Going From Burnout to Breakthrough

One of my clients came to me in a bit of a crisis.

They had a leader who was looking to transition, and was so burnt out that she was looking to retire early. 

She commented at the time that she just felt like she was done and just wanted to give up.

One of the biggest reasons she wanted to do that was because she did not see a path forward for her team or for herself.

She was carrying way too much of the load and had a very hard time delegating and really trusting her team to not only do their day-to-day jobs, but to really have a path forward for development.

I remember asking her at the time,

“If you can just give me six months and work with me, I promise you that you are going to stay, and actually want to stay on longer. I really want to be able to cement the legacy you have here.”

And we were able to do just that.

  • We worked specifically with their team and highlighted the strengths that each leadership team member had.

  • We completely changed her coaching approach so she moved from being a doer to a developer.

  • We utilized things like our pulse surveys to really get a great gauge of exactly where she was at and what needed to be tackled first.

One of the biggest things she saw right away was that she was able to move from a feeling of overwhelm to focusing on just one or two of the main critical areas to impact and focus on. That was specifically coaching her team and helping them be more accountable in their roles.

As part of that process, which is always true, she also saw that she needed to change not only her approach, but be okay with assigning specific tasks, roles, ownership, and development. She had to allow her team to really thrive in that environment instead of micromanaging and holding onto too much.

By doing that, she not only empowered her leaders, but really empowered herself.

She went from feeling overwhelmed to today, having some of the highest sales numbers they have ever seen, actually tripling their growth over the course of the past three years that we have been working together.

  • They now have their next level leader identified specifically for the CEO role, who is ready to move into that next position.

  • They have a group of leaders who are taking on more than even what they thought possible, but not from a place of overwhelm or feeling burnt out.

  • They are actually capable and ready.

That happened by going through the specific ABC Framework process that I take all my clients through.

They have gone from feeling overwhelmed to feeling confident and successful in their roles internally and externally. Their culture is the best it has ever been, and we have proof and data to point to that.

Not only with their sales and service metrics, but with their internal survey metrics as well.

That is what happens when a leader stops trying to carry everything alone and starts building leaders around them.

Lead Boldly,
~ MW

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