When Leadership Drains You

The Weight Few Leaders Admit

It's Sunday. Are you looking forward to starting another work week tomorrow?

Burnout in leadership is no longer rare – it’s epidemic. A global survey found that 53% of managers report feeling burned out—higher even than the general workforce. At the same time, a broader 2025 study by Forbes revealed that 66% of employees are experiencing job-related burnout. As a leader, your own weariness doesn’t stay personal—it becomes the backdrop for your team’s environment.

But there’s a problem bigger than the burnout itself. It’s that it often shows up before you ever see it yourself. By the time you finally admit you’re running on fumes, others have been living with the fallout for months.

The Warning Signs

This isn’t about working hard—it’s about stress that settles in and never departs. Burnout depletes mental agility, joy, and emotional resilience. These signs may point to deeper trouble:

Persistent fatigue that sleep doesn’t fix.
A creeping cynicism or irritable edge.
Shallow achievements that feel flat.
Numb avoidance—overworking, bingeing, distraction.
Decision paralysis or detachment from people or purpose.

Burnout isn’t a failing—it’s a signal: something essential has gone off-kilter.

Why More Effort Backfires

Leaders often respond by pushing forward harder—more hours, more control. But stress isn’t meant to stay bottled up. God built us so that strength cycles into rest, movement, and peace. When that cycle breaks, the stress sets in like acid. Burnout isn’t beaten by grit—it’s healed by rhythm.

Leading Yourself First

If you want to inspire others, you must first recover your soul. That means:

Tending to your body. Sleep, nutrition, and movement aren’t luxuries. They’re stewardship.

Completing the stress cycle. It’s not enough to solve the problem—you need to release the stress itself. That might mean exercise, laughter, prayer, or time outdoors.

Facing your inner story. Leadership magnifies your strengths and your wounds. If you don’t address the lies you believe about yourself, those wounds will bleed into your leadership.

Cultivating real relationships. Carrying it alone is a myth. Healthy connections buffer stress and keep you grounded.

The Courage to Step Away

Many leaders resist rest because it feels irresponsible. But Jesus Himself often withdrew to solitary places to pray. He wasn’t avoiding responsibility—He was aligning His soul with His Father. If He needed retreat, so do we.

Sometimes the bravest decision you make as a leader is to step away—to pause long enough to reset, heal, and return whole.

Where Leaders Recover Their Souls

Thousands of men and women have stepped into Crucible retreats for this reason. Leaders who were exhausted, angry, or numb discovered a place to tell the truth, release what they’d been carrying, and reconnect with God’s presence. Others found coaching and Soul Groups that gave them tools to reset rhythms and lead from wholeness.

You can keep pushing until something breaks—or you can choose a different story. Step out of the noise. Invest forty-four hours in honest self-discovery. You may find it’s the most important decision you make, not just for you but for everyone you lead.

Burnout doesn’t have to define your leadership. But ignoring it will. Choose courage. Step away before the weight crushes you.