Leadership Horizons

From Burnout to Breakthrough

• Lois Burton • Episode 42

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Leadership shouldn’t feel like driving with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. When uncertainty stacks up and decisions never stop, your nervous system stays on high alert and your best thinking goes offline. We unpack what burnout really is—biology, not a character flaw—and show how to reclaim clarity, energy, and courage without sacrificing results.

We start by breaking down what chronic stress does to the brain: the prefrontal cortex dims, the amygdala takes over, and judgment slips just when stakes are highest. From there, we get practical. Lois shares three proven strategies she uses with senior leaders across industries.

First, map your pressure zone and find the tipping point where productive pressure turns to harmful stress; then design your calendar around your nervous system with buffers after big meetings and protection for peak-focus windows. 

Second, build strategic recovery into the day using micro reset rituals like two minutes of breathing, brief walks, and a 90-minute cadence to stand, stretch, and reset—habits that also set a healthy tone for your team. 

Third, redefine what truly matters by selecting three core outcomes for the next six months, practicing brave no’s, and escaping the perfection trap so your effort concentrates where it counts.

You’ll hear a candid story of a respected executive who lost her spark and found it again by honoring her biology and choosing what matters. Expect clear language, zero fluff, and steps you can implement today to lead smarter, not harder. 

If you’re ready to trade hustle for sustainable performance, this conversation gives you a simple, science-backed starting point.

If this resonated, subscribe, share with a leader who needs it, and leave a review to help others find the show. Then tell us: which single strategy will you start this week?

