Burnout Is a Leadership Problem: Here’s How to Fix It

About the Author

Nick Herinckx is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Oxygen, a manager development academy helping high-growth companies close the execution gap. A former fast-scaling CEO and longtime executive coach, Nick has helped hundreds of leaders build stronger, more effective teams. Follow him at @NickHerinckx.

Overview

Burnout isn’t about weak employees or a lack of resilience. It’s a leadership problem. When expectations are unclear, workloads are unsustainable, and managers aren’t equipped, burnout spreads across organizations. The cost is staggering: hundreds of billions each year in lost productivity, turnover, and healthcare. The good news? Leaders have the power to fix it. By investing in managers, creating clarity, and modeling healthy behaviors, executives can reduce burnout and unlock stronger performance.

Key Takeaways

• Burnout is driven by leadership and organizational choices, not just individual stress.

• Leaders can address burnout by equipping managers, creating clarity, and modeling sustainable behaviors.

• Manager training delivers measurable ROI: higher engagement, lower turnover, and stronger performance.

Burnout Is Costing You More Than You Think

If you’re a senior leader, here’s a hard truth: burnout is your problem.

Not because you’re the one feeling it (though odds are you’ve been there too), but because burnout in your organization is the result of decisions leaders make. Decisions they make  about workloads, priorities, culture, and how managers are trained.

And the cost is enormous:

• Workplace stress is linked to $190 billion annually in U.S. healthcare costs (Harvard Business Review).

• Burnout contributes to $322 billion globally in lost productivity and turnover (Gallup + Workhuman).

• The World Health Organization estimates $1 trillion is lost each year in productivity due to workplace stress.

If you’re not addressing burnout, you’re paying for it — whether you see it in your P&L or not.

Why Burnout Is a Leadership Problem

Too often, companies treat burnout like an individual issue: “take time off,” “do yoga,” or “practice mindfulness.” Those tactics can help on the margins, but they don’t fix the root cause.

Burnout happens when:

• Expectations are unclear (employees don’t know what success looks like).

• Workloads are unsustainable (too much work, not enough resources).

• Managers lack tools (leaving teams unsupported).

• Culture rewards urgency over clarity (everything is a fire drill).

These aren’t employee problems. They’re leadership problems. And they’re solvable.

3 Leadership Levers to Reduce Burnout

1. Equip Your Managers

Managers are the oxygen of your company. They account for up to 70% of the variance in employee engagement. If they don’t have the skills to set clear goals, delegate, or give feedback, burnout will cascade through their teams.

The fix: Give managers structured training and support. Not just theory, but hands-on tools like SMART goals, clear roles, and effective feedback models.

2. Create Clarity and Focus

Ambiguity fuels burnout. When teams don’t know priorities, everything feels urgent. Leaders need to provide focus by setting clear goals, aligning on what matters most, and cutting the noise.

The fix: Define success clearly, limit priorities, and empower managers to say no to distractions.

3. Model Healthy Leadership

Leaders set the tone. If executives glorify overwork or constantly dive into the weeds, managers and employees follow suit. If leaders set boundaries and emphasize outcomes over hours, culture shifts.

The fix: Be intentional. Protect time for strategy. Show managers that it’s safe to lead sustainably.

The ROI of Preventing Burnout

Here’s the good news: fixing burnout isn’t just about preventing turnover (though that alone is worth millions). Stronger managers and healthier teams drive measurable ROI:

• Higher engagement and productivity

• Lower healthcare and absenteeism costs

• More time for leaders to focus on growth

When one organization partnered with Oxygen, managers improved dramatically in just three months:

• Relationship-building excellence nearly tripled (20% → 55%)

• Delegation excellence jumped from 4% → 22%

• Difficult conversations: 0% → 16.7% rated themselves excellent

That’s what happens when you invest in managers. Burnout decreases. Confidence increases. Performance improves.

Don’t Let Burnout Fester

Burnout won’t go away on its own. And it won’t be solved by wellness apps or one-off initiatives. It’s a leadership problem, which means it’s on you (and your managers) to fix it.

Equip your managers. Create clarity. Model sustainable leadership. Do that, and you’ll not only reduce burnout , you’ll unlock the full potential of your team.

👉 Ready to get started? Take the Burnout Quiz and see where your team stands today.