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Back from Hell

Guest post by: Merydith Willoughby

Article Overview: Back from Hell is semi autobiographical with anthologies and anecdotes and completes a trilogy. The book details a period in Merydith’s life when she had become seriously ill from years of working too many hours and not paying attention to her stress levels and where on a business trip her life came tumbling down. It identifies key techniques and processes she used that enabled her over a four year period to make a complete recovery without using licit or illicit drugs and without adhering to ‘labels’. Merydith works with senior leaders in government and corporate and sees many either burnt out or close to it and knows the impact that this has on the person and the business bottom line of any organization thus she has woven case studies, information on habit formation, neuroscience and other relevant leadership topics throughout the book.

Back from Hell

Merydith Willoughby had achieved her goal as an international organization development consultant and author and was in the process of taking it to the next level, when she was struck down. For some time it seemed likely that her goals and dreams would not be attained. This scourge brought her to her knees. She had no idea what was happening or how she would once again function as she had. For all of her adult life she had climbed her summits; paid close attention to her health and while having studied in many areas knew little about what unchecked, unmanaged stress levels could do to the long term health of a person.

Determined not to give in she implemented a pragmatic approach to her recovery and has been staggered to see just how long it has taken her to firstly gain knowledge about what kept pulling her into ‘black holes' and then to implement a plan that would see her determination once again come to the fore so that she could develop a key plan to recover. Four years down the track and after having been stuck in more black holes than she would like to remember, she views things quite differently. She has gained a new respect for her stress levels and learnt much about burnout.

Given that she is a fly on the wall and has confidential conversations with all levels of leaders and employees she is privy to information that most others are not, she sees with regularity how other leaders and employees are in the same boat as she was (but do not realize it). She believes that organizations and leaders need to be aware of burnout - what it looks like, the short and long term impact it can have on the organization (in many ways) and that as leaders we need to educate ourselves and those we lead about the dangers of unchecked stress levels. It is an issue that if left to fend for itself is likely to cost industry significantly.

The term burnout used in Back from Hell does not refer to people who are just tired and cranky; having a bad day or in need of a good, long rest or holiday. It is about people who have become ill (physically or mentally) from continuing to push themselves and there is no age that it affects specifically - anyone can become its victim.

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Article Tags: burnout, education, health, health problems, hell, point of no return, productivity, profits, qualitative, quantitative, stress
Referred by: http://www.imentor-pro.com



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