Burnout and avoiding it - helping professionals stay high performing

by Steven Ma, Chief Operating Officer, Comet CX
Line editing and transcription assistance by ChatGPT

Let’s talk about burnout.

As a founder, it is very easy to become narrowly focused on delivering the work above almost everything else. Looking after your people, your family, and yourself often slips down the priority list, sometimes precisely because you believe those things will sort themselves out later.

Founder mentality tends to reward taking on hard problems personally. Early on, this is often necessary. When a company is one or two people, there is no real choice but to do everything yourself. Those habits can serve you well in the earliest stages.

The problem is that those same habits do not scale.

Once a company reaches a certain size, even eight people and certainly by the time it reaches fifteen, it is still small enough to feel manageable, but large enough that the reality changes. You can no longer hold everything in your head or carry every responsibility yourself. This is often where burnout begins to take hold.

Burnout is difficult to recognise in yourself, partly because one of its symptoms is a loss of perspective. Things that would normally feel manageable start to feel overwhelming. Judgement narrows. Emotional responses become sharper or flatter. Sleep becomes disrupted. Work thoughts begin to trigger physical stress responses. You may feel constantly exhausted or simply over it.

Some of the most useful things I wish I had taken seriously earlier are surprisingly simple.

One is having at least one person you meet with regularly who can hear the full, unfiltered version of how things are going. This might be a partner, a fellow founder, an advisor, or someone who understands the weight you are carrying and will tell you the truth.

Another is staying close to people who know your baseline well enough to notice when you are not yourself. Friends or family who see you regularly and are honest enough to say something when your behaviour, energy, or outlook has shifted can be an early warning system you cannot replicate alone.

None of this replaces speaking with a mental health professional. If reading this raises concern or distress, it is important to speak with a qualified practitioner or to reach out for support.

If you are in Australia and need immediate support:

• Lifeline: 13 11 14 — 24/7 crisis support and suicide prevention
• Beyond Blue Support Service: 1300 22 4636 — 24/7 mental health support

These services are available to talk things through in confidence.