How leaders can avoid burnout by understanding the causes and support needed
According to Psychology Today, burnout is “a state of chronic stress that leads to: physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism and detachment, and feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.”
A recent study shows that 66% of US workers are experiencing some sort of burnout in 2025, Forbes.
Let that sink in. That's a lot of people.
Whether or not you're currently feeling burnt out yourself, you're likely surrounded by people who are.
So today I want to help you look at burnout from a new lens that can give you tangible ways to think about what causes it, and in turn, what factors we need to focus on to reduce burnout for ourselves and others that we're working with.
A study completed in 2001 called the Job Demands-Resource Model of Burnout has helped me understand burnout in a meaningful way.
The Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) Model demonstrates that burnout occurs when job demands consistently outweigh the resources provided.
Job demands are the physical, social or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort.
When your job demands are too high, you will experience exhaustion.
Job resources are the physical, psychological, social, or organizational aspects of the job that support you in achieving your work goals, reduce job demands, or stimulate personal growth and development.
When you don't have enough job resources, you will become disengaged.
A lot of times we hear people complain about disengaged employees, or we say that we're exhausted or burnt out, but it's usually hard to pinpoint what to do differently to support them.
Looking at these through this lens, we have specific areas to pinpoint.
It's important to note that the job demands and job resources do vary based on the industry and type of role you're in. So for today, I will dive deeper into a few common examples I see across the professional services industries that most of my clients are in, but take a moment to consider if other ones may be more relevant for you. Below is the complete list from the study (you may come up with others too):
Job Demands:
Physical workload: my workload doesn't tax me too much physically
Time pressure: I have enough time to complete my work
Recipient contact: I work directly with a client/customer that doesn't drain me emotionally or mentally
Physical environment: the light, noise, design, security, etc. of my work location is supportive
Shift work: my work schedule aligns with my personal needs
Job Resources:
Feedback: I receive frequent and quality feedback about my work
Rewards: I am rewarded or acknowledged for my work
Job control: I have autonomy over my work
Participation: I have a voice in my organization (not just management telling others what to do)
Job security: there is low to no threat of losing my job
Supervisor support: my supervisor is involved and available for my work (but not micromanaging)
My big takeaway from this list is that all of things require a level of awareness from the individual and support from their manager and/or organization. You need to have ownership over each of these to know what you need and be able to ask for it.
As a leader, you need to be mindful of how these variables are impacting each of the individuals on your team and what you can do to reduce their exhaustion, improve their engagement, and in turn, reduce burnout.
Today we will focus on the perspective of the individual feeling burnt out, what they can do to have more ownership over these areas, and what kind of support to ask for from their organization.
Job demands
Workload: the type and amount of work to be done.
Ideally, we want our workload to be tasks that we are capable of completing, within the responsibilities of our role, and a realistic amount of work to be done.
When this is out of balance it can look like being asked to complete tasks that aren't in your area or knowledge or expertise (maybe should be someone else's responsibility but they're less reliable), having too many projects or goals at one time that aren't realistic to all be completed, clients asking for work that is out of scope, or even vague requests that you don't know what to do with.
What you can do on your end:
Identify your workload boundaries: these are the types of projects that I work on and these are the ones that are out of scope.
Communicate your workload boundaries: who needs to know this? How can you clearly communicate to them when you have to say no to a request?
What you can ask for from your manager or organization:
Talk through your workload 'guardrails' to know what's in your lane and what's actually someone else's responsibility.
Clarify new project requests as they come in to get a full understanding of the commitment and responsibility before you say yes.
Time Pressure: having enough time to complete your work.
Ideally, this looks like being able to complete your tasks and projects on time, within your working hours, without too much stress or pressure.
When this is out of balance it can look like working outside business hours (late nights, early mornings, and/or weekends), having competing priorities or deadlines, and a never-ending pressure to get more and more done.
What you can do on your end:
Identify what your ideal capacity and max capacity look like. Is there a certain number of clients, projects, deadlines, or hours worked that you can quantify as ideal vs. your max limit. You may find that you can hit your max limit for a week or two at a time but it's not sustainable to be there every week or long term.
Get clear deadlines for any and every request that comes your way. Is it a hard deadline or a 'nice to have?' A lot of times people ask for things by 'end of day' or 'end of week' just out of habit, not out of necessity. Don't let their lack of clarity or lack of planning become an unnecessary pressure for you.
Say no to new requests when you're already at capacity.
Prioritize competing deadlines. This may involve pushing back on other people's deadlines or requests of you.
Delegate to get additional support - you don't have to do it all yourself.
What you can ask for from your manager or organization:
Clear prioritization of tasks and projects, especially when they are competing or overwhelming.
Deadline extensions when they aren't realistic.
Support by other team members to help you when you have competing deadlines.
Resources provided
Feedback: receiving frequent and quality feedback about your work
Ideally, we need to be receiving feedback from our manager, peers, and direct reports about our work regularly. The specific cadence depends on your type of work so consider if you need it based on project milestones, regular check-ins (weekly or monthly meetings), or something else that feels realistic and supportive to you.
Qualify feedback means that it is specific, relevant, and meaningful to you. It's something that you can improve and is objective.
However, a lot of times we only get feedback during our annual performance review season which means it's usually too late to be impactful. Or, we get low quality feedback that's generic ('do better'), subjective ('be more approachable'), or biased ('you're too emotional').
What you can do on your end:
Get clear about what you'd like feedback on based on what situations, projects, or skills you want to focus on.
Be proactive about getting feedback, ask for it in advance, and follow up as needed (ex: 'I'm working on my public speaking skills, would you mind giving me feedback after this week's team meeting that I'm presenting in?').
Gather evidence of feedback, wins, accolades, and learnings over time to bring to your formal feedback sessions (like annual or quarterly performance reviews).
What you can ask for from your manager or organization:
Request a regular cadence for feedback (not just annual reviews) on specific goals, skills, or development plans.
Ask, if you don't already know, what kind of feedback you will be measured on in your formal feedback sessions (like annual or quarterly performance reviews).
Learning opportunities:organization-funded resources to improve your personal or professional development.
This could look like trainings, coaching, courses, conferences, certifications, books, and more.
Without this, it can look like being turned down for new learnings, never having a budget to invest in the people of your organization, a stagnant team or organization, and disengaged employees who don't feel intellectually challenged.
What you can do on your end:
Research ideas to have a clear focus of what you'd like to learn about and even the resources more specifically you have in mind (a specific conference with date, location, and estimated cost).
Connect your professional development goals to how it can impact your team or the organization - what's the value it will bring?
What you can ask for from your manager or organization:
What upcoming learning opportunities are being planned already?
What is the budget for our team or me for education or training?
How can I get a training or learning opportunity approved?
Ready to find out what's really driving your burnout? Check out the free What's Causing Your Burnout? guide and rate the 29 factors for yourself. Take the self-assessment here.
Brittany Canaski is a highly-rated Leadership Coach, Trainer, and Founder of Hello Velocity where she builds confident leaders and high-performing teams. When she's not building her business, you can find her planning her next travel adventure with her husband, watching Formula 1 racing, or volunteering in her local community of Charlotte, NC.
