Burnout was recently identified as the most common workforce challenge by leaders of Inc. 5000 companies, highlighting its critical impact on leadership burnout and organizational health.
LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE: “I’m struggling to get motivated and do the hard things I need to be doing. I’ve recently taken a break but still feel the same. How can I get my mojo back?”
Quick Summary:
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- Burnout symptoms are less physical, but instead reduce Empathy, Hope, and Self-Belief
- Four primary contributors to burnout are Over-Caring, Lack of Appreciation, Not Working to Your Strengths, and Effort Without Progress.
- A more recent contributor I’ve witnessed is the need for a Restoration of Hope and Agency
Go Deeper:
I recently shared The CEO’s Guide to Imposter Syndrome and mentioned leadership burnout as a significant but hidden contributor. I encourage you to read that too, if you’re experiencing Imposter Syndrome.
Leadership burnout is common and frequently undetected. Most articles written for leaders on burnout talk about how to prevent it in their organization, but rarely in themselves.
There are two recurring reasons leadership burnout goes undetected.
The first reason is denial. Many leaders don’t want to admit they’re experiencing burnout because they don’t realize how common – and truly reversible – it is. However, leadership burnout is a blessing when we learn from it and harness solutions.
In my work, I use leadership burnout as a springboard for that leader’s future peak performance, using evidence-based coaching psychology. Understanding your own burnout can lead to huge breakthroughs, and I recommend you use this opportunity to learn what you truly need to lead sustainably – and what needs to change.
The second reason leadership burnout goes undetected, is that most leaders imagine it as a physical problem, however, it is not. The impact of leadership burnout is more often mental and emotional. Here’s how to recognize it:
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- Irritability and impatience
- Loss of empathy
- Cynicism
- Feeling trapped
- Feeling worthless
- Disillusionment
- Resentment
- Self-doubt
- Vituperativeness
Leadership burnout is often an underlying cause of Imposter Syndrome, and frequently one of the first things to be remedied in bringing out your best. You wouldn’t drive your car with a flat tire, and I do not recommend you tolerate leading with burnout.
You may think the answer is to put on your “game face” and power through. However, “self-presentation”, a.k.a. faking it, is one of the most depleting things you can do and perpetuates the cycle of burnout. I write more about the impact of self-presentation here in Authentic Leadership: The Hidden Cost of Faking It. So, while that may appear to be a solution, it’s not enough.
Working with burnout is hard enough. Leading with burnout is way tougher.
The primary causes of leadership burnout are:
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- Over-caring, including loss of perspective
- Lack of Appreciation
- Not Working to Your Strengths or Operating Below Capacity, and/or
- Sustained Effort Without Progress (often due to poorly designed goals)
- A more recent contender is also the feeling of a Loss of Agency (control over outcomes)
Let’s dig into the causes in order to address the problem effectively:
OVER-CARING: The Most Common Cause of Leadership Burnout
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- To what degree are you caring appropriately versus over-caring, where your identity is your role, and the rest of your life has tumbleweeds blowing through it? This is something I see most frequently with founder CEOs.
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- Over-caring includes a certain element of neuroticism, that can surface when everything feels so critical. It’s not unusual for me to coach leaders whose excessively high standards were initially preventing their success, rather than fueling it.
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- If you’re over-caring you’ve likely lost perspective. “Perspective-taking capacity” is a critical skill when leading through complexity, and compromised by insufficient distance, time, or recovery. Incessantly keeping your nose to the grindstone will reduce your awareness and lead to burnout. For this reason, I’ve noticed the leaders I coach who read history, navigate challenge and disruption more easily. Readers of history, and leaders who have a faith of any kind, are those that most easily maintain their sense of perspective.
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- Regular vacations won’t hurt, and can sometimes be the solution, but even that depends. Beyond that, I recommend asking, ‘What restores me?‘ For some leaders, it’s having external conversations that broaden their thinking. Others benefit from learning deeply or spending time with family or alone. Whatever your needs, putting restoration habits and structures in place will invariably require a greater focus on recovery than you’re likely giving yourself. Periodic “psychological detachment” such as disconnecting on weekends will help you, and those you lead, work at your best. I’ll talk more about that in future in Leadership and Peak Performance.
LACK OF APPRECIATION:
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- I spoke to a CEO recently who’s experienced just one expression of appreciation, from a board member, in the last year. And it made a difference. As Mark Twain once said, “I can live for two months on a good compliment”.
