The Many Faces of Burnout

And how to avoid them

As a coach, I’ve seen my clients ‘quit’ in a variety of ways.

Some get outright mad and yell at me demanding their money back.
Some just stop showing up with anything to talk about.
Some have great insights in their sessions but then do nothing with them.

All of these are forms of quitting.
Burnout is also a form of quitting.

When a light bulb burns out, it quits working. The integrity of the filament just isn’t enough to carry the current through it anymore.

Photo by Callum Shaw on Unsplash

If you develop a stronger filament you can carry more current, but you can’t do that while the light is burning. It has to be turned off, redesigned, and then turned back on again.

In the start-up world, leaders rarely get a chance to turn off, redesign, and strengthen their capacity to carry the “current” of challenge, uncertainty, internal and external criticism, and a high level of ambition.

So leaders burn out in 3 pretty common ways:

1. They flame out — these are the obvious ones. Walls are punched, things are yelled, people may be fired, relationships might be ruined. This is often followed by a sabbatical or ‘time off’. Rarely enough to make a difference. But enough…