May 28, 2025

She was burning out in silence.

She was burning out in silence.

A Founder leading a $9M company came to me last quarter:
- Working 80+ hour weeks
- Hadn't taken a real vacation in 3 years
- Dreading the meetings she used to love

Here's what we uncovered:

→ The High-Performer's Paradox

- Success creates more demands
- More demands need more energy
- Less energy means poorer decisions
(The loop that kills companies)

→ The Silent Signals

- Trading deep work for reactive mode
- "Just one more email" at 11pm
- Stopped mentoring her leaders
- Quick answers instead of real conversations

→ The System Reset

Week 1-2: Energy Audit
- Track every task that drained vs. energized
- Found 43% of her time was misaligned

Week 3-4: Boundary Installation
- No-meeting Wednesdays
- 2-hour deep work blocks daily
- Actual lunch breaks (revolutionary, right?)

Week 5-6: Team Recalibration
- Vulnerable conversations with direct reports
- Systematic delegation of non-Founder work
- Trust-building through transparency

The Result?
- Revenue up 22% so far this year
- Team NPS scores improved 76%
- And she's taking her first 2-week vacation in years

High performance shouldn't cost your health.
Strong leaders need stronger support systems.