Why Most Coaches Experience Burnout - Robin Waite

Do you find yourself regularly putting off tasks, feeling exhausted or that your social battery is at an all-time low?

You might be experiencing burnout. In this episode of The Fearless Business Podcast, Robin talks about why most coaches experience burnout and what you can do to prevent it.

What we will be discussing today

• Workplace Burnout
• What causes it?
• What you can do to stop it

Listen to the Full Episode

Why Most Coaches Experience Burnout

In this episode of The Fearless Business Podcast, Robin talks about why most coaches experience burnout and what you can do to prevent it.

Working in the coaching industry can be emotionally tasking. From working long hours to needing to re-charge your social battery, many factors can cause a business coach to burn out. But have no fear! Burnout is entirely natural and is your body’s way of communicating that you need a break. In this solo episode, Robin shares his advice on how you can combat burnout.

Identifying The Causes

So what causes a business coach to burn out?

Well, it’s down to the individual and the amount of pressure you can withstand. But typically, these are the most prevalent causes of coach burnout:

• High Energy - being a coach is a tiring job. You constantly feel the need to give 100% in every meeting with your clients. By the end of the day, you feel drained as you have no social energy left as you have given it your all with them.
• Intellectually Tasking - with each new client comes a new problem. Coaches have to search deep within their psyche for advice and solutions to help their clients. For the more complex issues, this could take hours or even days which proves more stressful.
• Time Management - one to one sessions with clients typically take an hour. By the time some coaches are done, they could have sat in front of their computer screens for five or more hours. Thus, limiting themselves to the confinements of their office and not allowing much opportunity to get out and clear their minds.
• Multi-Tasking - most coaches typically take on other jobs that may seem out of their lane, such as marketing, accounting etc. This is because they are generally a one-man band, so ensuring they are also responsible for making sure their business runs smoothly alongside their clients’ responsibilities.

How to Prevent Burnout

So now we’ve identified what causes most coaches to burn out, what can be done to prevent it? Here are some solutions:

• Outsource - if you are a one-man-band, maybe it’s time to consider outsourcing. If left to build up, simple tasks such as admin and email can be highly detrimental to your energy. Hiring a service such as Virtual Assistants, for example, means you’ll have more time to focus on the more strategic elements of your business and be sure the simple tasks are being completed.
• Avoid Getting Emotionally Attached To Clients - at the end of the day, business is business. If you get emotionally attached to outcomes, remember that life is inevitable and learn when to set boundaries and remove yourself from a situation.
• “Charge Your Worth” - if time management is a problem for you, try upping your prices, so you have enough overhead to free up your schedule. This way you can earn the same amount (if not more) whilst looking after fewer clients. If you’d like to know more about charging your worth, watch the video below:

According to Robin, running a business never gets easier; you just become better at it. So don’t expect to burn out just because you have improved your practices. No matter how big or small the task is, energy is still being used. So it’s always important to take breaks no matter how good you think you are at running your business. Usain Bolt may be the fastest runner globally, but he doesn’t use the same amount of energy to travel everywhere; learn to allocate your energy by setting boundaries.

Symptoms of Burnout

Symptoms of burning out can manifest themselves into a multitude of things. However, the most common symptoms of burning out are:

• Putting off Tasks / Procrastinating
• Mental Exhaustion e.g. low social battery, irritability, memory loss.
• Physical Exhaustion
• Falling ill - your immune system is a lot weaker if you are under stress.

Due to the ‘hustle’ culture within the world of entrepreneurship, many business owners find themselves downplaying symptoms of burnout or just plainly ignore them. In the long term, this proves highly detrimental as it can take you more time to recover than you would if you caught it in its early stages. Remember, if you can’t show up on your A-game, you can’t expect your business to perform in such a manner either.

The Stages of Burnout

Robin argues that there are six stages to burning out, which goes as follows:

1. Excitement / Honeymoon phase - you are excited to start your new project, business or take on a new client, which encourages you to work harder.

2. Stress - things don’t go quite to plan, or you realise things aren’t quite what you thought.

3. Moment of Realisation - you start to think, “I can’t possibly do this”, and distract yourself through the means of procrastination.

4. Chronic Stress - because you have allowed the minor stresses to build up, they manifest themselves as one major stress you now associate with your new project, business or client.

5. Burnout - you finally have had enough. You have no energy to complete any work-related tasks, and all associations with it become too much to handle.

6. The Cycle - if untreated, this process starts over and bleeds into other projects.

To find out more about Fearless Business:

Join our amazing community of Coaches, Consultants and Freelancers on Facebook:
>> https://facebook.com/groups/ChargeMore‍

And check out the Fearless Business website:
>> https://fearless.biz