#474 Führungs-Burnout: Das versteckte Risiko – Strategien für nachhaltige Leadership-Exzellenz | Artikel von Niels Brabandt
Führungs-Burnout: Das versteckte Risiko – Strategien für nachhaltige Leadership-Exzellenz
Artikel von Niels Brabandt
Führungs-Burnout ist eines der am meisten unterschätzten Risiken moderner Organisationen. Während klassischer Burnout längst Teil der öffentlichen Diskussion ist, bleibt Leadership Burnout häufig unsichtbar – mit gravierenden Folgen für Unternehmenserfolg, Kultur und Entscheidungsqualität. Niels Brabandt analysiert die Ursachen und zeigt evidenzbasierte Lösungsansätze.
Die aktuelle Situation ist geprägt von wachsender Komplexität. Führungskräfte sehen sich gleichzeitig mit Digitalisierung, KI-Integration und multiplen Veränderungsinitiativen konfrontiert. Diese Entwicklungen sind notwendig, werden jedoch oft ohne strukturelle Priorisierung umgesetzt. Die Folge ist ein Zustand permanenter Überforderung.
Ein zentraler Treiber ist die sogenannte Rolleninflation. Führungskräfte übernehmen parallel operative, strategische und projektbezogene Rollen. Hinzu kommen Gremienarbeit, Stellvertretungen und informelle Erwartungen. Diese Mehrfachbelastung führt nicht zu mehr Wirkung, sondern zu Fragmentierung und ineffizientem Einsatz von Ressourcen.
Ein weiteres Problem ist die permanente Sichtbarkeit. Meetings ohne klare Zielsetzung, symbolische Präsenz und fehlende inhaltliche Tiefe führen zu kognitiver Erschöpfung. Führung wird zur Inszenierung statt zur wirksamen Steuerung.
Besonders kritisch ist der Umgang mit hybrider Arbeit. Ohne klare Regeln verschwimmen Grenzen zwischen Arbeit und Erholung. Führungskräfte arbeiten bis spät in die Nacht, ohne Regeneration. Dies ist kein Zeichen von Engagement, sondern ein strukturelles Versagen der Organisation.
Die Indikatoren sind eindeutig. Studien zeigen, dass rund 75 Prozent der Führungskräfte sich überlastet fühlen. Gleichzeitig fehlt es an systematischer Ausbildung: Über 80 Prozent haben nie formale Leadership-Schulung erhalten.
Die Lösung liegt in drei Kernbereichen. Erstens: klare Entscheidungen. Organisationen müssen Leadership Burnout als strategisches Risiko anerkennen. Zweitens: professionelle Unterstützung. Training, Coaching und evidenzbasierte Programme sind unerlässlich. Drittens: Leadership Science. Führung ist eine Disziplin, die erlernt werden muss – fundiert, praxisnah und wissenschaftlich basiert.
Nachhaltige Organisationen investieren nicht nur in Technologie, sondern in die Kompetenz ihrer Führungskräfte. Wer Leadership Burnout ignoriert, riskiert nicht nur Leistungseinbußen, sondern langfristig den Verlust von Talent und Reputation.
Niels Brabandt zeigt: Exzellente Führung ist kein Zufall, sondern das Ergebnis systematischer Entwicklung.
Niels Brabandt
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Mehr zu diesem Thema im dieswöchtigen Podcast und Videocast: mit Niels Brabandt: Videocast / Apple Podcasts / Spotify
Das Transkript zum Podcast und Videocast befindet sich unter diesem Artikel.
Ihnen ist exzellente Führungsarbeit wichtig?
Lassen Sie uns sprechen: NB@NB-Networks.com
Kontakt: Niels Brabandt on LinkedIn
Webseite: www.NB-Networks.biz
Podcast und Videocast Transkript
Niels Brabandt
Do you sometimes feel burned out at work, or you don't feel too great, or a bit, as you say, under the weather? Well, when you now think, "Oh, he's talking about burnout, isn't he?" Yes, I am, but not from the angle you think. We talked about burnout in the past; however, especially during the last couple of weeks and months, we received multiple emails. I also thank you very much for anyone showing up to my talk during the Future People Development Expo and Fair we had in Hamburg and Northern Germany just last week, and addressing this issue once more. Yes, we had an episode about burnout, especially regarding people who work in organizations, but so far—and of course, it's important to talk about that. However, it's also important that there is something which is called leadership burnout, and today we're going to talk about the hidden risk of leadership burnout.
Niels Brabandt
So hello and welcome. What about leadership burnout? Where does it come from? Is it actually a thing, and what can we do about it? Leadership burnout means—very important—I'm going to quote a real-world topic here, and I'm going to show you a real-world article. Very important here: under the Fair Use, Fair Dealing Act in the US and the UK, I'm allowed to show these articles. In the German-speaking area, it's just—it's just the quotation, right? So I just can prove to you this is nothing I just made up. This is actually part of the actual discussion we have at the moment. At the moment, we are talking about leadership burnout more and more. You see these articles from December 2025, especially in the first quarter of this year. The numbers are rising again. More and more people say, "I'm not feeling too well, and I don't know where this comes from." And now we have to talk about where does this come from? What can we actually do?
