Adult Leader Burnout

[Unkiewill]

I am doing a presentation for our district on leader burnout. I would love to get some tips from people on here about things they have seen dealing with this. How do you bring someone back who has already burned out? How can you keep it from happening in the first place? Thanks in advance for anything you have to add.

[Eagle92]

1) Get them out of their current position and into another one or give them a break. I know I was getting burned out with OA. I needed a new role, and thankfully got one: TCDL.

 

2) To prevent burn out I recommend the following:

 

A. KEEP A BALANCED LIFE! I know sometimes it's very easy to get caught up into scouting that your family life suffers, and this add stress. FAMILY IS IMPORTANT.

 

B. Do not think you are indispensable. We have one leader who I think really needs to step down as they have caused problems, but they think they are indispensible and won't step away, which makes matter worse.

 

C. Use help when offered and ask for it when needed.

 

D. KISMIF

 

More as I think about it.

[shortridge]

I recently switched jobs, and only in the last few weeks have I realized just how close I was to burnout at my old one. There's stress, sure, but nowhere near what I previously felt. You need protective bubbles around certain areas of your life, or at least I did. Anything can encroach on your time if you let it. I have that in spades in my new job. No more weekends, no long hours in the evening at home, bosses are understanding, low pressure, time to think. I believe all of those things can be applied to Scouting as well. It can't consume you, and you have to establish protective barriers. Some open time has to be inviolable, untouchably for you and no one else.

[Cito]

It's important to spread the responsibility and to actually prevent people from volunteering for too many positions. Better to recruit more people, even if they don't do quite as good a job, rather than letting one person do everything until they burn out.

[JMHawkins]

Frankly, I think the biggest cause of burnout is failing to see resuls from your work. Maybe that's why changing to a different position helps - in their old posisiton they solved all the problems they knew how to solve and so were just beating their head against a wall and not feeling like they were making any progress.

 

Find a way for them to see (according to their POV) progress from their work. Not always easy, but I think that's the key.

[dkurtenbach]

Burnout is what its name suggests: The fuel is getting used up, and the output of energy is way down. The thing about burnout is that the "fuel" consists of things like personal satisfaction, fun, new experiences, learning, and personal growth. When those personal rewards are no longer coming from the activity (such as when the individual has been at it so long that there is nothing new), or when the rewards begin to diminish but the work required does not, or when outside circumstances prevent or overshadow those personal rewards, no new fuel is being added to the fire.

 

There are always some interests and activities that individuals will never get tired of, and never experience burnout from, regardless of how long they have been doing it. That's where you get your 30-year Scoutmasters. And there are folks who manage to find a balance in a particular job that can be sustained indefinitely; that usually involves the individual being free to increase or decrease involvement (and the work required for the job) as it suits him or her. That's where you get your long-term ASMs and district and council committee members. But with most folks doing a job that requires a sustained and constant effort over time, burnout will come sooner or later.

 

Once burnout starts, there's really little that can be done. Making some changes to the job may slow burnout down a bit, but it is really hard to increase the personal rewards of a job that someone has been doing for a while.

 

So really, the only way to prevent burnout is to have a person change jobs before the personal rewards start to fade. That's why a 3-year term limit, common for many council and district jobs, is a good idea.

 

 

 

 

[Eagledad]

Burnout is a difficult thing because even if the victims family and friends advice them they are burning out, he or she still has to make the decision to change and most of the time they dont. I think it is an important subject because it is the main cause of Webelos Drop outs.

 

Dans (dkurtenbach) reply is pretty good, but its not just about changing personal rewards, its also the constant stress of responsibility adding to the other stresses of the job and raising a family.

 

After I was SM, my dream job was the District Commissioner because I felt I could make some really big changes in the position. Through the years I was involved in some very successful complicated programs at the Cub, Troop, District and Council where I personally picked and led teams. I certainly got my rewards from the results of those responsibilities, but after 20 years and all that experience at just about all levels of scouting, I was offered my dream job and I declined.

 

In fact I was offered any job I wanted on the District committee and council training committee the following five years, but my heart wasnt in it. I just got to where I cringed every time the phone rang. I used to grab the phone looking for the opportunity to discuss ANYTHING scouting. But after 20 years, I actually got a little nauseated from a phone ring.

 

Like Dan said, once burnout starts, I think it stays. And while I think all the suggestions given are good for preventing burnout, Im not sure it can be prevented, at best it can only be slowed. When I became the SM, my family forced me to step way back on other scouting activities. I wasnt allowed to spend more than three nights a week doing scouting stuff and that could only be on Troop Scouting Stuff, nothing outside the troop program. Scouting discussions were NOT tolerated at the dinner table. That was enforced by the mom, but the kids liked it was well. But that wasnt a burnout problem, that was a family dynamics situation.

 

The worst part for me is that I have a lot of knowledge earned from experience that I want so badly to spread to make the lives of Scouts and Scouters easier. I have a clear understanding how scouting works in creating citizens of character and leaders of integrity. I know how to get the older scouting program working for the benefit of the whole program. And I dearly love talking to scouts and asking them about the Patrols and youth leaders. I help out at the troop level now and then and that feels great. But once I found myself getting close to responsibility, I turned around.

