We’re Expecting the Wrong Things From Leaders And It’s Causing Leadership Burnout: A #straightfromcait episode.
Show notes
If you're a leader who's exhausted, this one's for you. Cait Donovan, host of FRIED: The Burnout Podcast has spent over a decade coaching leaders through burnout — and the pattern is clear: expectations have skyrocketed, but support hasn't followed. In this episode, she draws on real stories, her upcoming book *The Match Move*, and 10+ years of field research to break down exactly what belongs on a leader's plate and what doesn't.
Key Topics Covered
- Why leaders are burning out at unprecedented rates and why it's not their fault
- The growing gap between what leaders are expected to be and what they're actually supported to do
- Why burnout and stress are biologically contagious and what it means when leaders hit their limit
- A real story about a manager who said "no" and changed an employee's entire understanding of leadership
- The four things leaders ARE genuinely responsible for: workload, clarity, resources, and culture
- The things leaders are NOT responsible for: being a therapist, life coach, nutritionist, or sleep consultant
- The "match/mismatch" framework from the upcoming book *The Match Move*
- Why working on your own alignment isn't selfish, it's true leadership
If you're in a leadership role and you're running on empty, this episode is your permission to stop carrying what was never yours to carry. Host of FRIED: The Burnout Podcast has worked with over 60 companies — Fortune 500s, nonprofits, startups — and coached hundreds of leaders and teams through burnout. In almost 350 episodes, one pattern has emerged above all others: we are asking leaders to do the impossible, and then wondering why they're breaking.
In this episode, she maps out the dangerous gap between rising leadership expectations and stagnant organizational support — and explains why that gap is the single biggest driver of leader burnout today. You'll learn exactly which responsibilities belong to leaders and which don't, hear a powerful real-world story about a manager who modeled healthy boundaries, and be introduced to the "match/mismatch" framework from her upcoming book, *The Match Move*.
Whether you're a senior executive or a first-time manager, this episode will change how you think about leadership, capacity, and burnout culture.
If you could use this type of support for your leaders, book a call with Cait today:
https://caitdonovan.as.me/inquiry
Cait is available for keynotes, leadership retreats, offsites, nonprofit conferences, workshops, ongoing advisory work and more.