What to Do When Your Senior Role Becomes Unsustainable
For this episode, I pulled heavily from a Harvard Business Review article from January of this year. The hypothesis of the article is that recent advice for addressing executive burnout has been to “build greater resilience” – but the ability to adapt to adversity breaks down when adversity becomes the norm.
I couldn’t agree more.
The way I think of it is this: Your job is a marathon, with the occasional sprint required. In a marathon, you pace yourself, take care of yourself throughout, and take breaks when needed. After the marathon, you don’t start another one immediately – you take significant time off to heal and recoup what your body lost. In a sprint, you run full-out the entire time, but for a shorter distance.
I see far too many senior executives running extended sprints in their work. They become confused as to why they are experiencing burnout – is it their specific job? Is it the company they work for? Is it the industry they are in? They lose all perspective.
Deloitte reports that nearly 70% of C-suite executives are seriously considering leaving their roles for the sake of their well-being. Gartner found that more than half expect to exit within 2 years, and over 25% are considering leaving within 6 months.
The Harvard Business Article states that what these burnout executives need is a Personal Retention Plan – a way to reset their daily actions so they can stay without suffering or sacrifice. A way to realign their role with their own strengths, purpose, and energy.
The work of creating such a plan should be conducted outside the walls of your current organization – because there are potential pitfalls from a) indicating that you are considering departing, and b) being seen as “weak” or “unable to handle the workload.” There is also concern that whoever you speak to at your organization about this might also be considering departure.
To be clear, you may choose to share your completed plan with key stakeholders, peers, or those you lead – but its main purpose is to reset your priorities and only needs to be seen by you.
Step 1 – Understand what your role really requires.
The following questions help you to identify any mismatches between what your role demands and what a human being can sustainably supply. After all, your job description may have been created in a different era.
Here are some excellent questions:
What is the most important problem my role must solve consistently? (What is my biggest priority?)
Why does that problem matter and to whom?
If I rebuilt this role from scratch, what would the work look like?
Where is the work overengineered? (Processes, meetings, or decision-making workflows that have become unnecessarily complex, bureaucratic, or “heavy” for the value they actually produce)
Ask yourself, "Does this actually need my eyes, or are we just following a legacy workflow that no longer serves us?"
Move toward "good enough" or "minimum viable documentation" to reclaim hours of your week.
Identify where "collaboration" has turned into "over-processing" and cutting the guest list or the frequency of those syncs.
Where is it undervalued or under-resourced? (This is a major driver of unsustainability because you are likely over-compensating for those gaps with your time, energy, and stress – does this need a change in “value perception” or do you need to exit?
Quantify how many hours of "Level 10" leadership time are being spent on "Level 6" tactical execution.
Use this data to build a business case for a new hire or a third-party vendor. It’s no longer "I'm tired;" it's "We are misallocating expensive leadership capital on $50/hour tasks."
If the organization doesn’t value it, give yourself permission to produce the “Minimum Viable Product” for that task.
Don’t consistently contribute your weekends and evenings – allow the lack of resources to become visible to the CEO, Board, or your direct boss.
If you are under-resourced in an area you personally find draining, find someone else to take on those responsibilities who will actually enjoy them.
This type of evaluation is also important if you are considering seeking a promotion to the next level—you may be looking at the incumbent and thinking you don’t want that lifestyle. The truth is, you don’t have to accept the status quo, and if your employer insists that you do it “just like John has,” it’s probably time to look elsewhere.
Step 2 – Conduct an internal inventory.
Now it’s time to identify what you require. Here are some questions to get at your key drivers:
On a scale of 1–10, how much do I personally care about the core problem this role solves?
How am I uniquely positioned to solve it?
What energizes me in my work?
What drains me consistently?
Where is my “superpower space”—the work I do at my highest value and best use? What percentage of time am I currently spending in that space?
These questions help you think about the intersection of your work and life to see where your strengths and values align or conflict.
Step 3 – Document your next steps.
Here are prompts to journal about:
What matters most to me is…
What I want to keep the same about my role is…
What I need to let go of is…
The relationships I need to reset are…
The expectations I need to reset are…
The person I need to be to make this work is…
Here again is the three-step process for creating a Personal Retention Plan:
Step 1 – Understand what your role really requires. (Question the assumptions)
Step 2 – Conduct an internal inventory. (Tell yourself the truth)
Step 3 – Document your next steps. (Create a plan of action)
Often, you may find that small changes are all that are needed for a big difference. And depending on what shifts are needed, you may not even need to communicate anything to anyone; just begin implementing the changes.