Overwhelm is easy to miss and costly to ignore. As a leader, your job is to recognize when capable people are quietly running on empty, burning out, or disengaging—and intervene accordingly. Here’s how.
Spot the silence and the strain. Don’t mistake calm for calmness. Overwhelm often hides behind composure or quiet disengagement. Watch for subtle signs: restlessness, missed deadlines, indecision, or working through breaks. Ask open-ended questions to surface what’s really going on.
Create micro-control in unpredictable times. When everything feels urgent and uncertain, help your team regain focus. Break down big goals, clarify what matters most, and align on what can wait. Small doses of predictability restore a sense of control.
Recalibrate expectations—starting with your own. Perfectionism and invisible standards fuel overwhelm. Replace assumptions with shared definitions of success. Ask, “What does 80% done look like?” or “Where can we let go?” to lower pressure without lowering ambition.
Make it safe for people to say “I’m at capacity.” Model and normalize boundary-setting. Shift from “Can you take this on?” to “What would make this manageable?” Publicly support those who speak up.
Design work for recovery, not endurance. Encourage rhythms of effort and rest. Normalize breaks, time off, and mental detachment as essential to performance—not perks. |
