Our leadership team is hitting their quarterly Rocks, but they are visibly exhausted and starting to show signs of burnout, which is trickling down to our middle managers. How do we balance driving high performance with protecting our executive team from burnout?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Driving high performance is essential, but a burned-out leadership team is a ticking time bomb. When your executive leaders are running on empty, their exhaustion inevitably trickles down, damaging morale and productivity across the entire company. To resolve this, you must step back and assess your capacity planning during your next quarterly session. First, look at your Rocks. A healthy leadership team should only focus on three to five priorities per quarter. If you have ten Rocks on the list, you are setting your team up for failure and burnout. Prioritize and eliminate the non-essential tasks so your leaders can focus on what truly moves the needle. Second, use the Delegate and Elevate tool with each member of your leadership team. Identify where they are spending time on tactical work that should be owned by middle management. If they do not have a strong team to delegate to, your priority must be hiring or training the next tier of managers to take off the operational pressure. Encourage your team to unplug completely outside of work hours, and lead by example. A cohesive and healthy leadership team is built on sustainable habits. By protecting their capacity, simplifying your goals, and ensuring everyone is operating in their unique ability, you will sustain high performance without sacrificing your team's mental and physical health.