Avoid burnout in the Office of the CEO

Dear Office of the CEO: you are the team with the highest risk for burnout. Let’s face it: you work long hours with insane workloads under intense pressure. How do you protect yourself from flaming out?

Here are 7 tips to prevent Office of the CEO burnout:

𝟭. 𝗦𝗮𝘆 𝗡𝗼
Nip low priority requests in the bud by just saying no. Unless it’s absolutely critical work, you’re well within your rights to say no thank you, especially to external stakeholders outside the Office of the CEO.

𝟮. 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲

Pull up your task list and delegate low priority and non-mission critical work to the business. Set a recurring calendar invite to help you complete this exercise on a regular basis.

𝟯. 𝗦𝗵𝘂𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗟𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗼𝗽

It can wait til tomorrow. Set an alarm to shut your laptop by at least 9p to make sure you have enough time to rest and recharge.

𝟰. 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀

Delete apps and remove notifications from your phone by placing it on Do Not Disturb mode. Only allow pings from close friends and colleagues.

𝟱. 𝗘𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀

Reduce your meeting times by half. Elongate recurring meetings cadences by 2x. Get rid of meetings with no agendas. Politely decline meetings with too many stakeholders.

𝟲. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗛𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗜𝗻𝘀

Check in with yourself and your Office of the CEO team by asking: Are you Red Amber or Green with regards to burnout? Make a burnout mitigation plan for those that are Red and Amber.

𝟳. 𝗥𝗼𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀

Set term limits for your role as CEO, Chief of Staff and Executive Assistant. Identify star performers and complete succession plans so that you don’t get trapped in a role that burns you out.

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