How to Use Culture to Get Ahead and Stay Resilient

Being successful at work and avoiding burnout can sometimes seem like two conflicting goals. After all, doesn’t achieving success mean getting promotions? And doesn’t that mean working hard, perhaps even going above and beyond the job description? Not necessarily, experts say.

At GovLoop’s October 22 NextGen Summit, Sabrina Amjad, Founder of and Government Strategic Adviser at Vanbri Consulting; Dan Bradley, Director of Cyber Solutions Architecture at Booz Allen Hamilton; and Traci DiMartini, former Human Capital Officer at the Internal Revenue Service, discussed ways to reframe work and handle the inevitable burnout.

Culture as Change Agent

We’ll cut to the chase: The surest way to achieve success and feel inspired, not tired, is to look inward, Amjad said. That’s because the culture of the internal organization — employees’ sense of belonging and empowerment — goes a long way toward garnering external rewards.

“Most people don’t leave organizations because of pay,” she said. “They leave because they feel invisible, disrespected, maybe even unsafe sometimes. Culture decides who stays, who grows and who dares to lead.”

5 Ways to Strengthen Culture

1. Connect culture to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. At the foundation are basic physiological needs like food and water and safety. Those feed into love and belonging, which are about connection and a sense of community. The next level is self-esteem or self-worth, and at the top is self-actualization. That hinges on creativity, growth and purpose. “This is where we do our boldest, most courageous work,” Amjad said.
2. Choose to lead. “Leadership is really just courage in motion,” she said. It’s not about a title you earn; it’s about making a choice to be kind and inclusive, no matter your GS level.
3. Change your vocabulary. “In every high-stakes setting, your words can either trigger clarity or confusion, momentum or resistance,” Amjad said. Try this: Instead of asking why a job assignment is incomplete, ask how you can help make finishing it easier. Rather than checking a box when it’s done, say, “I saw how you handled that challenge. Thank you for staying with it,” she said. “What about focusing on the effort, not the outcome?”
4. Say yes to new challenges. “Look around for opportunities,” Bradley said. “Don’t pick a job that plays to your weaknesses. Take your strengths and do something new that leverages those strengths.”
5. Help others. A rising tide lifts all boats, so find ways to help your coworkers, Bradley said. “They know that you are the glue that’s making everything happen,” and that gets supervisors’ attention, he added.

Recharge Your Resilience

Despite your best efforts, burnout will happen. Resilience develops from how we adapt and recover from it. The key is to recognize when you’re feeling depleted and take action, DiMartini said.

“It’s very easy to mistake resilience for always having to be strong, and I do think that is when burnout happens,” she said.

3 Ways to Refuel

1. Give yourself a break. “Recognize it’s OK to step aside if you need to regroup and catch your breath,” DiMartini said. “Take time off when you need it because you will return refreshed. You will return with a better perspective, and, more importantly, the little things that eat into your resilience and don’t help you stay focused, they get rejuvenated.”
2. Ask for help. When her house burned down the day before she had scheduled a meeting of 150 teammates, DiMartini said she rallied her senior team to ensure that the day still went as planned. “You’re not alone,” she said.
3. Know this is temporary. When things feel chaotic, remember that it will change. “Trust and believe that you have that power to at least, at the end of the day, control your mindset,” DiMartini said. “Every one of us is going to have a setback in life, and you have to determine what you do with that setback.”

The experts acknowledged that navigating government work is especially tricky right now. With layoffs resulting from Department of Government Efficiency efforts earlier this year, continued reductions in force and now a government shutdown, motivation can feel out of reach. But at the same time, workers feel pressure to be indispensable. The result is a highly stressed-out workforce and the potential for burnout.

In fact, a poll of NextGen Summit attendees found that 17% said they are afraid to take time off work because of how long it will take to catch up, and 14% said, “I think I’m OK except my eyes keep twitching and I cry a lot.” That along with the 35% who said they occasionally feel stress is evidence of the current environment.

And it’s why resilience is so important. “Resilience…is every time you’re punched down, you get back up, and you get back up with purpose,” DiMartini said. Understand that what’s happening may not be normal and may not feel right, but it’s up to you to determine how you are going to navigate your way out of that.”

Register now for the next NextGen Virtual Summit.