic?

July 24, 2018

What is a toxic workplace and how will I know if mine is toxic?

The Burnout Queens love to share good articles and this is a good article in Inc.com (Marcel Schwantes) based on solid research out of Harvard.

The article titled 5 signs of a toxic workplace that should be stopped immediately (Inc.com magazine), summarises who toxic workers are and what they do that is so counter-productive to the company and their workers.

“much has been written about hiring and developing top performers in the workplace, but less attention has been paid to the effects of toxic workers on their organizations. [toxic] workers are not low-functioning or low-status employees…[they]are talented and productive….”

Here are this article’s 5 signs of a toxic office.

Gossip is spreading
Morale is at an all-time low
Managers are dictators not leaders
The human touch is lost
Health issues and absenteeism are on the rise

These are just some of the situations our Executive Clients find themselves in, many of them disheartened by their company culture, disillusioned by an absent listening leadership. Others grapple with questioning whether they should stay or take the opportunity to leave and place themselves in their dream career move. This all leads to low morale and possibly burnout, which has a knock-on effect on many leaders, teams, executives and ultimately erodes the company’s bottom-line.

Read the full article and get really honest with yourselves. Next step? Implement healthy, rather than punitive change. To ignore and keep following the same path is to risk losing your most talented to the competition.

The step after that? Get in touch (www.livethesolution.com) . We coach Highly Sensitive Executives in these situations all the time and they learn to thrive.