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From Overwhelmed to In Control: How Changing
Your Thoughts Changes Your Results
By Christine Simmons, Talent Management Leader & Certified Executive Coach,
WOW! Internet, TV & Phone, and C2HR Advisory Board Member
 As HR professionals, we spend our days supporting others through workplace challenges, career transitions and personal growth. Yet in our dedication to caring for our teams and organizations, we often neglect the most important person in our professional equation: ourselves. With 98% of HR professionals experiencing burnout in recent months and 95% finding their work overwhelming due to excessive workload and stress,* we must explore how understanding the cognitive behavioral model can transform not only how we support others, but also how we nurture our own well-being and professional resilience.
The cognitive behavioral model, pioneered by Aaron Beck in the 1960s and extensively validated through over 409 clinical trials, reveals a powerful chain reaction that shapes our daily experience: our thoughts trigger our feelings, our feelings drive our behaviors and our behaviors ultimately create the results we see in our lives. When we catch ourselves thinking, "I'll never get through all these open positions," that thought generates feelings of overwhelm and anxiety. These feelings then drive behaviors like procrastination, rushed decision-making or working late into the night. The result? Lower-quality hires, increased stress and, ironically, even more work to manage. By becoming aware of this cycle, we can intervene at the thought level before it cascades into unwanted outcomes. Instead of "I'll never get through this," we might reframe that thought to "I can prioritize and tackle these systematically," which generates feelings of control and clarity, leading to more organized and effective behaviors.
For practical self-care application, start with a daily thought audit during your commute or morning coffee. Notice recurring negative thought patterns about workload, difficult employees or organizational challenges. When you identify a problematic thought, pause and ask: "Is this thought serving me? What would I tell a colleague thinking this way?" Practice the "thought ladder" technique by gradually shifting extreme thoughts to more balanced ones rather than jumping to unrealistic positivity. Create a "thought emergency kit" with three go-to reframes for your most common stress triggers.
The benefits of managing your thoughts as an HR professional are significant: improved decision-making under pressure, reduced emotional reactivity during difficult conversations, enhanced credibility when coaching others through challenges, increased resilience during organizational changes and better work-life boundaries. Remember, as HR professionals, we model emotional intelligence for our organizations. By mastering our own thought patterns and practicing intentional self-care, we not only improve our own well-being but also demonstrate the very resilience and self-awareness we hope to cultivate in others.
*Research and statistics compiled from Workvivo, Gartner, National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and other industry publications.
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