This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

A manager under sustained pressure is solving three problems at once, and is usually trained for none of them.

Not burning out. Not letting the team burn out. And continuing to make decisions with fewer resources than the situation requires.

Why "look after your people" is not advice

Burnout is treated as a personal stamina problem, so the response is a wellbeing benefit rather than a change to the conditions producing it. The line manager has more influence over their team's stress than anyone else in the organisation and has received no training in it. Nobody measures any of this until someone resigns, at which point it is described as a surprise.

Meanwhile the manager holding this together is exhausted too, has no language for saying so, and is expected to model the calm.

Understanding the mechanism, then the self

Thirty-eight lessons. Six on how stress and burnout are actually produced at work: what the research shows, the difference between the two, the organisational factors driving each, the disproportionate role of the line manager, training managers to handle it, and a pulse survey system so the problem is visible before it is acute.

Then eight on emotional intelligence, because a leader who cannot regulate themselves transmits the instability instead of absorbing it: resonance, energising rather than draining people, recovery, self-awareness, empathy-based coaching, the ideal self, shared vision, and how a person genuinely changes.

Crisis decisions, wellbeing and the craft

Then six on leading through a crisis — hiring when everyone knows the situation, cutting cost without losing the people you need, developing capability with no money, making redundancy decisions defensibly, communicating news nobody wants, and restoring a sense of safety afterwards, which takes considerably longer than the crisis did.

Then six on wellbeing as a designed system rather than a benefits line: the classical model and why it stopped being enough, cultural audits, behaviour change and nudges, and evaluating impact rather than participation.

Then six on your own time, because a leader with no slack has nothing to give anyone. And six on leadership as a craft: styles and when to switch, motivating through a task, the stages of team development, handling team burnout, coaching, and holding standards without micromanaging.

Who is teaching this

Mike, the number one HR instructor on Udemy. More than 1.6 million course enrolments, over 150,000 professionals trained, PHRi and SHRM-CP certified, HRCI representative in more than 10 countries. I built the people function of the unicorn Preply and worked at Wargaming, Alfa-Bank and iDeals, including through the conversations where the news was bad and I was the one delivering it.

This is a professional development course, not medical or psychological treatment. If you or someone on your team is currently in crisis, please involve a qualified professional.

What is included

• Lifetime access to all course materials

• Active instructor support in the Q&A section

• Udemy Certificate of Completion

• Practical assignments and real business cases

• A section with additional courses, tools and resources

Where to start

Ask three people on your team what part of the work drains them most, and listen for conditions rather than tasks. Then ask which of those conditions you personally control. Most managers find at least one, and it is usually something they had assumed was fixed. Enrol now and start the first lesson today.