If your answer to feeling overwhelmed is to work harder…this one’s for you.
The trap hiding inside your work ethic
There’s a belief running through most workplaces right now. That the path to recognition and advancement is built on MORE. More hours. More deliverables. More availability. More yes.
For a lot of high achievers, that belief got baked in early. Especially for GenX (me), I feel! Work harder than everyone else, and eventually the results will speak for themselves.
For a while, it works. But at a certain point in your career, what got you here starts working against you. Constant output signals capacity, not leadership. It invites more work, not more opportunity. You become the person everyone relies on, and somehow that makes you more likely to be overlooked. We see this particularly with high-achieving women, who are often conditioned to out-perform rather than out-lead. But the trap catches leaders across the board.
So what happens if nothing changes?
Burnout isn’t just tiredness. It’s a fundamental depletion of the cognitive, emotional and physical resources that leadership demands. Decision-making suffers. Creativity suffers. Emotional regulation suffers. And then one of two things happens: you leave, or you stay and lead from an empty vessel. Neither is good for you or the people around you.
The shift looks different.
Leaders who move from volume of output to strategic contribution get their time and energy back. They make better decisions. They build stronger teams. And they stop being seen as reliable high performers and start being seen as leaders. That’s sustainable. The treadmill isn’t.
It’s not about the kilometres
It reminds me of when I trained for a half marathon a few years ago. Nobody trains for a marathon by running 42km every day. It’s the right mix of sprints, intervals, long runs and deliberate recovery that gets you to the finish line. Not more is more, the right activity at the right time gets you there.
When indispensable becomes a trap
Claire was a General Manager in retail who, by every external measure, was succeeding. Strong results and trusted by her team and stakeholders. She came to coaching not because anything was wrong, but because she felt “like I’m running on fumes and nobody knows.”
She was working 80-hour weeks, answering emails at midnight, saying yes to everything because she was terrified a no would signal she wasn’t committed enough.
When we mapped where her energy was actually going, two things became clear. Most of her effort was going into work beneath her level. And she had built her identity around being indispensable and a subject matter expert. Which, we discovered, is a trap.
Indispensable means you can’t be promoted. There’s no one to replace you.
We shifted her from doing to leading. From proving to positioning. Within three months her energy was back, her team had grown, and she’d been offered a stretch assignment she never would have had capacity for before.
The science backs it up
Stanford research found that productivity per hour drops sharply after 50 hours of work per week and falls to near zero after 55. You’re not doing more. You’re just doing it longer.
Brené Brown’s research adds another dimension: the leaders who build the most durable influence aren’t the ones projecting invulnerability through relentless output. They’re the ones leading with clarity, boundaries, and authenticity.
Where you sit in this matrix determines whether your effort is building your career or quietly burning you out.
Here’s where to start
1. Audit where your energy is actually going
For one week, track not just your tasks but the level of leadership each one actually demands. How much of your week is spent on work that’s genuinely at your level? How much is gap-filling, detail-managing, or doing things that belong to someone else? The data will be confronting. It will also be clarifying.
2. Redefine what high performance looks like at your level
At senior leadership, high performance is not about output volume. It’s about quality of thinking, clarity of direction, strength of relationships, and the capability of the team you’re building. If your definition of high performance still looks like the one that got you promoted three roles ago, it needs updating.
3. Make one strategic no this week
Not a blanket refusal. A deliberate, considered no to something beneath your level, outside your priorities, or that someone else could and should be doing. Notice what happens. Usually, far less than you feared.
4. Invest in your recovery as seriously as your performance
Recovery is not a reward for hard work. It’s a prerequisite for sustained high performance. Schedule it with the same non-negotiability as your most important meetings. Your capacity to lead is the most important asset you’re managing.
Worth sitting with
Anne Lamott said it simply: almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.
This is exactly what we built the Inner Edge Leadership Accelerator for:
The Inner Edge is a 10-week program for women in leadership, running September to November 2026. I’m co-facilitating with Lyn Hawkins, National Director of Business Women Australia. Together we help you lead with more influence, visibility and sustainability.
I’d love you to take a look. Find out more and register here: https://businesswomenaustralia.com.au/inner-edge-leadership-accelerator/