Executive coach shares experiences of surviving burnout in her latest book

Mind the Gap: A story of burnout, breakthrough, and beyond is an honest account of the experiences of executive coach Kelly Swingler.

The entrepreneur who led a prosperous people and change consultancy before starting her own coaching company in 2021 and supports professional women has put pen to paper to share her personal journey around burning out.

The books share Kelly's feelings, learnings and experiences around burnout in the hope that what she has learned can help others avoid making the same mistakes.

She says: “The more we refuse to switch off and ignore the signs of burnout, the wider the gap becomes, and when we fall down it, it can take months, even years before we are able to climb back out of it and get ourselves back to normal’.

“I learned the hard way and since 2013 I've been working to raise awareness about burnout, what causes it and what we can do to prevent it and recover from it."

Kelly has more than 20 years of experience working in HR, and was employed as HR director before leaving the corporate world. Her experiences led to her creating the world's first Wellbeing for HR Programme and her latest book follows previous titles, What’s Your Excuse For Not Overcoming Stress?, Agile Human Resources and How To Manage Your Career.

"This latest book isn't full of stats or data, it's an honest account of my experiences, and it's been the hardest book I've ever written, because of the emotions and the openness that I couldn't avoid sharing as I started to write," Kelly said.

Kelly recommends leadership strategies for supporting staff around burnout such as: 

• scheduling wellbeing days when needed.

• personal development days each month.

• team handbooks which are just a single page document (not a manual).

• a four-day working week to increase productivity and engender loyalty.

"What I came to realise after my burnout is that the way we are working isn't working,” she says. “How we are taught to define success is outdated, and yet it doesn't have to be this way. When we live and lead from our core, we can enjoy being successful on our terms and in our own way."

Mind the Gap is available to pre-order.