Leadership Horizons - Helping You Lead Beyond Boundaries

SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome to episode 42 from Burnout to Breakthrough. This week we're going to talk about how you can rewire yourself for sustainable performance. I'm Lois Burton and today we're talking about something that I'm seeing more and more of. Those leaders who are running on empty, trying to lead from a place of exhaustion and wondering why everything feels so hard. Let me tell you about a conversation I had just a couple of weeks ago. A senior executive, brilliant woman, accomplished, respected by everyone, sat across from me and said something that almost broke my heart. She said, Lois, I used to love this work. Now I wake up every morning with dread in my stomach. I can't remember the last time I felt excited about anything. And here's what really struck me. She said it almost apologetically, as if feeling burned out was a personal failing rather than a signal that something needs to change. So today I want to talk about this. Not the trendy kind of burnout we see on social media, but the real bone-deep exhaustion that's affecting leaders at every level. And more importantly, I want to share how we can move from burnout to breakthrough. So let's talk about what's really happening. First of all, burnout isn't about working too many hours, although that can certainly contribute. Burnout is what happens when our nervous system stays in a state of high alert for too long without proper recovery. Think about it this way: your body and your brain are designed to handle stress in short bursts. You encounter a threat, your system floods with cortisol and adrenaline, you deal with the situation, and then your body returns to baseline. That's healthy stress, healthy pressure. But many leaders today are dealing with constant uncertainty, back-to-back decisions, competing demands, and pressure from every direction. So your nervous system never gets that signal that it's safe to stand down. It's like driving with one foot on the accelerator and one foot on the brake. Eventually something's going to give. And when you're in this state, your brain actually changes. The prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for strategic thinking, creativity, and emotional regulation, starts to go offline. Meanwhile, your amygdala, your threat detection system, becomes hyperactive. This is why burned-out leaders often tell me they're making decisions they later regret. Snapping at people they care about or feeling unable to see solutions that would normally be obvious. It's not a character flaw, it's neuroscience. So how do we rewire this? How do we build sustainable high performance instead of burning out? Let me share three practical strategies that I use with leaders, and I know that they work because I've seen them work. The first strategy is what I call knowing your pressure zone. In the stress pressure dynamic, there's a sweet spot where pressure actually enhances performance. We need challenge, we need some stretch to perform at our best. But there's a tipping point where productive pressure becomes harmful stress. Many leaders I work with have no idea where their tipping point is, so they just keep on pushing until they crash. So here's what I want you to do. First of all, start tracking your energy and decision quality throughout your day. Rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10. When are you in that sweet spot? Energize, focused, making good calls. And when do you cross over into that danger zone where everything feels overwhelming and you're not thinking clearly? One director I coached discovered his tipping point was having three consecutive high-stakes meetings. After that, his decision quality started to plummet. So together, we worked on his calendar to include buffer time after every two major meetings. Simple change, massive impact. The key is to design your work around your nervous system, not the other way around. Now I know, and I know some of you will be will already be saying, I don't have that much control over my diary. I understand this. A lot of people get meetings put in or they're required to be at meetings. But I am going to challenge you on this because every person that I work with, I do give them this challenge. You're only in not in control of your diary because you're allowing it to be that way. Do you remember we talked about boundaries way back? Um, I talk about this all the time. If you need to push back, you have to start pushing back. Now you won't be able to do it every time and create every solution in the perfect way. But I know because I've seen it so so many times that you can you can get to the point where you are around about 80% in control. So I I really want you to give this a go. Strategy two is building strategic recovery. I need to be really clear about something. Recovery is not a luxury for leaders, it's a performance requirement. Your brain cannot sustain high-level thinking without regular restoration. But here's what I see leaders doing. They think recovery means a two-week holiday once a year. And yes, of course, that's important. But what we actually need is micro recovery throughout every single day. I call these reset rituals small practices that signal to your nervous system that it's safe to come down from high alert. It might be two minutes of deep breathing between meetings, it might be a five-minute walk outside, it might be closing your eyes and doing a very brief meditation. The specific practice matters less than the consistency. One leader I work with very simply sets an alarm for every 90 minutes. Obviously, not when she is with other people, but when she's working um alone and she can do that. Sets her alarm for every 90 minutes, and when it goes off, she stands up, stretches, and takes 10 deep breaths. She told me it felt ridiculous at first. Now she says it's the reason she's still functioning at a high level after three years in one of the most demanding roles I've encountered. And I did say obviously she doesn't do that when she's with other people, but she has built that routine into her team meetings and she encourages her team members to do the same thing. So she's role modeling this for other people as well. Remember, you can't pour from an empty cup. And trying to lead without recovery is like trying to sprint a marathon. You might manage it for a while, but you will crash. Third strategy: redefine what matters. This is possibly the most challenging, but also the most powerful. Redefining what actually matters. Burnout often happens because we're trying to do everything, be everything, please everyone. We've lost the ability to distinguish between what's truly important and what's just urgent. I ask every burned out leader I coach the same question. If you could only achieve three things in the next six months, what would they be? Most of them struggle to answer. They want to list 10 things, 20 things, because somewhere along the way, they've internalized the belief that their work is that their worth, sorry, is tied to the amount of work that they can do. But here's the truth. Sustainable high performance isn't about doing more, it's about doing what matters exceptionally well while letting go of other things. This means getting really honest about your yeses and no's. It means having the courage to disappoint people sometimes. It means accepting that good enough is actually good enough for most things. In my Leading with Resilience cohort, we explore this in depth. I ask all participants to think hard about boundaries and how to maintain them, about the perfection trap and allowing recovery time, and how to maintain that sweet spot in the stress pressure dynamic. It's game-changing for leaders if you're able to do this. So, your breakthrough awaits. And here's what I want you to know. If you're feeling burned out right now, you're not broken, you're not weak, you're not failing, you're experiencing a completely natural response to operating beyond your sustainable capacity. And the breakthrough is possible. I've seen it happen hundreds of times. Leaders who were on the edge of quitting, who couldn't see a way forward, who'd lost their spark, they found it again. Not by working harder, but by honoring their nervous system and choosing what matters. Remember the executive I mentioned at the beginning, the one who'd lost her joy. Six months later, she sent me a message. She said, I feel like myself again. I'd forgotten what that felt like. That's what's possible when we stop trying to power through and start building truly sustainable performance. So this week I want you to try just one thing. Pick the strategy that resonated most. Knowing your pressure zone, building strategic recovery, or redefining what matters and implementing it. Not perfectly, just start. Because here's what I know after 24 years of coaching leaders, the way we led yesterday is not going to lead us into tomorrow. Tomorrow's leadership requires us to be whole, present, and sustainable. And that starts with taking care of the leader within. Thank you for joining me today on Leadership Horizons. If this episode resonated with you, I'd love to hear about your experience with Burnout and Breakthrough. Connect with me on LinkedIn or at LoisBurtononline.com. Until next time, remember sustainable performance isn't about pushing harder, it's about leading smarter. Thank you.