Burnout Prevention: Finding Clarity, Hope, and Purpose in Your Career with Leigh Burgess
Would you like clarity and hope for your future? Are you considering making a bold move in your career or personal life? Would you like to have a career that is both rewarding and meaningful? Have you experienced some disengagement or burnout at work?
When you have a framework to guide you through the journey, your path becomes clear and defined. Today's episode discusses stepping stones to help you make bold moves in your professional and personal lives.
In This Episode, You Will Learn About:
What it means to be bold and brave
Making bold life changes and succeeding
Gain clarity on what matters most to you
The B.O.L.D framework for success
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About the Guest:
After years of experience in healthcare, business, and education, Leigh Burgess went out on her own to build Bold Industries Group, a conglomerate organization that encompasses her passion for business, as well as home design and curated experiences. She is driven by tackling challenges that when solved, make the world a better place and helping leaders solve problems for good.
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Before I founded my company, which has four different businesses within it, which is, in itself, different than what I was doing before, I was in corporate healthcare and had so many great experiences in it, across academics primarily. So I was a chief of a large academic, overseeing all of their research in a particular area, making sure that we would be able to meet the patient's needs. And then also, someone who helped build infrastructure for another large academic and so really brought up or grew up in healthcare specifically. But I also did a stint in K-12 education, and that was where my love of implementation, and then connecting data to action came in the middle of my career.
So kind of different levels, different strata, of my experiences, but primarily I have always been in healthcare and education and have always been an innovator, which is really what I now get to do full time working across, healthcare and education still, but also other businesses and working different people in the different areas of what I do around the bold framework, like coaching and retreat.
What it Means to be Bold and Brave
For me—and if you ever heard my podcast, I was just flipping the script on me a bit, because I ask every guest this question. So you're the first person to ask me. I appreciate it. I think, for me, being bold means you're willing to try something that isn't guaranteed. You're thoughtful about it; you're possibly even pragmatic, but it most likely makes you feel uneasy or have butterflies and you go for it. For me, throughout my career, I think being bold is also standing up for what's right even when, you know, it may be unpopular or not, the politically correct thing to do. Those are the two things that probably combined to mean you're bold and brave. You're doing the uneasy thing that may not be popular.
Any time we're making some bold moves in our life that uncertainty can sometimes be paralyzing. It can sometimes hold us back because when we don't know what the future's going to bring, it creates uncertainty. It creates sometimes a little bit of a fear of the unknown and sometimes that can paralyze us. So being bold and brave from what I'm hearing from you is leaning in, even when it's uncomfortable, but leaning in and taking it one step at a time and moving forward and leaning into being bold, courageous, and brave. Even if it's not. the most popular opinion sometimes.
For me, probably, it’s jumping in. It's not just the lean-in like I'm all in. And I think I've always been, that the majority of my career, I think you can take micro and macro steps into it. I guess my personality's all or nothing.
And anyone will tell you that probably whatever I do, I do it deeply and passionately. And I think for me, it's I really jump into the being. Sometimes that's not the smartest thing to do. Every bold move is not a success. Every creative idea isn't the best one. As you go through your trial and error, I think that's also part of it.
I call it taking big swings of bold—meaning that you're trying something new. You're thoughtful about it, but you know, it might not succeed, but you're gonna learn. And I think that the other thing to being bold is you're always learning if you're being bold. For me, that really connects back to me being really a lifelong learner of life. And then also within my profession
You talk about investing in yourself and when we are bold and we jump in and, like how you said, that jumping into making these big decisions. Cause a lot of us have made some shifts in our careers. Recently there's actually a study by the US labor of studies.
And they said that there were 76.1 million people who shifted their careers, and left their job between 2021 and 2022. So within the past year, there's been 76.1. people who have left their current roles, and some of them have either stayed in an industry or a lot of people have made bold moves and shifted into a different industry.
When you jump into it and you put everything you have into this new move, one way of being successful in making that bold move is investing in yourself and providing yourself with the resources to help guide you. Mentor. You learn through that process as you're making these bold steps,
Quiet Quitting Means Placing Value on Yourself
I have the next question for you. According to a recent study published by Gallup, it's interesting. 36% of employees are not engaged in their role. This top trending feature that we're seeing, because in the most recent Wall Street Journal, one of the top trending articles in the Wall Street Journal has pegged this as a trend called quiet quitting, and I'm seeing it more and more pop up.
You've probably seen this topic of discussion coming up, but it doesn't necessarily mean that employees are quitting their job. If anything, they're putting more of a focus on activities outside of the company.
We both shared our stories of this burnout feeling that we were experiencing in our previous roles and almost this bold move that we've made to pursue a new line in our career, which is more purpose-filled. How can we live a life outside of our comfort zone and how can we make more bold moves in our careers and in our personal life?
