5 Hidden Burnout Risks for High Achievers

What if burnout is not only about how much you work, but what you believe success requires from you?

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, I sit down with Nabeela Elsayed, MS, ACC, author of Breaking Burnout, to explore why high achievers can become exhausted even when they love their work, have supportive leaders and are succeeding on paper. Her research challenges the idea that burnout can always be explained by a toxic workplace or an individual who simply needs better boundaries.

For HR leaders, the conversation raises a bigger question about how we think about wellbeing at work. Burnout sits inside a wider system of work, relationships, caregiving, identity, expectations and personal beliefs, which means sustainable performance may require organisations and individuals to rethink far more than workload alone.

5 things you’ll learn from this episode:

1. Why some of the highest-performing people can also be the most vulnerable to burnout
2. The success belief Nabeela believes can keep people working harder long after hard work stops helping
3. Why having a strong sense of purpose can sometimes create an unexpected burnout risk
4. What Nabeela learned from sports scientists about performing at a high level without constantly operating at maximum intensity
5. The identity shift that can help ambitious people build a healthier relationship with work without giving up ambition

🙏 Thank you to our series partner, Leapsome

The companies pulling furthest ahead are already rewriting how HR works. Explore 5,000+ data points from 100 leading tech companies and learn what their 2027 playbook looks like → https://hubs.li/Q04wvZ7g0

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