What Lessons Can We Learn from Baltimore’s Key Bridge Accident?

This is such a pertinent question the week after a tanker crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to tumble.

This made me wonder about all sorts of issues.

Has anyone ever predicted, or known of a large ship colliding with any other structure, something like a bridge or say, an iceberg or another ship?

Uh, yes

Has anyone every perceived that the power would go out on a ship?

Um, I assume so.

Has this tanker ever had any other incidents?

Why, yes!

So why oh why was this disaster not anticipated so as to prevent this catastrophic loss of a major transportation artery, not to mention the devastating loss of human life? Why did this ship lose power and why was the incident not prevented?

How can you create more stability for your employees to withstand employee disruptions caused by burnout?

What if we were to put a well-being spin on our corporate cultures?

What are some steps we can take to create a people-first culture to enhance engagement and retain talent, all of which impact the bottom line?

Here are some of my top tips to prevent employee burnout.

• Cultivate a culture that values people by setting policies like disallowing off-time emails and requiring that every employee take at least one week of PTO annually.
•  Lead by example – role model valuing your own work-life balance so that others will follow. For example, participate in company well-being activities, be they healthy cooking challenges or step challenges.
• Show employees that you care about them by asking them questions and listening.
• Provide mentoring for all employees and especially more junior team members. This can be accomplished by the manager or a more senior member of the team.
• When planning a major change, garner buy-in from employees by engaging them in conversations about the change long before it has been decided. Take their opinions seriously and show appreciation for their engagement.

These are just a few of my top tips for preventing burnout.

More will be provided in my new book, Banish Organizational Burnout: 26 Tips for Managers, coming very soon.