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- With six in 10 leaders currently affected, chronic exhaustion has become a systemic boardroom reality. Leadership strain doesn’t stay contained at the top.
- A burnt-out executive acts as a contagion, actively eroding team morale, workplace culture and strategic focus.
- Burnout rarely happens overnight. It starts with unshakeable fatigue, morphs into toxic cynicism and ultimately guts operational performance.
Most leaders don’t crash into burnout. They keep performing, but with less energy, less patience and more internal effort to maintain output.
Being a board director is not dissimilar to being a professional athlete, suggests Steven Worrall GAICD, CEO Telstra InfraCo and chair of the Corporate Mental Health Alliance Australia.
“Performance needs to be approached scientifically if it is to be sustained,” he says. “That means routinely addressing mental, physical and cognitive health. Yet our research shows 60 per cent of leaders are affected by some form of executive burnout.”
According to an Alliance report, burnout is characterised by symptoms such as physical and mental exhaustion, detachment from work, cynicism and feelings of inefficacy. The consequences can be significant, affecting workplace performance and personal wellbeing.
Today’s directors are operating in an environment shaped by multiple pressures – economic uncertainty, the rapid rise of AI and increasingly fragmented political and social landscapes.
“The cumulative impact of those multiple stressors is affecting everyone,” says Georgie Harman AO MAICD, CEO of mental health organisation Beyond Blue. “The world feels very hard and heavy and boards are seeing this in their bottom line and in their workforces. In senior leadership roles, the amount of stress and scrutiny is real.”
Worrall agrees. “If we look around us, everyone is dealing with personal or professional challenges. Yet science tells us that an overload of stress impairs the ability of the prefrontal cortex to regulate response and that impairs decision making.”
Dr Jemma King, founder and director of BioPsychAnalytics, an Australian-based company that has developed scientifically validated methodologies to reduce stress, burnout and improve behavioural outcomes in high-performing individuals and organisations, says chronic stress diverts energy away from higher-order thinking.
“You literally lose IQ points under pressure,” she says.
When burnout is masked by continued performance
“For board directors, burnout can look like sustained performance externally, but internally they may feel increasingly drained, disengaged or question their impact,” says Dr Luke Martin, Beyond Blue clinical psychologist and clinical spokesperson.
“In a leadership role, there is a strong sense of responsibility, visibility and expectation to perform, and so people may continue to deliver outcomes even when they’re feeling burnt out.
“Leaders often have a greater responsibility and workload, but fewer peers to reflect openly and honestly with, coupled with the perception they need to always appear in control.”
Says Worrall, “There is often a strong sense of not wanting to let the team down. When leaders are under strain, the impact can ripple through to morale, culture and strategic thinking. That creates an added layer or pressure.”
Overstepping limits doesn’t just lead to burnout, it can create a poor example for other leaders, says Harman.
“One of the things we can forget as leaders is that people are always watching us. Communicating boundaries openly with your colleagues, your board or in your personal life, can help you set the culture and tone.”
Early signs leaders often miss
King says burnout typically progresses through three stages.
“First comes exhaustion – feeling chronically drained, even after sleep or rest. Then there is cynicism, alienation and emotional detachment. Finally, performance and efficiency begin to decline.”
Directors may become hypervigilant to problems and negativity.
“I know that I get more reactive, my mood is lower and I tend to go into the weeds rather than lift my gaze to strategy,” says Harman.
Physical symptoms such as teeth grinding, appetite changes, insomnia, fatigue, mouth ulcers and recurrent sore throats may also emerge.
“In burnout, directors can become walking zombies,” says King. “They appear to be functioning, but privately they’re running on fumes.
“Often, people in these positions have worked incredibly hard to get there, so they learn to disconnect from the screaming red warning signs and simply push through.”
But seeking help early can make a significant difference to impact and recovery, says Harman.
How impostor syndrome and burnout reinforce each other
Impostor syndrome and burnout frequently operate as a self-perpetuating cycle, according to Martin.
“If someone feels they constantly need to prove themselves, they may overwork to compensate,” he says. “At the same time, burnout can intensify feelings of self-doubt. When people are exhausted or disengaged, their confidence often drops and they begin to question their abilities. That creates a cycle where self-doubt drives overwork and burnout deepens self-doubt.”
Adds King, “Many athletes and executives are riddled with impostor syndrome. Somewhere deep inside, they feel they must do far more than everyone else just to be good enough. It’s often part of what makes them successful.”
Coming back from burnout
Prevention and recovery begin with acknowledgement by the individual and the workplace, says Worrall.
“What healthy workplaces and the Alliance’s work are about is leaders coming together and recognising that we can get far better performance from people if we create space for conversations around stress and burnout.”
Both Worrall and King advocate a disciplined approach to self-care that prioritises sleep, nutrition, exercise and stress management.
“I encourage anyone seeking peak cognitive performance to be in bed before 10pm,” says King, author of Sleep First: Sleep Smarter, Think Sharper, Feel Better..
“The period before midnight is when the brain clears toxins and replenishes energy.”
Says Harman, “Prioritising sleep is one of my tools for my wellbeing, which isn’t separate to leadership, but fundamental – and for continued high performance.”
Saying no rather than overcommitting, creating strong support networks of friends, family and mentors, and clarifying your values are also key, she says. “One of the things I turn to is my mentor through Kilfinan Australia [which offers free mentoring for social impact CEOs and where she is also a director].”
She says leaders need to embed their values into how they perform governance work.
At the beginning of every board meeting, Beyond Blue directors reflect on how effectively the organisation is connecting with the community.
“It helps them align with purpose before they move onto their job,” says Harman. “It’s a mental and emotional reset.”
Beyond Blue Support Service provides 24/7 free counselling, advice and referrals via phone 1300 22 4636, webchat or email. Chat to a Beyond Blue counsellor online on beyondblue.org.au/get-support
What elite performance research reveals about recovery
King’s three-part emotional regulation method, The King Strategy (TKS), has been taught to the Australian Olympic swimming team and a range of Australian Institute of Sport athletes.
It rests on a straightforward idea. “Under acute stress, the brain diverts resources away from clear thinking and memory towards fight-or-flight responses, such as fuelling the heart, lungs and large muscle groups. That’s why people can blank at the worst possible moment,” says Dr Jemma King.
The technique counters this with three steps – resonance frequency breathing, a brief vagus nerve reset to interrupt the frenetic stress signal, and cognitive reframing to read the body’s stress signals as fuel rather than threat.
The results are significant. In a 2025 study by Dr Anthony Bird in the UK, across 233 Royal Marine Commando recruits over a 32-week period, high stress made participants 80 per cent less likely to recall information effectively. However, those who actively used TKS strategies were 4.63 times more likely to maintain recall under pressure.
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