The ONE Thing I Do When Burnout Creeps In

New leadership roles can come with a lot of excitement and an onslaught of challenges. One of the unfortunate side effects? You can be operating at the brink of burnout and not even realize it.

With every new role, you’re juggling more than just responsibilities on paper. You’re making more decisions. You’re navigating new dynamics in existing relationships or managing entirely new ones. And on top of that, there’s the quiet mental pressure of proving you deserve to be in the role in the first place.

I know this firsthand.

As someone who identifies as a high performer, ambitious with big, hairy goals, I used to believe I had to “work through it all.” I rarely saw leaders I admired talk openly about chasing big goals and resting. So, I pushed through until I couldn’t anymore.

It took years (and a stress leave) to unlearn those habits and redefine balance in a way that works for me.

These days, I know my signs of burnout:

• Overthinking every interaction from every meeting

• Working late daily to “catch up” but never actually feeling caught up

• Avoiding difficult conversations and utterly dreading any disagreements

Here’s the thing. As a founder and CEO of a growing startup, I work more than I ever did in any corporate leadership role before. I wear multiple hats and context-switch constantly. I’m hyper aware that I am more prone to burnout than I have ever been before.

So when I start to feel those signs creeping in, here’s the one thing I do:

I pause to get brutally honest about what’s draining me and I name it. This usually happens on paper. I will write and write, until I can actually name my stress on paper.

Not to fix it right away. Not to judge it. But to see it. To accept it.

Because if there is one thing I took away from my stress leave and therapy sessions is that these moments of ongoing microstresses - small, subtle stressors like a vague text from your mother-in-law while you’re in a meeting, or a peer venting at you every day, is stressful on your brain. On their own, they don’t trigger a full stress response. But they accumulate. Quietly. Relentlessly. And over time, they wear us down without us noticing.

So, I name mine. 😉 

Sometimes, it’s this. My social battery is at zero, and I feel pressured to “show up” when I just can’t. When that happens, I clear my social calendar.. completely. My friends know this about me. I fall off the radar for a week (sometimes longer), always with notice. That’s how I keep myself from going there… and by there, I mean burnt-out toast.

Or it might be a flood of meetings back-to-back with no room to breathe. In those cases, I’ll block off an afternoon labeled “do not schedule.” Not for anything fancy just for breathing room. Stillness. A mental rest day during my hectic work week.

That act of naming the stress, whether it’s a tough conversation I’m avoiding, a role I’m dreading to hire for, or a personal issue, it interrupts the pattern in my brain. It gives me just enough space for much needed clarity.

Burnout doesn’t always come in flames. Sometimes, it creeps in like fog.

And our power comes from learning to see it and act before it consumes us.

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“Taking a break can lead to breakthroughs.”

Russell Eric Dobd