 

Its been ten years and I actually think I could take on a roll now, I can actually answer that phone without fear. But I haven't been invited yet, and I haven't found the courage to do it myself. I have to laugh, do you know how much the uniform has changed in the last few years? I would be starting all over.

 

Maybe a good way to start is to get back in so I can build a team to develop a 12 step program for scout leader burnout. Waaait aaa minute!

 

Barry

[Second Class]

Shared responsibility in the unit is a major matter.

 

When the unit leader ceases to get the support from ASM's, CM's and parents, and assumes the SM will be on every event; that is a train wreck waiting to happen.

 

Expecting the SM to pick up any slack the CM's fail to do.

 

ASM's that take a pass on 7/10ths of the camping trips.

 

Program planning shared among the PLC/SM/ASM's.

 

A committee that DOES their job. Outdoor activities CM that does his job. Treasurer that does his job.

 

 

 

 

[dkurtenbach]

Excellent point by Barry on the effects of constant stress as a contributor to burnout. Even at low to moderate levels, even when you're having a lot of fun in the job, it is wear and tear.

 

By the way, Barry, our Commissioners College has regularly offered a course on "Commissioner Burnout."

 

Dan Kurtenbach

Fairfax, VA

[Jeffrey H]

In Scouting, we promote it as a year-round program. That can be a good or bad. The good is there is something always to do. The bad is there is something always to do. The key for leaders, as I'm learning as a CM, is to take breaks at different points during the year. It's okay not to sign-up or darken the door of every event that comes along even those events where I might be "expected" to be there. It's also good to step away from routine meetings for a month or two.

 

The key is to personally ask parents and leaders for help with the program and don't do everything. Scouting will go forward without me.

[dkurtenbach]

I would also suggest that Barry's story is a powerful lesson in why preventing burnout or dealing with it early is so important. The deeper the burnout, the longer the vacation or recovery period and the greater distance the individual puts between himself and the activity. The greater the distance, the fewer and smaller the contributions from that individual during that "break." And if the break is lengthy, how does that person with a wealth of skill, knowledge, and experience find his or her way back into the program in a sustainable way?

 

We all know stories about someone (pro football coaches come to mind) who burned out, tried making a comeback in a similar job at a similar intensity, had much less success and burned out again even faster, and was never heard from again. But we also know stories about folks who would pop up in a particular role that he or she would hold for a short productive period, step down and disappear briefly, then pop up in a different role for another short productive period. And they do that seemingly forever -- I see a lot of those folks in Scouting at the district and council levels.

 

And I know several very long-term Unit Commissioners and District Committee members that have only that one "official" Scouting job. They also show up regularly at Roundtable and district events (to help with the Parent-Son Bake-off judging, and the Chili Cook-off judging, and manning the grill at the Day Camp cookout), but don't take on any other large or long-term jobs or projects. They have found a comfortable pace for contributing to Scouting over the long haul. (I also think perhaps that they have adopted a pace that is not only congenial for them, but is just slow enough to discourage the "recruiters" from asking them to take on more intensive roles.)

 

Dan Kurtenbach

Fairfax, VA

[lrsap]

The advice of not over-volunteering, or saying yes too much, is good. Everyone should know their own personal capacity. But for all the good that can be done by people at a District level, one thing I have seen is the culture of looking at brand new leaders as "fresh meat" for district level positions.

 

Somewhere along the line someone who just wants to be the best Wolf Den Leader or ASM they can be is somehow seen as "not volunteering enough".

[emb021]

I see two issues with burn out that people need to be aware of.

 

* holding too many positions ("too many hats"). The people who hold more then one position, often at different levels (unit, district, council). There is no rule as to how many are too many. It's up to the person. For some, one is enough (especially if its a big position). For others, it can be 2 or 3, but if they take #4, that can be too many for that person.

 

Personally, I wish groups would work to find more people so that others don't have to take on multiple roles. If there are people asking to take on roles, when you have others having multiples, may be something to address.

 

* all positions should be for one year 'terms', even appointed positions. Never view any position as a 'forever' position. Everyone is appointed to a one year term, with possibility of re-appointment. This allows for a clear end of the term and a chance for the person to continue for another term, or not. Again, for some people one year is enough, for others they can hold a position for several years before they need to step away.

 

 

[Eagle92]

EMB,

 

As an FYI at PDL-1, at least when I went through it, they promoted, promoted, promoted ( can you tell they STRONGLY SUGGESTED ) the concept of one leader, one job.

 

However in the field you gotta use your resources.

 

This came up last nite. I formally announced that I will not be the Webelos Den Leader next year, although most of the parents and a few of teh Cubs knew already, and intro'd the new WDL. Afterwards while the kids were playing, the parents were talking about the various leadership roles and how the idea of one job, one leader is best. Except for me, as they kept pushing me to be the CM in addition to being a TCDL and CSRT commish.

 

NOT!

[Unkiewill]

Thank you all very much for your responses. It is great to get so many different perspectives on this topic.