Why Burnout Isn’t Your Biggest Leadership Challenge
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If your organisation feels slower than it used to, pay attention to where your leaders are hesitating: Waiting for more information. Waiting for the right time to have a difficult conversation. Or waiting for you or someone else to decide. This leadership hesitation grows out of uncertainty, and it has a way of spreading through an organisation until waiting becomes the default.
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The Hidden Cost of Leadership Hesitation
The other day, I (Karin) was talking with a high-potential executive who felt stuck.
He sighed and said,
Karin, I’ve reworked this strategy three times. I’ve spent hours building contingency plans, gathering the data, strengthening the business case, and polishing the deck.
And I have this feeling everything is about to change again.
I don’t want to waste my time—or my team’s time—on another version of the future that may never get used.
I’m wondering if I should just wait and do nothing for a while.
Of course, if he waits, his team waits too. And all that doing nothing comes at a high price to results, productivity, morale, and future engagement.
The Wait and See Pattern
This “let’s wait and see” hesitation is certainly not new; we heard lots of examples of the cost of indecision in our World Workplace Conflict and Collaboration research. In our experience, it’s starting to become even more pervasive.
When the future feels unpredictable, waiting can feel responsible.
Sometimes it is.
Sometimes another conversation or another night’s sleep leads to a better decision.
The harder question is knowing when waiting has quietly become your cultural norm.
Because hesitation has a way of spreading.
A leader waits. Managers wait. Teams become more cautious.
People check and double-check before moving.
Projects stretch a little longer.
Conversations happen a little later.
Ideas stay unspoken.
Because they’re trying trying to get it right.
Eventually, work begins to feel heavier. Because people are carrying the weight of uncertainty, unanswered questions, and decisions that are still waiting to be made.
When we hear leaders talking about burnout, we wonder how much of that exhaustion comes from the workload… …and how much comes from the waiting.
Read more: The Habit That Makes Collaboration Feel Effortless
Four Habits That Restore Momentum
If you’re familiar with our work on collaboration and high-performing teams, you know about the Performance Loop: four dimensions of collaboration that help teams do their best work:
Connection. Clarity. Curiosity. Commitment.
We’ve been using these dimensions to help leadership teams move through uncertainty.
Here’s what we know from working with teams around the world.
- Connection makes difficult conversations easier because trust is already there.
- Clarity gives people enough direction to move, even when every answer isn’t available.
- Curiosity keeps leaders learning instead of guessing.
- Commitment helps teams move forward, adjust, and keep learning instead of waiting for perfect conditions.
Over the next few months, we’ll explore each of these dimensions and give you practical solutions for building momentum during times of uncertainty.
Because your ability to lead through uncertainty may become one of your greatest competitive advantages.
Team Experiment
Here’s a simple exercise to try with your leadership team this week.
Write one question on a flip chart:
Where are we waiting?
Invite everyone to answer silently first.
Where are decisions sitting?
Which conversations keep getting postponed?
Where are customers waiting for us?
Where are employees waiting for clarity?
Where are we waiting for permission that we probably don’t need?
Once you’ve made the list, don’t try to solve everything.
Simply circle one item that would make work easier if you moved it forward this week.
Momentum grows one decision at a time.
Courageous Coaching Questions
If you’re coaching managers, here are a few courageous questions to explore together.
- What’s the most important decision your team is waiting for from you?
- What’s one area where more clarity could save people time this week?
- What is one conversation that would make everything else easier?
- What’s one next step you can take without having every answer?
- If I could remove one roadblock that’s slowing your team down, what would that be?
Notice that none of those questions ask your managers to be more confident.
They simply help people see where they’re stuck.
Awareness usually comes before action.
This article was first published on letsgrowleaders.com.
Leadership
Karin Hurt helps human-centered leaders find clarity in uncertainty, drive innovation, and achieve breakthrough results. She’s the founder and CEO of Let’s Grow Leaders, an international leadership development and training firm known for practical tools and leadership development programs that stick, and the author of four books including Courageous Cultures: How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers and Customer Advocates.
David Dye helps human-centered leaders find clarity in uncertainty, drive innovation, and achieve breakthrough results. He’s the President of Let’s Grow Leaders, an international leadership development and training firm known for practical tools and leadership development programs that stick. He’s the author of several books including Courageous Cultures and is the host of the popular podcast Leadership without Losing Your Soul.
