Beyond burnout: strategies for sustainable & inclusive high performance
Unlike popular belief, burnout is not just a personal problem - it’s a workplace culture issue.
Yes, we said it!
We hear it in executive coaching sessions.
We feel it in team check-ins or teams’ sessions we facilitate.
We see it in the behavioural resignations (often quiet) that happen long before a notice is handed in.
The truth? Many of your best people are tired. Not just ‘need-a-holiday’ tired - yet existentially tired.
And yet… your organisation still needs to perform and meet financial targets.
Because growth targets don’t stop, clients still expect excellence and teams still need strong leadership.
The question becomes: how do we pursue high performance without leaving our people drained in the process?
At High Fifteen, we believe the answer is in shifting the question - from ‘how do we avoid burnout?’ to ‘how do we create the conditions for sustainable energy, clarity and purpose?’
It’s time to move beyond ‘burnout thinking’.
Let’s be clear: free yoga and mental health webinars are nice yet they are NOT the answer. Especially not, if your culture still glorifies overworking, presenteeism and confusion over smart working, efficiency, trust and clarity.
If we want to do better, we need to look deeper. Here are 3 fresh strategies we use to help HR leaders, execs and teams create cultures of sustainable high performance:
1. Simplify complexity to reduce cognitive load
Burnout doesn’t always come from too much work - it often comes from too much ‘unclarity’, that can manifest in the form of:
Ever shifting priorities
Vague expectations
Endless Slack messages, Teams pings and calendar overload
All of this creates cognitive friction. And cognitive friction = energy drain, which differs from high performance.
Try this:
✔️ Create ‘anti-chaos rituals’ - simple systems for priority setting, decision-making and communication
✔️ Cut the noise: fewer meetings and better agendas
✔️ Say why something matters, not just what to do
High performance thrives in clarity, not chaos.
2. Reframe resilience as collective - not just personal
We often talk about resilience as an individual skill - yet people don’t burn out in isolation. They burn out in groups and cultures where:
Performance is praised but recovery is punished
Speaking up feels risky and unsafe
Connection is replaced by competition
Resilience should be built together.
That means:
✔️Creating permission for honest conversations
✔️Leaders modelling boundaries and vulnerability
✔️Teams actively supporting each other during pressure times
When resilience becomes part of team culture, not just a personal responsibility, everyone just breathes easier.
3. Reignite purpose - and make it practical
When people lose connection to why they do the work, burnout creeps in fast.
Purpose is not just about fluffy missions.
It’s about:
Knowing the scope and impact of your role
Feeling your work matters and is valued
Seeing how you contribute to a bigger picture
Ask your teams:
‘What feels most energising about your work right now?’
‘Where are you spending energy and what return is it creating?’
‘How can we align your work with what lights you up?’
At High Fifteen, we help leaders re-anchor their people in purpose - and make sure it shows up in the everyday, not just the values slide deck.
What is the goal, you ask? It is high performance with humanity!
Because high performance without sustainability is just… sprinting toward a wall and not stopping before you hit it (to be clear).
Yet, high performance with clarity, care and compassion?
Trust that it is where:
Your people thrive
Innovation happens
You are a great leader, that influences, guides and inspires others with high energy.
Ready to shift from burnout management to energy leadership? Let’s talk.
From team workshops to leadership coaching, High Fifteen helps organisations move from survival mode to sustainable brilliance - with culture strategies that actually work.