3 Tips For Leaders To Avoid Burnout During Stressful Times

By Heather Cherry—

Leaders are burned out—especially women. Over half of women in leadership positions say they feel burned out consistently. And women are more likely to suffer from burnout than men at a rate of 32% to 28%.

The McKinsey & Company 2022 study, Women in the Workplace, suggests this is because women leaders are overworked and under-recognized. “Compared to men at their level, women leaders do more to support employee well-being and foster diversity, equity, and inclusion—but are not formally rewarded in most companies,” according to the study.

The study continues, “Spending time and energy on work that isn’t recognized could make it harder for women leaders to advance. It also means that women leaders are stretched thinner than men in leadership; not surprisingly, women leaders are far more likely than men at their level to be burned out.”

Additionally, consistent overwhelming feelings can quickly lead to burnout—a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress—and impact your cognition. Being constantly overwhelmed can cause symptoms like mental fog, forgetfulness, confusion, difficulty concentrating or thinking logically, a racing mind, or an impaired problem-solving ability.

Here are three tips leaders can use to avoid burnout during stressful times.

Establish Boundaries

Being a leader often accompanies a long list of obligations, tasks, and meetings. While these to-do lists are often necessary, they can also be exhausting and emotionally draining.

Avoid overextending yourself by setting boundaries for your time and workload. Boundaries are essential to mental wellness. They help you:

• Build self-esteem
• Identify your values and beliefs
• Focus your well-being
• Avoid burnout
• Develop independence
• Create a greater sense of identity

Establishing boundaries requires self-awareness and understanding your limits.

1. Identify what is essential. When you think about the situation, what comes to mind—how does it make you feel? Use these insights to inform the goal of setting (or needing to set) a boundary.
2. Prepare for pushback. When you set boundaries, you'll likely receive some pushback. This is especially true if others disagree with your boundary. Start with small boundaries and consider what may happen if you say "no" to something? For example, what would your colleagues say if you declined a meeting invite?
3. Be clear. A boundary is only effective if it is consistently shared. Express your limits as clearly and precisely as possible. For example, if you think starting a new project can wait, share this information as simply as possible with a brief explanation of why and state the facts — try to avoid getting emotionally charged.
4. Avoid guilt. Setting healthy boundaries is essential to self-care, and it should not accompany guilt. If you’re feeling guilty for the boundary you’ve set for yourself, consider why that might be happening and what that can tell you about the situation.

Set Realistic Goals

As a leader, you are accustomed to goal setting—from professional to personal and health. But setting unrealistic goals can lead to overwhelm, stress, and increase your chance of burning out.

According to experts, goal setting should be more than creating a target or objective — goals are more about accepting the sacrifices required to achieve them. "Most goal-setting exercises start with questions about what success looks like and what you want to achieve. But if we are serious about achieving our goals, we should start with a much different question," says James Clear, author of Atomic Habits. "Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment. Rather than considering what kind of success we want, we should ask, "What kind of pain do I want?"

Clear continues, "Goal setting is not only about choosing the rewards you want to enjoy, but also the costs you are willing to pay. We think we need to change our results, but the results are not the problem. What we really need to change are the systems that cause those results. When you solve problems at the results level, you only solve them temporarily. To improve for good, you need to solve problems at the systems level — fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves."

Here's how to set realistic goals.

• Prune your goals: It's not a matter of more time or fewer to-dos, but more so selecting what matters. Choose one goal to make the most impact and ruthlessly eliminate the others.
• Stack your goals: You are three times more likely to stick to your goals if you make a specific plan for when, where, and how you'll achieve them. This tactic is known as implementation intentions or habit stacking. "Habit stacking works well because you not only create a specific plan for when and where you will implement your goals, but also link your new goals to something you are already doing each day," Clear says.
• Up your goals: When most people set goals, they go for the minimum — reaching the minimum is a good milestone measurement at the beginning since showing up is important to build the habit. But sustaining goals for the long-term and avoiding burnout requires reaching for the "upper limit." For example, I want to make at least ten sales calls today, but at most, 20. "Upper limits make it easier for you to sustain your progress and continue showing up," Clear says.

Practice Self-Care

Setting boundaries and realistic goals are significant to avoiding burnout, but it can still happen if you don't manage your stress. "When we experience stress for an extended time without being able to alter, change, or ameliorate it, we can begin to feel empty, numb, devoid of motivation, hopeless, and beyond caring," says Robert Ciampi, LCSW therapist, and author. "A person can get so burned out they become apathetic about everything, including self-care, which could lead to serious illness."

Having healthy self-care routines and habits helps reduce stress and replenish your energy. Self-care also supports your productivity, increases feelings of happiness, empowers your decision-making, and improves your mental, physical, and emotional well-being.

Here are some ideas to get started.

• Physical: A huge part of self-care is understanding the connection between your mind and body—intellectually and experientially. Practice physical self-care by building a rest routine, integrating 20-minute breaks into your day. Movement is also important—take time for short bouts of walking or stretching and get outside if possible. Studies show that only 10 minutes spent outdoors can significantly decrease physical and mental stress. Lastly, consider how your food makes you feel and aim to eat foods that help you feel better.
• Emotional: Being a leader can be heavily emotional. Practice self-care by being honest about your feelings. Use mindfulness or journaling to reflect compassionately, offering yourself grace for whatever you may discover.
• Mental: Mental self-care is more than stepping away from work — it requires prioritizing your time and doing things you enjoy. Take time to engage in activities that bring you joy, pursue a new hobby, or explore a new activity. Always check in with yourself about how you feel afterward.

Being a leader requires you to take care of others. And taking care of yourself should also be a priority—not an afterthought. "It is precisely when we're feeling stressed and overwhelmed that we would most benefit from slowing down to think big, innovate, and solve the problems that are stressing us out," says leadership coach Palena Neale, Ph.D.

Heather Cherry is a freelance health and wellness writer and content marketing coach. She helps businesses create strategic, creative, and conversational messages as well build effective content teams. She has been published in Sleepopolis, SELF, Insider, and author of Market Your A$$ Off.