Carolon Donnally MSOD, PCC
& Founder
My Story
Burnout is not just a catch phrase, its a part of my journey too.
I learned about burnout the hard way. Fresh out of college I took a job that I loved, working long hours but enjoying every minute of it. I got promoted to management and loved that even more. Then one day, I was asked if I wanted to take another position. I said yes, ended up commuting 2 ½ hours each day, and came face to face with perhaps one of the worst seasons of my life. I came in early, worked late, and hardly had time to take lunch, much less a break. Everything was due yesterday. Overwhelmed, exhausted, and not sleeping, I was not able to concentrate on one thing because there were so many things. Honestly, I thought, “just suck it up”. “It’s just part of the way it is”. After a while, I found myself unable to keep going. I came to work but nothing got done. My boss noticed, got me a mentor to help me get the work done, and finally asked if I wanted to go back to management. I said, “yes”, thinking that a job change would surely fix the problem. It didn’t. One day, one of my employees came to me and said that he had developed a medical condition because of the stress that he had been under. He wanted to take some time off. I gave the typical caring response, “Wow, I am so sorry to hear that”. “Sure, just let me know how I can help” and that was the end of the conversation. I wasn't really equipped to deal with the problem properly and was too burnt out to have that conversation. I soon left that job and took 9 months off to recover. I would love to say that this was the last time that I had encountered burnout, but if I’m honest, I would say that I had to learn this lesson over again a few times before I got it right.
This experience birthed the desire to figure out a way to make it so that individuals, leaders, and organizations never experience this scenario. Over the last 20 years, I have honed my skills in organizational engagement, leadership development, leadership facilitation, leadership coaching, change management, and organizational consulting. As a professional certified coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation, I was the head of leadership coaching for one of the largest federal agencies in the US government. I earned a Master of Science degree in Organizational Development from Pepperdine University and have worked with organizations in France, Costa Rica and China to help improve organizational effectiveness, engagement and teamwork and morale. Burnout resistance is possible let me show you how.