David Irvine: Authentic Leadership Academy

A Blog Post about leadership, burnout and true self-care:  David Irvine:

My massage therapist claims that social workers are the most stressed profession he works with. While not peer-reviewed research, we know the work of helping people is stress-inducing.

From my observation, there are three factors that extenuate stress in the helping profession.

1. The wounded healer paradox. The capacity to reach others in pain comes, in part, from our own suffering. Living through our pain and trauma opens our compassionate heart, but paradoxically blinds us to the importance of self-care. Thus, our capacity to reach others becomes both a gift and a curse.
2. The tyranny of the transactions. Social work, like all professions, contains both transactional and transformational expectations. Most come to this profession from a desire to impact and change people’s lives. But if we aren’t intentional and deliberate, administrative demands can squeeze out what truly matters in this work: making connections, building relationships, and transforming lives.
3. Disconnection from your authenticity. People-helpers generally have an orientation toward others. We are more apt to know what others need, while we readily negate our own needs and lose connection to the yearnings of our heart. Burnout is not about hard work; burnout is about heart ache. It’s the difference between “bad” tired and “good” tired. Reconnecting to our authentic self becomes paramount in the healing and self-care journey. As we rediscover our authenticity, we begin to discern what is essential and eliminate everything that is not. Self-care isn’t necessarily about doing what is soothing or comfortable; it’s about creating a life you don’t need to escape from.

To respond to these challenges:

1. Start by looking within. Renewing the culture of your agency starts with transforming yourself. Learning to deal with your own exhaustion begins the healing journey. You can’t take people where you haven’t been.
2. Share this article as a catalyst to create conversations in your team meetings. How are people dealing with exhaustion? How can we best support and strengthen each other?
3. Take time daily to quiet your mind and listen to the voice within, away from the tyranny of the urgent demands of others.
4. Step back to get perspective and re-evaluate your life as you discover your authentic leadership. Remember that harmony with others starts with harmony within ourselves.
5. Distinguish between necessity and fulfillment. “Necessity” are demands from the important stakeholders in your life. “Fulfillment,” on the other hand, comes from within - a deeper “knowing” of what is most important, and living your life in accord with that inner voice. Living authentically leads to an undivided life of deep satisfaction and subsequent renewal.
6. Immerse yourself in an authentic community, with people who support and hold you accountable to stay connected with your heart.

As leaders, we have an enormous capacity to impact people’s lives. Let’s commit to a conscious, systematically disciplined approach to leadership and life that helps realize that capacity and all that comes with it.

If you are committed to discover and develop your authentic leadership, consider joining our Authentic Leadership Academy in November. We are once again working in partnership with the University of Calgary, Faculty of Social Work and offer two sessions of the Academy: in-person or virtual.

If you want to build cohesiveness and commitment with your team, bring them along.

David Irvine is a former social worker, best-selling author, and global speaker. He'll be offering his Authentic Leadership Academy, specifically tailored to support social work leaders to connect with their authentic selves and become better and more effective leaders, this fall, in-person and on-line.

In-Person Academy – Nov. 14 – 17, 2023, (UCalgary Campus)
Virtual Academy – Nov. 28 –  Dec. 1,