Karen Morley - FlexAbility: How High Achievers Beat Burnout and Find Freedom in an Overworked World

Dr Karen Morley helps leaders get more impact with less effort. The global pandemic has increased the burdens on high-achieving leaders, and her focus is on helping leaders to reset the way they work. She helps leaders to challenge overwork, rediscover their purpose and rebalance their life to beat chronic stress and burnout.

Karen has held executive leadership roles and is also a self-declared high achiever; her approach is closely informed by these experiences.

Shes a registered psychologist and brings her fascination with emerging neuroscience and social psychology research to give leaders insight into what really works. She is deeply committed to making behavioural change easier and provides practical takeaways that leaders can readily turn into new habits.

Karen is an experienced executive coach working with leaders in organisations such as Allens, BHP, Broadspectrum, Bunnings, Commonwealth Bank, Coles, CSL, Downer, Essential Energy, Fulton Hogan, Guild Group, Hassell, Kmart, Latitude Financial Services, Lendlease, LOral, Medibank, Melbourne Water, Monash Health, NAWO, Officeworks, Orica, QBE, RACV, SBS, Target, TerryWhite Chemmart, the University of Melbourne and the Victoria State Government Departments of Education and Training, Health and Human Services, Justice and Community Safety, and Jobs, Precincts and Regions.

She is an Opinion Columnist with CEOWORLD magazine and an Honorary Fellow of the University of Melbourne.

It was impossible to imagine the profound impact COVID-19 would have on our lives. If there was a silver lining to the pandemic, however, it was that work practices would be fundamentally changed. After years of slow progress on making flexible work mainstream placing trust in workers that they would get their work done wherever and whenever they worked we looked set to take a quantum leap forward.

Early indications were that flexible, remote work was here to stay. While some parts of the economy have been ravaged by the pandemic, most have survived and some have thrived, and many have done so without workers needing to be in the office at all.

Now, a couple of years down the track, the great reset remains a hope rather than a reality. But it has exposed two things:

The issue is not whether its possible to work from home, it is leaders ability to trust that the work will get done.

Work demands are relentlessly increasing; this is now so routine as to be rendered invisible.

For people to excel in such an environment, they are compelled to overwork.

Its the prevailing work culture of overpromising, long hours and presenteeism that fuels the need for people to make sacrifices and trade-offs whether they be career-based, as was the case for Avery; family-based, as was the case for Marco; or health-based, as is the case for many. And as weve seen from all the leaders profiled in this book, the pandemic seems to have made this even worse. Working more hours in an environment of heightened uncertainty and anxiety has exacted a hefty personal toll: burnout has doubled.

To focus on the core of the problem means that workload expectations must be addressed. Without this, chronic stress and burnout rates will continue to exact their heavy, and unnecessary, toll. Whether or not youre at a senior leadership level with the power to change the work demands and culture of your organisation, there are improvements you can make.

Chapter 1 outlined the serious consequences including death of the chronic stress and burnout that overwork causes. The chapter also outlined what can be done to make work less stressful. It offered a series of tactics that any leader can implement to improve the working lives of their teams and make a meaningful difference to their day-to-day experience. Manage your own workload, stress and burnout well, and be a beacon of hope for others, that they too can do the same.

Chapter 2 outlined how to reset your purpose. Purpose is both inspiring and a critical weapon for increasing your flexAbility. When you know why you do what you do, you can hold firm against the erosion of work into your life and your freedom. You can set and pay better attention to maintaining your boundaries.

Being psychologically flexible is another superpower for increasing your flexAbility, and its core features were discussed in Chapter 3. Staying focused on what matters most can be a challenge without it. Thinking mindfully, feeling freely and learning openly will stand you in good stead against the daily whirlwind of too many competing demands.

The focus of Part II was on how to do the work that matters most. Its three chapters focused in turn on structuring your work to be more efficient and effective by playing to your strengths (Chapter 4), making time for deep, focused work (Chapter 5), and making your work routine effortless by reviewing and adjusting your habits (Chapter 6). The chapters are full of tactics and techniques to help you adjust your working day and improve the working days of your colleagues, wherever you and they are.

Chapter 7 provides an antidote to the demanding styles of influencing that fuel overwork, showing you how to be more influential by starting with warmth and taking care to understand others motivations. These styles, and the tactics introduced in Chapter 8, are all investments in trust and relationships, and they can help liberate you from overwork. Chapter 8 discusses how to establish the right kind of climate for delegation, and this is perhaps the most important chapter in the book: to prevent yourself from overworking you must delegate freely and rigorously. The more you can let it go and show your trust in others, the freer you can be.

Finally, in Chapter 9 the focus is on increasing your presence through mobilising and inspiring those around you while maintaining your own flexAble work practices. Create a wonderful, compelling story of your leadership flexAbility and inspire others to seek a healthy and successful life without overworks sacrifices and trade-offs.

Being a high achiever who is conscientious and agreeable is the essence of your success. Organisations and colleagues love high performers like you: you are the ideal worker. Youre switched on, hardworking and hold yourself to account youre prepared to do what it takes.

But this is also what can trip you up. If you dont pay attention to your own needs and energy levels, youll end up working too hard, trying too hard and caring too much. Time will feel like confetti, and despite working increasingly long hours to get it all done, you will feel unsatisfied. Chronic stress and burnout then loom, especially if you are particularly passionate about your work.

Ive had the enormous privilege of coaching the high-achieving leaders profiled in the book and many others like them and know that our organisations are indeed in good hands. When you are at your energetic best, working flexAbly and being purposeful, focused and influential, you provide the blueprint for our future world of work. You are the reset we need.

In a gentle way, you can shake the world. Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi

Use this book for yourself and within your circle of influence to help reset the work experience of your colleagues and the culture of your team. Work your way through the resets in this book, identifying where you would gain the most benefit, aligning your actions with your purpose as you go. Free yourself to be flexAble, to know what matters, do what matters and influence what matters most.

Lead Like a Coach