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Burnout is rising across the board for 3 reasons.
CEOs and other organizational leaders are under more pressure than ever. Stress has always been part of leadership, but now it’s reached a new level. According to DDI's Global Leadership Forecast 2025, 71% of leaders worldwide report significantly higher stress levels since stepping into their current roles. This increase in stress isn't just about longer hours or too many meetings. It's emotional labor, decision fatigue, and systemic organizational strain. Combining these elements equates to a recipe for burnout: a burden that no meditation app alone can fix.
This pressure isn't confined to the C-suite. The report, which surveyed over 10,000 leaders across industries, shows that leadership burnout is widespread. If left unaddressed, companies won't just lose in the war for talent—they'll lose the very resilience and profitability that leadership is meant to protect.
What's Fueling Leader's Burnout?
Improving a leader's resilience and performance requires more than basic wellness perks and digital detoxes. Burnout isn't simply about being overworked. It's about the invisible forces that chip away at a leader's effectiveness, clarity, and emotional energy. The DDI report points to three key contributors:
1. Face-Time Fatigue
Leaders working onsite report the highest stress levels (74%) compared to hybrid (72%) and remote (66%) individuals. These results aren't an argument against return-to-office mandates. Instead, they're a reminder of the pressure that face-to-face work can bring. Leaders are expected to project constant "executive presence." That emotional labor—being "on" all day—takes a toll.
2. The Hybrid And Remote Work Paradox
Despite lower reported stress levels, burnout is higher among hybrid (57%) and remote (56%) leaders. Isolation, blurred work-life boundaries, and constant context-switching all standout. Even if the calendar looks lighter, workers' cognitive and emotional strain may be heavier.
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