I was listening to a podcast yesterday and something the guest said made me pause. They suggested that burnout can often be a result of a lack of vision. Not an overload of tasks and too much pressure. But vision.
The more I have contemplated on this, the more it makes sense.
Think about building a deck. You plan it, source the materials, spend hours measuring and cutting and hammering. It’s physically exhausting. Your back aches, your hands are sore, and there are moments when you question why you started this whole project. But when it’s finished, you sit there with a cold drink, looking out at what you’ve created, and it feels worth it. You keep going outside to admire your handiwork.
Now imagine the same process, but with a different ending. Imagine you’re building that deck knowing that the moment you finish, it’s going to be demolished. Same work, same effort, same aching muscles. But completely different feeling.
Would you still put your heart into it? Would you still feel energised by the challenge?
Probably not. It would just feel like wasted effort. A burden.
This is what Daniel Pink talks about when he identifies purpose as one of our three core motivators, alongside mastery and autonomy. We need to feel like what we’re doing matters. That it’s building towards something.
Look at parenthood. The sleepless nights, the constant demands, the sheer exhaustion of raising children. No one would argue it’s easy. But parents keep going because they have a vision. They’re raising a happy, capable adult. That vision makes the hard moments bearable, even meaningful.
Or think about business owners. The extra hours, the financial risk, the stress. It’s a lot. But they’re driven by a vision of something they’re building, something that reflects their values and ambitions. That vision fuels them through the tough days.
Without vision, all of that effort would feel like drudgery.
And this is where it gets interesting when we think about our teams.
I came across something recently that really brought this home. Scottie Scheffler, one of the world’s best golfers, was reflecting on his career. These weren’t comments made right after a win, but in a quieter moment between tournaments. He said something that struck me:
“This is not a fulfilling life. It’s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it’s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart. That’s something that I wrestle with on a daily basis. It’s like showing up at the Masters every year, it’s like why do I want to win this golf tournament so badly? Why do I want to win the Open Championship so badly? I don’t know because, if I win, it’s going to be awesome for two minutes.”
He went on to talk about how winning feels incredible, you get to hug your family, celebrate, and then life just goes on. You wonder what’s for dinner. The moment passes. He works his whole life for these brief celebrations, and sometimes he just doesn’t understand the point.
He finishes with this: “If I come in second this week or if I finish dead last, no matter what happens, we’re always on to the next week. That’s one of the beautiful things about golf, and it’s also one of the frustrating things, because you can have such great accomplishments, but the show goes on.”
What he’s describing isn’t burnout from overwork. It’s burnout from a lack of deeper purpose. He has goals, plenty of them. But goals and vision are not the same thing.
Goals are the benchmarks. The things you tick off. The tournaments you win. The production targets you hit. The number of new patients you see.
Vision is the bigger picture. The reason those goals matter. The impact you’re making. The legacy you’re building.
And here’s where this connects to your dental practice.
Many practices have goals that the team is aware of. Monthly production targets, patient retention rates, new patient numbers. That’s all important. But how many practices have a clear vision that the team is actually connected to?
And even more importantly, how many of your team members are aware of their own personal purpose? Their own deeper why?
We run team building events to get everyone on the same page, and that’s valuable. But is it enough? Or is there something deeper we could be doing?
Imagine if your team members weren’t just showing up to tick off tasks, but were genuinely connected to a bigger vision. If they knew that what they did each day mattered, not just to the practice, but to their own sense of purpose and fulfilment.
That kind of alignment can transform a workplace.
It can reduce absenteeism, because people don’t want to let down something they care about. It can increase energy, because the work feels meaningful. It can boost engagement, because people aren’t just going through the motions, they’re contributing to something that matters to them.
So if your team is complaining of burnout, it might be worth looking beyond the workload. Yes, that matters. But maybe the real question is: do they have a vision to work towards? Do they understand the bigger purpose behind what they’re doing each day?
And do they know their own?
Because when people are driven by a deep awareness of their purpose, when they can see how their daily efforts connect to something that truly matters, they don’t just survive the hard days. They find meaning in them.
If this kind of deeper work with your team resonates with you, Charles Kovess, Australasia’s Passion Provocateur, specialises in helping teams access this exact thing. He works with people to discover and connect with their passion and purpose. You can learn more at charleskovess.com or reach out to him directly at charles@kovess.com to discuss how this work might support your practice.