[Alicia Davis] If you are a manager and you are experiencing perhaps a little bit of fatigue, overwhelm, or burnout… You know, we often think about things around self-care being helpful, and we also want to make a connection between “that might be happening because maybe you need to be setting some different boundaries.” And that’s what we want to talk about today, don’t we, Stacie?
[Stacie Watson] Yes, I agree that I think for folks who, and if you’re watching this, you might consider yourself a person that’s kind of hard-wired to think of others too, you know, center others in your work and in your personal life. And that’s wonderful. I always say that makes the world go round. And, of course, the challenges can also lead to moments or times where we feel exhausted and overwhelmed, and maybe even a little burned out. And one of the things that we know to be true is that oftentimes managers are the last people to say no. So they have the open door policy, or they continue to do the work they used to do in their prior role while they’re doing the work that is now part of their new role. And I just think it’s really helpful to think about what healthy boundaries might look like, in, you know, in the workplace, and to really think about it in terms of being curious as opposed to feeling like, well, it’s impossible to set the boundary, right?
[Alicia Davis] And we can also think about, you know, boundaries can be an internal process too, like, so let’s say you’re a manager, right, and you’ve got staff coming into your office, perhaps it’s a couple of people in particular, and they just always have lots of questions, or they’re having emotional reactions about things, and they’re needing support. You know, sometimes it can be about just inside of yourself saying, you know, what, like, couple of times, okay, and let me start asking some questions or let me try figuring out how to empower that person to be able to solve the problem without coming to me. And so, you know, part of that internal boundary then translates, right? So it’s like you, you need as a manager to be able to put some, put some parameters around your mental and emotional capacity, right? Like you can’t be available 24/7 365. So, part of it is maybe pausing when you feel that impulse to jump in, give advice, or just go do it yourself. And like you said, Stacie, ask a question, do something that’s really reinforcing so that the other person can feel a little more empowered to take that action for themselves.
[Stacie Watson] Yeah, that’s right.
[Alicia Davis] And we’ve got a session coming up in our Learning Academy on Navigating Healthy Boundaries with Staff and it’s on August 20th. We’d invite you to check it out at Academy.TLStransforms.com. I’m Alicia Davis.
[Stacie Watson] I’m Stacie Watson.
[Alicia Davis] And we are the founders and coowners of Transformative Leadership Strategies where we do all things that are training in team building for managers and staff, especially in nonprofits. So, thanks so much for listening.
[Stacie Watson] Thank you.
