“You always have 20% of the people doing 3x more than their share of work. Protect those people.” IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva on preventing burnout

On LinkedIn’s video series, This is Working, I sit down with top figures from the world of business and beyond to surface what they've learned about solving particular problems.

This week, my guest is the International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva.

Whenever there's an emergency — from a war to a public health emergency — an economic crisis always follows. Enter International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, responsible for protecting the financial stability of 190 countries. When governments teeter on financial collapse, Kristalina is the one on speed dial.

For the past three years, we've seen crisis after crisis — a global pandemic, war in Ukraine, and skyrocketing inflation and interest rates — and the IMF has been found itself putting resources everywhere. Such relentless pressures can drive any team to exhaustion. The IMF witnessed 30% attrition since the start of the pandemic, with the intensified workload as one of many reasons for this significant dip in personnel. Since then, they have replenished those roles and added another 10% to help with the workload.

Workplace exhaustion can impact nearly every aspect of our workflow: decreased productivity, lowered morale, reduced quality of work, impaired decision making, and if it goes on long enough, health issues.

So how does one, especially someone at the helm, prevent a burnout in such intense environments? Kristalina implemented three specific measures to curb burnout at the IMF. She advocated “discipline of doing what is a must, not what is good to do,” added “recharge” periods for her team, and looked hard at where burnouts were happening.

“In a big organization, you always have 20 percent of the people doing three times more than their share of work,” Kristalina told me. “It's always like this. Protect these people.”

/Here’s my takeaway. The remedy to burnout includes several factors. Kristalina's recipe for success involves prioritizing self-care, building a trustworthy team, and most crucially, being driven by a genuine passion. Recognizing the purpose behind the stress makes the journey less daunting. 

And when you're out of the crisis and just focused on you, remember that only you are in charge of where you go. “Believe in yourself,” Kristalina says. “If anybody was to tell me when I was living on the other side of the Iron Curtain that I would be the managing director of the IMF, I would have laughed my head off. Believe that you can get to a place where you flourish, where your talents are fully deployed.”

“Second, to be very blunt, bust your butt. That doesn't fall from the sky. You have to work really hard, have always stepped up to whatever challenge is presented.”

Whether you're managing international financial crises or just navigating daily challenges, Kristalina’s mantra can be a game-changer. Remember, the journey can be tricky, but with the right frame of mind and the right team, every step will be worth it. 

What can leaders do to boost their workforce in times of crisis? Got questions you want to hear our This is Working hosts ask? Share a post or comment on LinkedIn using the hashtag #ThisIsWorking, or drop us a line. You can reach us at ThisisWorking@LinkedIn.com.

You can dive deeper into Kristalina's insights on our #ThisIsWorking podcast with my co-host Nina Melendez Ibarra . We’ll unpack Kristalina’s advice in the art of effective crisis management and how to lead a multicultural team. Subscribe to the This is Working newsletter here: LinkedIn.com/ThisIsWorking

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