Preventing Leadership Burnout

By Mary Jo Stark, Fellow, Rocky Mountain Chapter, and LCR Financial Advisor, and Jackie Damrau, Fellow, Lone Star Community, and LCR Manager

As Leadership Community Resource (LCR) volunteers, we constantly receive requests to help a community with volunteer burnout. In the worst cases, we have seen entire councils walk away from communities, one volunteer doing all four elected positions, overworked volunteers snapping at each other, and many communities run by officers who have been in the same position for years. We want to help community leaders understand volunteer burnout and provide ways to help prevent it.

Recognizing Burnout

According to Webster’s, burnout means "to use one’s resources or energies to excess." Volunteer leaders need to understand why they put such intense strain on themselves and how to bring perspective back into their lives.

Reasons that volunteer leaders experience burnout include the following:

A lack of clear goals and direction (at the community, committee, or task level)
Too much work to be done
Too afraid to say “no”
Too few people are involved
Trying to do too much alone
Few rewards or recognition are given for a job well done

Symptoms of burnout include decreased self-confidence, flagging interest, and a persistent lack of energy, satisfaction, enthusiasm, motivation, concentration, and humor. VolunteerToday.com describes four stages of burnout—exhaustion, doubt, cynicism and skepticism, and crisis and failure. This organization feels that by "understanding the stages. . . a skilled volunteer leader or professional manager can intervene to help volunteers cope."

Stage 1, exhaustion, occurs when volunteer leaders feel that too much is expected of them.

Stage 2, doubt, is characterized by feelings of fear, trepidation, tentativeness, shame, and doubt.

Stage 3, cynicism and skepticism, is when volunteers begin to feel vulnerable, unsteady, negative, disbelieving in their ability, and may appear abrasive or obnoxious.

Stage 4, crisis and failure, is a total breakdown.

Volunteer burnout in STC often results from one of the following scenarios:

Example 1: Chapter leaders are fulfilling multiple roles.

Sometimes it’s hard for leaders to let go because of the time put into keeping the chapter afloat. By stepping back, though, leaders can open the doors for other volunteers to come in, try fresh ideas, and see where the chapter goes from there.

Example 2: The same individuals step up every time to lead committees.

Volunteer leaders who perform the same function for many years eventually want someone else to take over. If no one does, some leaders continue supporting the chapter in the same role year after year. Frustrated, they become grumpy or adversarial when approached.

To help ease this situation, leaders can offer volunteers the option of mentoring a new manager to take over or to comanage the committee until other volunteers are available.

Example 3: Current leaders no longer want to lead a community. They send repeated e-mail blasts to community members asking for volunteers, yet no one responds.

The LCR has an almost 100 percent success rate in helping chapters when a message is sent to the members announcing that the chapter may be dissolved or placed on provisional status if no one steps up. We wonder why members are more responsive to the LCR than to their own leaders. (Maybe because the leaders’ cry for volunteers is so mundane that no one pays attention? We're not sure!)

Preventing Burnout

It is normal to lose leaders as they move to new places or on to new interests. However, if leaders are moving through the community as if through a revolving door, an atmosphere of “burnout” may be present. Communities whose volunteer leaders are experiencing burnout are not alone. The LCR has recognized that volunteer burnout is the most significant challenge facing our STC communities.

Preventing burnout has many possibilities, including the following list of our own tips.

Set realistic objectives that meet the (community’s, committee’s, task’s) purpose and goals related to the amount of time needed, how many people are needed, and so on.
Create job descriptions or task outlines so leaders know exactly what they are getting themselves into and what they can expect.
Consider breaking jobs or tasks into chunks that can be managed or worked on by more than one person.
Recognize that different people can handle different amounts and types of work based on their abilities and tolerance levels.
Remind volunteers that the quality of the work is more important than the quantity.
Recognize volunteers on a monthly basis and at the end of the project or membership year for the work they have done. This can be done by presenting certificates handed out at each meeting or by publishing in the community’s newsletter, blog, or Web site a list of the volunteers that helped out in various activities that month.
Write a letter of appreciation to each volunteer’s manager acknowledging the work they’ve done for the community or committee.
Organize a fun social event for your members and volunteers.
Know your volunteers by keeping communication lines open. Actively listen to them, make yourself available, and show that their ideas and feelings are important.
Let leaders know they can say “no” to a particular opportunity, but that you’ll certainly consider them for a future opportunity.

Leaders and volunteers can use the following questions to identify if they are entering into a phase of burnout or are at burnout and need relief.

Leaders

Ask yourself:

Are you not having fun anymore in serving your community?
Are you excessively fretting or worrying over community issues?
Are you or anyone on your leadership team becoming overly excited or argumentative over small things?
Are you or anyone on your leadership team overly cranky or irritable to those around you?
Are assignments that you’ve delegated not getting done to your satisfaction?
Does discussion stop when certain team members speak up in your council meetings?

Volunteers

Ask yourself:

Are you not having fun anymore serving in your volunteer role?
Have you lost your enthusiasm or are you no longer satisfied in performing your volunteer role?
Are you feeling as if you or the work you are providing is not receiving the appropriate recognition?
Do you have thoughts about leaving your volunteer role?
Are you or others on your volunteer committee becoming overly cranky or irritable with each other?
Are you concerned that others are not taking their volunteer roles as seriously as you?

Volunteer leaders who are experiencing—or approaching—burnout should be sure to remember an observation by D. Morton, Evergreen’s volunteer program coordinator: “Open communication, encouragement, and fun are powerful tools for preventing burnout.”

The authors thank Rachel Houghton, LCR Public Relations Manager, for providing valuable insights as we were working through this article. Rachel’s experience with STC as a former chapter leader and her knowledge of STC publications helped us in preparing this article for submission.

communication department

Recognizing Burnout

Preventing Burnout

Suggested Readings

April 2008