The reason I say, jump in versus lean in, is sometimes when we tiptoe into something, we can easily get back out of it. That's why I purposely jump when it comes to making decisions about myself. The whole quiet quitting thing, I think—I really hate the name—people have been doing this probably for a while, but it isn't really about quitting. It's about placing value on themselves and making sure that they're working in alignment with their purpose. Too bad, we didn't come up with some alliterative word, but it's like the great resignation that did not just happen. And you can look at all the data on this, but it got the attention. So I think, we're in a time where these types of things are getting attention, which is a good thing because people then can see that it's okay to value themselves as much as they may value their job or others in their family. I think for women specifically, it's harder for us to place that value. Because we're caregivers—we take care of things. We do all that we can and sometimes the last person that gets any energy out of us is ourselves. So I think the quiet quitting is being able to decide where your alignment is. It doesn't mean people aren't doing a good job or doing the job.
They were. For it means they're doing their job. They're not doing whatever is “above and beyond,” which is, in quotes because they're not getting paid to do it. Different generations think you should be working a certain way to lead to something else as we all grow up. I'm not super young, but I'm not super old either. I think I'm in a wonderful space where you get to make decisions. And I think what people need to do is think about, “Are you happy with what you're doing, bringing joy? Do you feel like you’re aligned with your mission.”
If it's to do good or to make other people's lives better, are you doing that? Are you creative? Are you strategic like you'd like to be? What I hear a lot from people is that they never have time to be creative or strategic because they're too busy doing the work. So now people who are supposedly quiet quitting may be able to do an improv class in the evening or go to that art class or go to that business class that they've been wanting to do, but they can never get out of work before seven. I actually think it's a good thing. I just wish we would've called it something different.
I couldn't agree with you more. It's people taking a step back. If there's one thing that we learned from the pandemic is that we were given an opportunity to look at our life through a different lens. I used to hang my hat. I remember when I received my diamond Delta badge, I had this badge of honor that in one year I spent 250 nights on the road. On Delta in Marriott. And I had gotten my badge and now saying, “Okay, I can get free upgrades to first class.” And I was so excited about it. Then the pandemic really shifted the lens and gave us a glimpse into what would life look like if we were home more if we weren't so much chasing the title. That we were there and present to see the little moments that our kids are experiencing, or more time with our friends, or what I've seen some of the younger generations do is they've sold everything and they've bought these vans and they're starting these businesses building websites, and I'm almost a little envious of them.
I love my kids. I love my life. But if I was in my younger twenties, I almost look back and go, I kind of wish I had done that. I wish I had explored more of the world instead of putting so much worth into what I did in my career and the title. It's more about how can we live a life of purpose and be fulfilled, and also knowing our self-worth and what we are supposed to be paid for as well.
Because as inflation has gone up to this 6.9%, merit increases are between three and 5%. There's a mismatch, and it's creating a greater gap between what we're paid for and what we're contributing. People are saying enough is enough.
I think there's power in what happened. There are so many negatives from the pandemic. So I'm in no way saying what happened to us was a good thing. But I think there are moments within it where people realize they had a choice. And that they are empowered to make that choice. No one gives you that power. No one comes in and saves you. You are the one that has to make that step to say, “I'm going to either stand up for myself, or I'm going to say what I want, or I'm gonna say, no, I will not leave my child at X, Y, Z.” I will be in two hours or now I'm gonna continue to be remote. I think all this is done in professional conversation, with kindness, and with an understanding that everyone has something that they're trying to accomplish, whether it be the business or the person. But I think from a personal perspective in their workforce, people are now, empowered to really say what they need and then for organizations to figure out how to do that.
I think for so long, it was like, if you're not in a seat, then you're not working, which was always very frustrating for me. I think in the industry I was, in healthcare, they were very reticent to let anyone work from home. And I remember I was losing one of my best project managers because she was having a child.
And she said, “I guess that I can't come back to work because I can't be here.” And this was in the mid-two thousands so far, like, late 2008-9. And I said, I'd like for her to be a remote employee and you would not have imagined all the hoops I went through, but I did accomplish that. That should just be a no-brainer because it will take me three people hired to do what she did in a halftime capacity. We've also, as businesses, thought it's not about where you're located. it's about actually accomplishing the work that's to be done and being very clear about what that is. And then whether you're in a van, surfing at lunchtime, and working in the van in between—hey, I don't care. Let's have a meeting, and I'll come over there. I think we've had to think innovatively and open-mindedly, which I think for me has been normal, but for many, I would say it is not.
