Burnout: The Responsibility a Leader Can't Delegate to the Team

Burnout has been a hot topic lately. It comes up every time a high-profile leader breaks down in public: Jacinda Ardern’s resignation as Prime Minister of New Zealand, or, years earlier, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder admitting the same thing. No matter how popular or simple a job may look, how big a team you have under you, or how much power or money you’ve accumulated, exhaustion doesn’t discriminate.

And here’s the part almost nobody says out loud: we tend to talk about burnout as if it were purely a personal problem - about resilience, about “toughing it out,” about knowing how to manage stress. But when the person burning out is someone with a team under them, the question I care about isn’t just “how does this person recover?” but “what responsibility did I have, as a leader, in letting it get this far?”

A Case That Made It Visible to the World

Jacinda Ardern was elected Prime Minister of New Zealand in 2017, at just 37 - the youngest head of government in the world at the time. Her handling of the pandemic turned her into a global reference point; the world, in general, came up short on leaders who thought beyond their own backyard, and she made the difference.

She was re-elected in October 2020 with 49.1% of the vote, the highest absolute majority in New Zealand since 1996. And yet, her exhaustion became evident when, on January 19, 2023, she announced her resignation. Some news outlets reported that the prime minister had ended up “burned out” - the main reason, in her own words, was running out of energy to keep facing the frustration of part of the public, particularly the anti-vaccine and COVID-denial movements.

I’ll admit I’d be wrecked too if I had to explain to someone, over and over, why getting vaccinated is a good idea. But that’s the part of this case that interests me most: a leader’s job is to protect, to take care of people. And sometimes, taking care of others leaves us with nothing left to take care of ourselves.

What Exactly Is Burnout Syndrome?

Burnout syndrome is a state of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, accompanied by a drop in performance. It’s almost always tied to chronic stress at work or in other areas of life, and it can stem from:

• work overload,
• lack of support, or
• an imbalance between work and personal life.

Most Common Symptoms

• Emotional exhaustion: feeling constantly tired and out of energy, even after sleeping or resting.
• Depersonalization: feeling disconnected from others and less capable of empathy.
• Low self-esteem and motivation.
• Difficulty concentrating and making decisions.
• Changes in appetite or weight.
• Insomnia or trouble sleeping.
• Irritability or mood swings.
• Headaches, muscle pain, and other physical issues.
• More frequent illness.

An important clarification: these symptoms can also have other medical or psychological causes. I’m not a doctor, and I don’t pretend to be one. If any of this sounds familiar, find someone who actually studied to diagnose it - not someone who just has an opinion without the training.

The Part That Falls to the Leader

This is where I want to slow down, because it’s the part that gets overlooked the most. It’s convenient to think burnout gets prevented with a quarterly wellness talk, or a meditation app the company pays for. But if an entire team is exhausted, and only the people change - never the conditions - the problem isn’t the people.

As a leader, your responsibility isn’t to “fix” whoever burned out. It’s to notice the conditions that made it possible, before they reach that point:

• Real balance, not just talk. Foster an environment where people can have a life outside work and truly disconnect - not just say “we value balance” during onboarding and then send messages at 11 p.m.
• Concrete support and resources. Offer real emotional support and real tools for managing stress: mental health programs, a help line, protected time.
• A healthy work environment. Good communication, a culture of support, and a workload distribution that doesn’t always fall on the same two or three “reliable” people.
• Real autonomy in decision-making. When someone can make decisions about their own work, they regain a sense of purpose and control that exhaustion had taken away.
• Genuine recognition. Celebrate the effort, not just the result - especially when the result took a while to arrive.
• Real development opportunities. Feeling like you’re moving forward is, often, the only thing that keeps someone going through a hard stretch.

Preventing burnout is team work, yes, but the team doesn’t start out on equal footing: whoever leads has more room to maneuver than whoever’s being led, and that’s why a bigger share of the responsibility falls on them.

If You’re the One Going Through It

Leaders burn out too - in fact, they often burn out first, because they’re absorbing pressure from above and below at the same time. If you recognize yourself in the symptoms above, this might help:

• Take a real break, even if it’s just a day or a few weeks.
• Practice relaxation techniques: meditation, breathing, or whatever works for you.
• Set realistic goals and priorities.
• Take care of your diet and exercise.
• Seek support from friends, family, or a mental health professional.
• Make concrete changes at work: delegate, ask for help, or even change roles if needed.
• Strengthen personal relationships, both inside and outside of work.
• Learn to say “no” - a skill that’s harder for those of us who lead than we tend to admit.

Getting past burnout takes time, and often, professional support to work through what’s underneath it.

And you - have you seen burnout up close, in your team or in yourself? What made the difference? I’d invite you to share in the comments.