More Impact, More Easily

4System four: Burnout

According to our research at BoldHR (the 2024 B‐Suite Benchmarks), the primary obstacle that prevents leaders like you from getting the impact you crave is burnout. One in three leaders experiences it, and middle managers experience it almost twice as much as executives and HR managers (who are often in charge of the solution). So, yes, you are doing it tough.

I've been there. When I was a middle manager, I worked exhausting hours, said yes to everything, had no idea how to push back on the workload, and then beat myself up for not being friendly and helpful at work — and that was before facing the pressures of being awesome at home too, and trying to look after my health, relationships and other responsibilities. No doubt this sounds pretty familiar. Really, is it any wonder that too many of us, male and female leaders alike, are burning out?

The common arguments about burnout generally fall into two camps — either, ‘It's you: do more yoga’ or, ‘It's your work: they are slave drivers’. The truth lies somewhere in the middle, with burnout triggered by a set of common factors but experienced in unique ways. The good news is that whether it is ‘you’ or it is ‘work’, you do have ways to control it. And it's important to start that work now, because learning to be a B‐Suite Leader with C‐suite impact while you're carrying the burden of burnout is not possible.

So, in this chapter, I help you to lighten your load. We'll look at what burnout is made of, particularly ...