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- You’re likely grinding things out feeling that no one notices or cares – or even criticizes or judges what you have done or are yet to do. If you’re leading an organization and expecting appreciation to come from above, you’re essentially screwed. Studies done on burnout show that appreciation from any direction is just as impactful, so think about how you may like to build this across your organization as a structure. I’ll hazard a guess that if you’re experiencing leadership burnout, your organization is too. If you want to get the most from your leadership team and organization, appreciation works. And for the record, the happiest spouses are those that feel most appreciated. Something to think about, if you’re wanting to hold things together at home.
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- Acknowledging your own progress helps. Pay attention to progress and celebrate where possible. You can’t get everything done in one day, one week, one quarter, but you’re likely always moving forward. Don’t lose sight of that and give yourself some credit. I’m thinking of a leader who put in place an evening habit of asking himself, what were three things he did well that day, and what was one thing he learned. Small, consistent habits like this make a difference over time.
NOT WORKING TO YOUR STRENGTHS OR OPERATING BELOW YOUR CAPACITY:
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- Many people unwittingly build their careers on what depletes them. Do you know what your intrinsic strengths are; what is energizing versus depleting? Would that be valuable to know? If you’re experiencing leadership burnout, it is likely you are not working to your strengths.
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- Knowing and using your intrinsic strengths will energize you, which is why I include strengths in helping CEOs create their own leadership philosophy and approach. Also, one would think operating at a level below your actual ability would make you feel better about yourself, but the reverse is true. Under-functioning diminishes self-esteem and fosters leadership burnout. So, you may like to ask yourself if you’re operating at the right level, or whether it’s time to step back and up. Confidence comes from doing what scares us.
SUSTAINED EFFORT WITHOUT PROGRESS:
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- “Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing.” The effort we expend on doing is returned to us on completion of the task. This provides the energy to start and complete the next thing. Too many open loops are enormously depleting, lead to massive leadership burnout, and damage individual and organizational integrity, which I will write about in Leadership and Integrity.
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- Sustained effort without progress can also stem from other things, e.g. economic conditions, new competitors, talent gaps, attrition, confusion, the pursuit of product-market fit, scope creep, perfectionism, etc.
- Three culprits I see repeatedly in exhausted organizations are a lack of completion, the pursuit of inappropriately ambitious goals, as well as too many goals at any given time. The three are normally entwined. I’ll write more about this in future on Leading to Increase Hope, including how to right-size goals according to the teams you have. And I will also write on how the secret to doing it all is not doing it all now in a future article on How to Reduce Organizational Overwhelm. If these topics resonate, connect with me on LinkedIn to see future articles shared over the coming weeks.
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- I’ve noticed more recently a drop in a sense of agency in some leaders, related to the multifarious changes we are all experiencing in this already VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) and increasingly BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Non-Linear, and Incomprehensible) world. This will also be addressed in my future article on Leading to Increase Hope.
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- Hope can be deliberately cultivated and harnessed in organizations, and I will share how leaders often inadvertently decrease hope, and how to recognize this and turn it around for yourself and your organization. Solutions are at hand – and they are quite simple.
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- As happiness is directly correlated to the amount of control we feel we have over our lives, focusing on what you can impact is critical and will return a sense of agency. Periods of uncertainty are best navigated by instigating optimal habits, for yourself and your organization. Controlling what you can control is key, while simultaneously bringing a sense of acceptance, forethought, and preparation for what you cannot.
Finally, leadership burnout is created and sustained by certain default beliefs. We all have default beliefs about ourselves and the world, for example, I am not enough, I am not safe, I need to have control, I need to know, etc. The important thing is to know what your default beliefs are and manage them, which I will address in future. For now, if you are experiencing any leadership burnout, what would you say is your default belief, for better or worse? And what is the impact of that belief on your organization? Don’t fight it. Just recognize it, and observe where it shows up for you.
My motive is to help you recognize leadership burnout, understand the likely contributors, and find solutions – and opportunities – for yourself and your organization. Leadership burnout is a topic I’m passionate about and will write on again, as I continue to notice additional trends.
On that note, it is time for me to complete.
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I work with CEOs who are ready to explore what’s beneath the surface – and lead with consistent energy. When you’re ready, I’m here. Request your consultation →
This guide reflects Katherine Hosie‘s CEO Coaching observations developed over two decades at Powerhouse Coaching. Based in Greenwich, CT | 12 years in San Francisco & Silicon Valley | CEO Coaching nationally.
