Building performance without burning people out

Spencer Jones

Guest Columnist

August 24, 2026

Six months ago, I started this series with The Business News by sharing one of the lowest points in my life after burning out.

Though I looked successful externally, internally I was falling apart.

But there’s a part of the story I haven’t shared much in these columns. 

What happened next.

After hitting my rock bottom, I didn’t change my ambition.

I changed what was driving it.

I still wanted to speak around the world, grow personally and professionally and build a business that impacts one billion people.

But instead of leading with ego and trying to “prove” myself, I changed the internal rules that guided my ambition underneath it all.
As I wrote earlier in this series, I had built what I now call a “Pressure Identity,” aka the version of you that runs under pressure.

I no longer felt the need, nor did I want to prove my value through accomplishments, always outperforming, never disappointing, etc.

However, it took me a bit to figure out what the new internal rules would be.
I realized I was carrying expectations, beliefs and responsibilities that were not actually mine to carry.

I started creating clearer agreements with myself and others and letting go of what no longer aligned with how I wanted to lead.
To be clear, the circumstances didn’t magically disappear.

I learned to carry them differently.

I never lost my ambition – I just changed the fuel behind it.

My ambition became healthier and more sustainable.

Pressure isn’t necessarily the problem

How we’re carrying and processing the pressure matters tremendously.

When leaders build more internal capacity, decisions get cleaner, priorities become clearer, delegation gets easier, reactivity drops and there is more room to think beyond the next fire.

When there is less noise internally, leaders have more room to lead externally.

And that can make a huge difference.

Not only for the culture of the organization but for client retention, healthcare costs and even bottom-line profits.

In my fourth column, I talked about the riptide of leadership stress.

What leaders carry, the team feels.

Though that is true for stress, the opposite is also true.

Steadiness spreads, clarity spreads, confidence spreads. 

A leader who doesn’t panic when something goes wrong can change how everyone else responds.

The leader who trusts people enough to delegate can create ownership.

A leader who can have a hard conversation without becoming reactive can make it safer for everyone else to speak honestly.

What leaders carry, teams and even clients feel.

And when leaders change, teams and clients feel that, too.

Increased capacity

Readers of my previous columns may remember Ted, the fictional insurance CEO I’ve used to explore the pressures and challenges leaders face. 

He was overwhelmed, reactive and constantly looking for the next tool to make things easier. His team felt it, too.

But not now!

Why?

Ted’s circumstances haven’t magically improved.

He still has the same staffing issues, same customers, same margins and same unpredictable problems.
The difference is Ted.

He catches himself before walking frustrated into a meeting.

He stops taking every new problem onto his own plate.

Instead of becoming the bottleneck, Ted starts handing decisions back to the people closest to them.

When he gets bad news, he pauses before responding.

And though he is still interested in the latest and greatest tools and technology, he learns to fully utilize a few he already has, then slowly adds others as he has the capacity and as they align with what he actually needs.

Ted didn’t eliminate pressure.

He increased his capacity to handle it.

And in turn, his company and clients feel the difference.

Performance built to last

Organizations absolutely have a responsibility to create healthier environments.

And leaders can build greater internal capacity for whatever comes their way.

Sustainable human performance requires both: healthier environments around people and greater capacity within them.

Gallup has shown through its long-standing workplace research that managers account for a large share of the variance in employee engagement across business units.

If leaders have that much influence over how employees experience work, then helping leaders become steadier, clearer and healthier isn’t simply a personal wellness initiative.

It’s an organizational performance strategy.

And when implemented well, it can improve both human outcomes and business performance.

Sustainable human performance isn’t about removing pressure from leadership – that’s unrealistic.

It’s about developing leaders who can stay calm, clear and effective when pressure hits without sacrificing themselves or leaking that pressure into everyone around them.

This isn’t lower performance – it’s performance built to last.

Future of leadership

Over the past six months, we’ve explored burnout; the internal rules that drive high performers; what chronic stress does to the brain; how leadership pressure spreads; and why we need to rethink high performance.

It all leads back to one question: How do we build leaders who can succeed without sacrificing themselves in the process?
The answer I’ve come to time and time again: sustainable human performance.

What is your organization rewarding, and what is it quietly eroding?
Are you rewarding the person who is always available?

The leader who carries everything?

The person who never says no, even when the load is no longer sustainable?

Because often, the behaviors organizations celebrate today create the problems they will pay for tomorrow.
We don’t have to choose between people and performance.

When the people driving growth have the capacity, tools and support to sustain it, businesses can grow, create jobs, serve more customers and make a greater impact without burning through the people making it possible.

Pressure will always be a part of leadership.

The goal isn’t to eliminate it or sacrifice ourselves trying to carry it.

It’s to learn how to manage it in a way that allows people and performance to endure.

That’s sustainable human performance.

That’s what the future of leadership demands.