The Hidden Path to Burnout: How Leaders Overlook the Warning Signs

For many busy leaders, burnout doesn’t announce itself with flashing lights and loud alarms. It sneaks up quietly, blending into the hustle and high-pressure of daily responsibilities. At least, that's how it happened to me.

Most leaders are so focused on results and supporting their teams that they fail to recognize the early signs that they're running on empty. By the time burnout becomes apparent, it often feels overwhelming. Again, that is exactly where I found myself a little over 8 years ago. And it took 2 1/2 years from there to actually admit where I was. And even then, I didn't want to face reality.

But the truth is, burnout has subtle clues, and paying attention to them can prevent long-term exhaustion or worse.

Here are just three signs of burnout that I ignored and I bet most leaders do to:

1. Constant fatigue and difficulty sleeping: Even when you get enough sleep, you wake up feeling drained, struggling to recharge after a long day. I used to sit on the edge of my bed after my alarm woke me up from a mere 5-hours of sleep, and force myself to get moving, to face another day.
2. Irritability and detachment: You might find yourself snapping at others or feeling emotionally distant, losing interest in tasks that once energized you. I remember snapping at one of my young nephews because he had accidentally stepped on one of my shoes. I look back now and I am shocked that I thought my shoes were more important than my nephew. To say I was irritable would be a significant understatement!
3. Declining productivity: Despite working longer hours, you’re accomplishing less and feeling increasingly frustrated by your inability to focus. I was working 16-18 hours each day and my to-do list was getting longer. In hindsight, my productivity was declining along with the quality of my work and the quality of my health.

Leaders often dismiss these signs as part of the job, pushing through in hopes of things improving on their own. However, my experience taught me this mindset actually accelerates burnout. I understand the cliche about "doing the same things over and over again is the definition of insanity". However, all I seemingly knew how to do was "work harder".

So, here's my Call to Action: It’s time to start recognizing and understanding these signs earlier. And here's the Silver Bullet....it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to recognize and understand the signs in your own life by yourself. You need someone to help show you, not only the signs, but also the changes you can make to get off the burnout path.

To get started:

~ Evaluate your work schedule and begin to prioritize tasks that truly matter. Before you can prioritize tasks, you will also have to identify the tasks that "truly matter" to you. So many of us work simply on the things we know need to be done. We seldom think about the things that truly matter to us.

~ Give yourself permission to pause and adjust your routines to maintain energy and mental clarity. This one you will really need help with because if you knew what to adjust, you would have already adjusted it. Correct?

~ Proactively manage your workload. I don't know about you, but I just did the work that came to me. And the more work I did, the more work came to me. However, I now know how and why it's important to take control of my workload and manage the expectations of myself and others.

~Invest in self-care. This is NOT an element of weakness. As leaders, we know that we need to invest in our people, our facilities, our equipment, our customers. So why then do we not believe we should invest in ourselves? I'm not talking about investment in training or books or an assistant. I'm talking about physical and mental wellbeing. I'm talking about taking care of yourself. I'm talking about eating right, exercising, getting enough sleep, doing things not connected with your work that you are passionate about.

These are all things I truly wanted and had no idea how to get them in my life. I needed help and you do too. None of us can see the forest because of all the trees! I enlisted the help of a couple mentors and also hired coaches to guide me.

If this is resonating with you and you want your life to be different, drop me a DM. I am happy to listen and give you some ideas on how to start your transformation.

Be well!