Solving the Burnout Equation: Why Leadership Development Needs to Change
For decades, leadership development has been built around frameworks, competencies, and tick-box behaviours. Communication styles. Performance metrics. Strengths profiles.
But the problem is that none of these stop or prevent burnout.
Because burnout isn’t about how many frameworks a leader can recite. Burnout is about whether a leader knows who they are - and whether the system they’re in is toxic enough to erode that sense of self.
That’s why the old models don’t work. And it’s why leadership development needs to change.
The Burnout Equation.
When I think about burnout, I always come back to one simple equation:
Toxicity – Sense of Self = Burnout
Burnout doesn’t happen just because of workload or stress. It happens when people lose themselves in toxic environments. When they feel they have to mask, perform, or contort who they are just to survive at work.
Take away someone’s sense of self, and you strip them of the anchor that keeps them steady. Add in toxicity - micromanagement, fear, bullying, gaslighting - and burnout becomes inevitable.
Why Current Leadership Development (and Coaching) Misses the Point.
Most leadership programmes focus on external skills:
- How to manage conflict.
- How to deliver feedback.
- How to improve performance.
- How to motivate teams.
All useful - but useless without self-awareness. Because a leader who doesn’t know themselves can’t lead others without harm. They default to frameworks, tick-boxes, and scripts, while missing the real human dynamics happening in front of them.
Worse, these programmes often ignore the culture those leaders are operating in.
They teach skills, but not integrity. They produce “competent” leaders who can talk the talk, while perpetuating toxic systems that keep people burning out.
Leadership Development that Prevents Burnout.
If we’re serious about solving burnout, leadership development has to change - radically. It has to move from performance to presence. From frameworks to identity.
That means leaders must:
- Do the (ongoing) inner work. Understand their own values, boundaries, and triggers.
- Build resilience through integrity, not resilience and endurance. Stay aligned with who they are, even when systems push back.
- Challenge toxicity, not collude with it. Recognise when environments are corrosive and take action.
- Hold space, not just manage tasks. Know how to see, hear, and support people beyond the checklist.
This isn’t about teaching leaders “what good looks like.” It’s about teaching leaders to be good - in ways that are authentic, ethical, and human.
Why This Matters Now.
We’re in a crisis of leadership.
Employees are disengaged.
Trust in organisations is falling.
Burnout is everywhere.
And the traditional approach to leadership development is still churning out managers who can run a meeting but can’t run a healthy culture. If leaders keep being trained to tick boxes instead of knowing themselves, nothing will change.
The burnout equation will keep playing out, over and over again.
Solving the Equation.
The antidote to burnout isn’t another resilience workshop. It isn’t another policy. And it isn’t another competency framework.
The antidote is leaders who know themselves - deeply - and lead from that place of authenticity. Leaders who understand that their job isn’t just to hit targets, but to create environments where people can thrive.
Because when leaders remove toxicity and stay anchored in their sense of self, the equation flips:
Clarity + Integrity = Safe and Sustainable Leadership
That’s the kind of leadership development we need. And it’s the only kind that will stop burnout for good.
Kelly
I’m daring to imagine a world where Burnout no longer exists, and if you’re daring to imagine a world like that too, then come and join me.
- Connect with me on LinkedIn
- Subscribe to the Burnout Bulletin - my weekly email that gives you the insights you won’t find on LinkedIn
- Join me in the Burnout Academy - because Burnout ends with Awareness