Even Apple's getting a little bit of that pushback right now. Apple has said that they want their employees to come in three days a week and then remote two days a week. And they're getting a lot of pushback from their employees. And they're saying, “No, no, switch that.” For the first time, employees are a little bit holding the power of how these organizations, and I wouldn't necessarily say holding the power, but they're raising their hand, being more vocal, and saying, “This is what we want so that we could give the best version of ourselves and be amazing employees and contribute to the organization. But there are also some needs and wants that we have as well.”
Take a Jump and Make a Bold Move
The first thing is to really do an assessment of themselves and really think through: “Am I in the right space for what I want to be doing?” You know, if you're working in a job and it brings you joy, you feel fulfilled. And you really feel like there isn't anything more that you'd wanna be doing other than what you're doing then, you know, that's not a bad thing. You're in the right spot. But for many of us, I'd say there were some pros to it and there were some cons to it. You know, I knew I was making a difference, but I also knew it was really hard at times. To really move the needle as quickly as we could because of multiple reasons—some good, some not so good. And then I think I was very out of alignment with my personal and professional life. Work was getting more of me than my family was. I wasn't able to take a vacation or even rest.
You know, I always like to look at things where you are from a mindset perspective, and where you are, in really feeling like you belong in the role that you're in. I think the other thing is being open to owning what's happening.
“Do I feel this way because I'm tolerating something I shouldn't? And maybe if I just say what I need and what I would like, my employer will understand, and then I can kind of fit back in and, feel like I'm in the right spot. Or maybe I say what I need and what I want. And they say it's a no-go.”
We can't do that. Then you have the next step of where you're going to go and what you may need to do. And then I'll combine the last two, which are learning and designing, which is really taking what you've learned through understanding where you are from a mindset perspective and your alignment in your personal and professional life. And then being able to say, “I need something different”—and I'm a real big proponent of writing it down. Once you write it down, it's kind of in-your-face, as well as maybe the others that support your goals and your strategies. And I find it so helpful just to share those things with at least three people.
Getting the Best Out of Life
And then maybe the next time they see you, like, “Oh, what are you doing with that?” You wanted to look into learning more about whatever it may be—someone else is kind of like clicking that spark and kind of seeing if there's a flame there from what you're doing—and maybe you explore it.
It isn't what you're interested in. But I think making sure you just are getting the most out of your life personally and professionally, really, because no one's guaranteed to live to 65 where you can quote retire. I always was just perplexed by people who were like, “Here's my career, and I can't wait till I have the right equation to equal when I can retire and then I can live.”
It's now. it's right now. This very moment. Live it out to the fullest because there is no guarantee. And I think the more people understand that and then, you go through those phases of just understanding where they are, and then what would they change? And then start working on how to change it.
I love how you spoke about evaluating what you're doing right now. And does it align with what you want to do? One of the exercises that I talk about in my book is understanding and gaining clarity, specifically, what you want to do.
So, pull out two pieces of paper. On one piece of paper, you're gonna go through each job that you've had throughout your career. What are three things that you loved about each of the roles that you've had? And you're gonna write that all down on one piece of paper. And on the other piece of paper, you're gonna write down three things you didn't enjoy about each job on your resume. And then take that piece of paper of all the things that you've enjoyed over each role that you've had within your career. And write a job description from it. That's exactly the type of job that you want when you look at your career and what you've enjoyed the most and take that exercise.
And then as you said, evaluate what your priorities are in your overall life. I always say, look at somebody's calendar, and I'll show you where their priorities are. If they're spending an immense amount of hours at work and they're only getting 30 minutes a day with their kids because they're working early morning in the evenings; they've got weekend conferences, which you and I have both been in that situation—taking a realignment kind of that gut-check and saying, “Looking at my calendar over the past three months, what would somebody say about my priorities? What's that perception? And does it align with where I want my priorities in my life?”
So taking those two exercises is really looking at what the possibility in the future looks like and it helps you gain clarity of what you want in your career and in your personal life.
I think that's great advice. The only thing I might add is, a lot of times I ask people about some of the similar things you just said, and their responses are like, “But I'm the breadwinner, I'm the person that, really needs to be responsible. I'm the only parent.” And those are all very important considerations, but what is the cost of not doing it? And I think we in today's society, people I've heard people say, “This is a stable job. I have insurance, I have this.” But you are seeing the number of layoffs that are happening, where people don't have control. I think this is a very unstable time, whether you're an entrepreneur or whether you're within a company, there's some unknown. It's really important, what you just said, but also being in alignment with—are you happy? Is it bringing you joy and are you spending time in the right places when you do that time audit that you recommended, which is an excellent recommendation? Because life is short you don't know even know how short it is. What's the cost of not making a change?
