“I called my boss Nick in tears…I had been a top performer most of my life and here I felt like I was completely drowning. But I felt shame. I felt like somehow this burnout I was experiencing was because I was mentally weak, and that somehow I was flawed.” -Suzi McAlpine
Everyone is talking about burnout these days. But what if those “tips and tricks to prevent burnout” articles are just plain wrong?
Suzi McAlpine, a New Zealand-based leadership coach and author of Beyond Burnout, shares her personal experience of burnout and debunks the most common myths about its causes (spoiler: it’s not your fault!).
More About Suzi:
Suzi McAlpine is a Leadership Development Specialist and author of award-winning leadership blog, The Leader’s Digest. She writes and teaches about accomplished leadership, what magic emerges when it’s present, and how to ignite better leadership in individuals, teams and organisations. She is also the author of Beyond Burnout: How to Spot It, Stop It, and Stamp It Out.
Suzi graduated from Massey University with a Bachelor of Business Studies (First Class Hons) in Management. She spent 10 years as an Associate Director and shareholder at OCG Consulting where she was part of the management team who led the business through double digit growth before selling the business to a multinational. She then spent four years as a Managing Consultant at Futurestep, a division of Korn Ferry, partner to over 93% of Fortune 100 companies, before starting her own business, McAlpine Coaching, in 2011.
Suzi lives with her husband and three children in Nelson, New Zealand, which means she is on a plane most weeks, but she doesn’t mind because Nelson is the sunniest city in New Zealand!
Highlights
- Suzi and Lara share their personal experiences with burnout
- The pivotal moment in Suzi’s burnout story that left her sobbing in her car on the side of the road
- What even burnout “experts” get wrong about burnout
- Why most advice about preventing or recovering from burnout is wrong – and what to do instead if you’re headed towards burnout
- The common strategy for addressing burnout that actually makes it worse (managers do this all the time!)
- Why burnout is bigger than the individual or their manager – and what organizations need to do to prevent it
- How Suzi knows when she’s headed towards burnout again – and what she does to stop it
- How Suzi’s experience of burnout led her to a career that light’s her up
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times (Bookshop.org Affiliate Link)
Connect with Suzi: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram
Thank You for Listening!
This episode was produced by Lara Dalch and Jennifer McCord.
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xo,
