We Tried It, We liked It — Compassionate Work Hacks

By Kristine Zeigler, CEO and Co-Founder, Planet Women

One of my favorite vacation moments: friendly burros free-wheeling through the town of Oatman, AZ.

I am refreshed, recharged, and rested after an epic and Covid-safe road trip with my husband across the Desert Southwest last month. We were fully vaccinated and I wanted to rest my eyeballs on a wide horizon.

But before hopping into our rental car, I was feeling depressed, resentful, cynical, anxious and negative. As the co-founder and CEO of a start-up and a member of the human race trying to stay motivated and on-guard against the highly contagious Covid-19 virus, I was drained. As the numbers of sick, dying, and dead climbed, I wondered if my lack of energy even mattered. At least my family was healthy.

Truth was I needed a real break from work. I had left one big job at a large organization for the CEO job at a small start-up. Though different in scale, the responsibilities were heavy and the demands constant.

But I’m grateful for what I have, I kept telling myself. I am so lucky to have a paycheck, I coached myself. My family is healthy, my friends who caught covid are healing. Do I really deserve a vacation when the pandemic is still raging? What is happening?

I was burning out.

Burnout, according to the World Health Organization, is defined as a syndrome conceptualized as chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy. Yep. I checked all those boxes.

Thanks to this compassionate work hack I narrowly avoided acute burnout at work. As a result, I can focus once more on family, work, and health. So here’s the hack we tried. And we really, really liked it.

~Kristine Zeigler, Chief Executive Officer, Planet Women

Compassionate Work Hack: Assign an acting leader when you go on vacation. Then really go on vacation. Do not check emails or attend meetings. Deal with your FOMO. Get over it.

How It Worked: One of Planet Women’s values is to “Share Power,” and so my co-founder Karen Poiani and I did just that. I designated Karen as Acting CEO for two weeks. She took all of my one-on-one staff meetings and helped onboard a couple of new team members to boot. She facilitated our Executive Team meeting and brought her own brand of insights to the group. She was available to sign any documents that might require a CEO or a Board Chair’s signature. She was at everyone’s disposal if they needed to problem-solve.

Why It Worked: Karen is a CEO herself, leading Island Conservation, so she understands what a CEO does and the team management involved. Karen is also the Chair of the Board of Planet Women and is familiar with our governance too. She has judgment and the ability to delegate. She is self-aware and knows when to intervene. If, God forbid, a tragedy struck any of our team members or partners, she would know what to do and when to communicate it to me.

Notable Moment: I felt guilty for a bit, especially the first couple of days. One of our leaders was planning and executing a big event with several panelists from around the world. I thought, “I should be helping, this event is a big deal.” But then I would counter that thought with, “I really deserve this down time. Karen is there.”

Unforeseen Benefits: Karen actually had fun doing the Acting CEO job! She had the opportunity to get to know the team better and to hear what they’re all working on. The team enjoyed learning from Karen, who is a diversity and inclusion expert and passionate about personality types and how to build teams based on psychological knowledge. They had so much fun talking about their types together, and learned even more about their teammates, an important activity given the team is entirely remote from each other, and some people have never met in person! Also, this hack offered developmental and growth opportunities for my colleagues.

Why It Could Fail: CEOs and leaders of departments often have trouble letting go and truly taking time off. Many CEOs go on vacation but still check email as though the business couldn’t possibly work without them. It’s a version of codependent behavior and a need to exert control that needs to change. But I get it. The guilt alone is tough to deal with, but which is better — a well-rested CEO who has energy or a resentful CEO who can’t think straight? This could also fail if the Acting CEO doesn’t have enough time to do it.

Tips to Make This Work at Your Organization: Pick someone you trust. Think about someone with CEO or leadership experience on your Board, who is efficient with their time. I’ve worked at organizations with executives from a range of industries including retail, tech, and consumer brands. And even if they’ve never run a nonprofit, they will bring insights and fresh perspective. Your employees will find it energizing, and your Board member will have fun learning more about an organization they already love.

Challenging Our Workaholic Culture: This vacation was not a luxury, pointed out Janet Nguyen, our Senior Vice President. Truly, it was a necessity to preserve my energy and motivation for the long-term. Yet as a society we tend to covet the workaholic behavior that is modeled by our senior leaders. We thrive on it. We are energized by it. We embrace it. Until the day comes when we simply can’t or don’t want to keep doing it anymore. Eventually, we run away from our job, our industry, our lives and then we start again and repeat the cycle somewhere else. We need to break this unhealthy cycle.

Bottom Line: Being truly disconnected as a senior leader sends a clear message that you trust and respect your team.

© Kristine Zeigler