EP 106: Leadership Burnout Isn’t Failure - It’s Carrying Too Much for Too Long

It’s the first full week of the year as I record this episode - though you might be listening later in January, or honestly, any time you need a reset.

Either way: leaders always need a restart.

Not because we need more “leadership hacks.” Not because we need another system to manage the chaos.

But because so many leaders are carrying weight that was never meant to be carried long-term:

• mental burden

• emotional burden

• burnout disguised as commitment

• decision fatigue

• legacy habits we can’t seem to shake

• the quiet myth that “carrying it all” is leadership

This episode is a reframe.

Leadership maturity isn’t addition. It’s release.
It’s clarity, not accumulation.

And if leaders don’t stop carrying what costs them - their people, their performance, and their soul - we don’t just risk individual burnout. We risk a leadership exodus and weakened organizations.

The New Leadership Burden Isn’t “Just Busy”

We all feel it: too many demands, not enough time, and an expectation to hold it all together.

One statistic I read recently stopped me in my tracks: over 56% of leaders report burnout, and it’s rising year over year.

Whether that’s greater awareness or greater intensity (I think it’s both), here’s what I know from 20+ years of leadership and HR work:

Burnout is rarely a surprise. It’s usually the invoice.
The invoice for years of overextension, unspoken expectations, and identity fused to output.

And leaders, especially mid-level and senior leaders, are carrying a version of organizational strain that often goes unnamed.

When Exhaustion Becomes Identity

I look back at my own seasons as a COO, a VP, an HR leader… and I remember the things I said out loud.

“I work all the time.”
“If you love your job, you’re always on.”
“I worked 80 hours this week.”

I didn’t say it because it was funny.

I said it because I wanted something:

• affirmation

• credibility

• proof that I was important

• proof that the work was complex

• proof that I mattered

For a long season, I mistook exhaustion for commitment.

And I wanted others to recognize it, because I was building my worth on being needed.

That’s not leadership strength. That’s leadership risk.

Burnout isn’t resilience. It’s a red flag.

The Dangerous Lie: “I’m the Answer”

Here’s one of the most expensive leadership patterns I see:

Leaders become the answer to everything.

It looks like commitment.
It looks like competence.
It looks like “high capacity.”

But underneath it often creates:

• decision fatigue

• bottlenecks

• weakened leaders beneath you

• fragile systems that depend on one person

• a culture that quietly trains people to escalate everything

I’ve been there, inside companies and even early in my consulting work, where people came to me constantly. And I had to re-learn something:

My goal is not to be the answer.
My goal is to become the question.

Not as a gimmick. As a leadership posture.

Because true leadership isn’t having all the answers, it’s creating the conditions where the right questions drive action.

When Life Forces the Reset

In early 2025, my husband had a pulmonary embolism. It was terrifying. The first seven days were touch-and-go.

At the same time, I had the flu, and I hid it because I wanted to be with him.

Everything shut down.

Calendar cleared. Work paused. Life narrowed down to what mattered most.

And here’s the part that surprised me:

That pause did not damage my business long-term.

It changed my marriage.
It changed our health focus.
It changed my clarity.

But it didn’t break the business.

That moment exposed another lie leaders tend to believe:
“If I stop, everything collapses.”

Sometimes the organization isn’t as fragile as we fear.
Sometimes our identity is.

And I’ve lived a version of this before.

In 2019, a medical procedure turned into unexpected cancer-related testing, and ultimately a lumpectomy. I told very few people. Even when I finally told my team, I noticed something uncomfortable:

I thought I didn’t want to deal with their emotions.

But the truth was I wasn’t dealing with my own.

When you don’t pause long enough to feel what’s real, you also lose the capacity to lead humans through what’s real.

Delegation Isn’t a Skill - It’s a Leadership Discipline

Delegation is one of the clearest dividing lines between:

• leaders who sustain impact

• and leaders who slowly disappear into burnout

I read a stat that only 19% of rising leaders demonstrate effective delegation, and it’s one of the strongest linked skills to preventing burnout.

And I want to say this plainly:

Holding everything doesn’t make you indispensable.
It often makes you fragile.

I’m working with a client right now where one employee has become a major operational risk, because she holds the “heavy lift” knowledge and refuses to document, communicate, or share process.

That isn’t power. It’s fear.

And it creates hostage dynamics:

• for the employee (who feels replaceable)

• and for the company (which becomes dependent)

This is why leadership culture matters. When leaders treat people as interchangeable, people grip tighter. When leaders build trust and clarity, work becomes transferable—and people become freer.

If Your Leaders Are Burned Out, Your Pipeline Is Bleeding

A burned out leader doesn’t just struggle personally.

They unintentionally signal to everyone below them:
“This is what leadership costs.”

And the next generation is watching - and opting out.

Not because they lack drive, but because they’re unwilling to inherit dysfunction as the price of advancement. They want boundaries. They want mental well-being. They want leadership that looks like stewardship, not self-destruction.

We lead people - not outputs.

Stewardship of human beings begins with presence, not pressure.

If you want engagement, you cannot lead like tasks matter more than people.

Four Leadership Reset Decisions for This Year

This episode isn’t about piling on more. It’s about releasing what’s draining clarity and influence.

1) Stop wearing exhaustion as proof of commitment

Replace it with rhythms that protect clarity.

2) Stop shouldering every decision

Replace it with frameworks that build shared discernment.

3) Stop leading by doing

Replace it with enabling others—through delegation, tools, and structure.

4) Stop risking people for productivity

Replace it with cultures (at home and at work) that connect, trust, and empower.

When your calendar, your team, and your home are all running on last-minute urgency, you don’t just lose performance—you lose presence.

And presence is the first ingredient of sustainable leadership.

The Questions I Want You to Sit With

As you close this episode, whether you’re a founder, CEO, executive, or senior leader sit with this:

What’s one thing you’re carrying that your company, your spouse, your kids, or God never asked you to hold?
And how might releasing it unlock better leadership?

Because clarity grows in the space where we stop carrying what is stealing our clarity.

If you’d like to watch the full episode on YouTube, you can find it here. I’d love if you’d subscribe to my channel.

If You Need Framework, Not Slogans

If this leadership reset resonates, this is the work I do.

I help leaders design cultures where clarity trumps chaos, through coaching, speaking, and advisory support for companies navigating growth or reset moments.

If your team needs framework, not motivational posters, let’s talk about what a leadership reset experience could do for your organization.

You can reach me at hi@saltadvisors.com or connect through my site.

And if this episode made you think of someone who’s carrying too much, forward it to them.

Don’t waste the chaos, friend. Embrace it.