Running on Empty: Overwork Exhausts — And Amplifies Self-Doubt
Depletion can be physical and cognitive. When it becomes chronic it can soften a leader’s self-trust.
Leaders who are depleted face challenges with focus and self-doubt, which can impact team performance and engagement
There’s pattern I regularly see in my work.
Leaders who arrive to partner with me are flattened. Their workload has been rising, sometimes for years. They’re managing demands from all sides and downtime is never enough to recenter.
Paralleling these is a less visible impact. One that’s pernicious and damaging because it impacts leaders and teams, as well.
They’re trusting themselves less. But often they don’t see it.
When we meet, these leaders will describe issues with confidence or weak communication. They may be frustrated by their low energy and deflated enthusiasm for a career that once fueled them. They may take any of these as signs it’s time to move on.
Self-doubt contributes to these conditions. And it can influence how a leader is seen at a time when calm, self-assured leadership is most needed.
Yet the impact of prolonged overwork and stress on a leader’s cognitive capability isn’t often part of the conversation.
THE MECHANISM
Overwork depletes cognitive resources that self-assured leadership requires
Confidence, or self-efficacy, is the belief in our ability to perform well in a given environment and it’s not a static condition. Self-efficacy can be grown. But strengthening it takes energy.
When a leader’s inner resources are depleted, whether due to work demands, long-term stress or inadequate rest, they’re operating at a diminished capacity.
They may start the workday leading well. But in high-pressure industries and institutions that are facing intense uncertainty merely navigating the workplace takes more cognitive load.
In a depleted state, the actions that demand confidence and self-regulation—
Delivering feedback to a peer that’s direct and respectful
Being decisive in determining the direction of a new investment
Negotiating calmly with a prickly CFO.
become much harder. Judgment can also suffer.
Neuroscience shows that depletion can compromise perceptions, hindering a leader’s ability to assess threats (generally seeing more of them). They’re also more vulnerable to cycling thoughts and rumination, which fuels self-doubt.
THE CHALLENGE
Depletion and self-doubt reinforce each other
Two longitudinal studies of healthcare providers and social workers — sectors I serve — found a clear and troubling sequence:
Greater depletion predicted a decline in confidence over six months as well as an increase in disengagment.
In other words, a leader who’s depleted does not experience a weakening of confidence that plateaus. Over time their confidence can slip further and lead to separation and disengagement.
In my practice, I’ve observed these leaders struggle to make decisions, even with deep experience to draw from. They mistrust and downplay their strengths and often are overly harsh in assessing their own performance.
When teams observe leaders who are holed up in their offices, have declined meetings or appear to be “phoning it in” may in fact be signs of deep cognitive exhaustion, self-doubt and coping.
WHAT’S MISINTERPRETED
Flawed Leaders or Ineffective Institutions? How often are “poor” leaders cognitively compromised?
When leaders decline in confidence it can show up as avoidance, deference or postponement of decision-making or excessive management. Without a wider perspective, these behaviors may be assumed to be a leader’s personality, evidence of poor communication skills or shallow experience.
What deserves more consideration is the institutional culture and history. How long have leaders been operating in under-resourced conditions? How many reorgs or layoffs have occurred? Have leaders lost valued team members or peers?
If leaders are anxious about job security, grieving change or managing through resource scarcity, this will impact how they lead. Not surprisingly, research shows that a leader’s anxiety and stress can be transmitted to teams, affecting performance and wellbeing.
Depleted leaders aren’t struggling alone. Their teams are, too.
A BETTER PATH FORWARD
Restoring efficacy in depleted leaders requires addressing conditions and cognitive replenishment
Self-efficacy can be built.
Over decades, research has shown that leaders cannot only deflect self-doubt, but fuel deeper, lasting confidence by addressing depletion. It’s possible to fortify our leaders. But this must include acknowledging what leaders have been carrying.
Organizations that invest in resources for their leaders and teams, empower and support recovery and aim for sustained performance (instead of anxious striving) are better positioned to retain high-performing leaders and teams — and their gifts. By protecting and investing in sustained leadership, they’re ensuring today’s leaders have the inner resources, practices and external support to succeed for the long term.
The leaders I work with are not struggling because they’re flawed. They’re struggling because they’ve been asked to overwork for too long, leading teams in cultures wedded to productivity over human sustainability.
It’s time we changed that.