Niels Brabandt
So the situation at the moment is people say—and especially leaders say—the complexity is getting out of hand, and one aspect is mentioned particularly, and that is AI. And by the way, not in a negative way. People did not approach me and say, "As a leader, I don't want AI," or "As a leader, I don't think we should use AI." Anyone sees that AI is crucially important for businesses. However, however, people also said, "I really don't see how to structurally implement that without either running tremendous risks, or what should we do about how to mitigate any kind of risk we see?"
Niels Brabandt
They—they say the complexity is there. I just give you an example. Just last week, I gave a talk, including interactive elements, for—for leaders who are all in the senior executive leadership team of a large, well-known international corporation, Stock Exchange Listed. And these people, who all make their six-digit amount of money, very well deserved, suddenly one of them said, "Oh, I just found out, by the way, Copilot—did you know, Niels? Did you know that Copilot can read screenshots? It actually understands the picture." And so first, yes, I did know that. And second, that's not particularly new. That is something which is at least two or three years old, if not older. When we started at the very beginning, it's probably almost—almost five, depending on which context you see, maybe even ten years old. So you see that people didn't even use the technology, despite the fact it is their job to tell their people and their teams, "You should implement AI absolutely anywhere."
Niels Brabandt
The other aspect of that is that they say the—the complexity of initiatives we have at the moment is getting out of hand. They simply don't know how to put all of this together. And when people say, "Hey, there aren't that many projects," they say that's often one person's point of view. When you are a department lead, probably you think this is the one project, but we have eight different runs at the same time. And here we get to the next critical aspect: it's role inflation. You're suddenly a leader of your department, and then you are a team lead within a certain project, and then, of course, you help this other team also. So you're a team lead there, and then you are the deputy team lead of someone else because when they are not there, you have to help them. When they are, for example, going for their paid annual leave, then you help them there. Also, you are in a different steering committee. You are in a task force. You're also in the sourcing council, and so on and so forth.
Niels Brabandt
The role inflation that anyone suddenly has—eleven different roles with oh-so-amazing titles—without actually knowing what they're doing there sometimes is becoming an issue because people now think, "Okay, I have these titles, so I have to do something. I need to be present." And what happens here is the so-called permanent visibility. The permanent visibility means people show up to meetings, and let's face it, you have been there as well. You are in the meeting. Anyone has turned off their camera. Anyone has turned off their sound. Some person's blabbing around with their PowerPoint presentation. No one's listening. They are all doing their emails, or they're working on something else. And as soon as someone asks a question, you actually know. When the presenter asks a question, you know that the people weren't listening because the answers are so bland that you are absolutely aware of the fact they didn't prepare for the meeting. They are not up to date on the topic, and they are not giving proper answers. They say something like, "Oh yeah, I think you made a good point here. I think it's crucially important that we leverage the power of the community, and we need to put the resources into goal-oriented use to achieve maximum impact." Yeah, well, great. Another 35 seconds of my life, which I will never get back with absolutely zero content.
Niels Brabandt
So here we are with the first aspect. The situation is on the way of getting slightly out of hand, especially when economic pressure rises. Sometimes people start to play political games in organizations. They fear about their jobs. They don't know if they find a new job, and so on and so forth. So you see that these indicators are suddenly becoming extremely relevant.
Niels Brabandt
When we now look into what's going on from here, we have to see what are the indicators we can actually see. And when you read the article which I linked in the beginning, I showed you in the beginning another article as well. Roughly three-quarters say they feel somehow used at work, and used does not mean they say, "I feel underpaid," or "I feel undervalued." They simply say it is just a bit too much on all ends at the moment. And these are the very early signs of something is going wrong. And this time, unlike the times before, I'd like to address the issue way before we get into the next crisis.
Niels Brabandt
Let's face it, before—when—when—when the whole burnout aspect didn't even exist, what did we do when people suddenly called in sick because they said they just can't handle it anymore? We said, "You're too weak. Not everyone is hard enough. Not everyone is tough enough. It's a tough business. Some people can do it. Some people can't. And maybe you are just too weak." So here you are. These indicators—75% at the moment, three-quarters—say they are—they—they—they feel somehow used, and that's a very clear indicator we have to do something.
Niels Brabandt
And one aspect of that is hybrid work. And very important is hybrid work in general is good. So the idea, before anyone makes an allusion to that or makes something up, the idea is not to call everyone back into the office. That is not the solution to your leadership issues. So the hybrid approach is a good approach. However, when you now say, "Go for it," many people say, "I never learned how to lead from a distance." So they somehow figured out how to lead on site.
Niels Brabandt
And even that, I can only remember you of one number which I frequently mentioned here. The CMI, the Chartered Management Institute in London, found out that more than 80%—I think it was 82%, 83%—of the leaders never had a single minute of leadership education. Surprise, surprise, people don't know what they do when they haven't learned it. So you see that the hybrid approach is that people say, "I have to lead people on the distance, but I don't have the toolbox for it."
Niels Brabandt
On top of that, another aspect of hybrid work is that leaders often say, "Look, I often leave a bit earlier. Sorry, I leave a bit later, but when I go home, I just do a couple of emails." You know these now, right? You just sit down, "Let's do two or three more emails." Two or three, or yeah, maybe—I mean, maybe we can just go through the inbox, right? There's ten emails. Oh yeah, and a bit of calendar work and Outlook, you know, and oh yeah, updating my task. Yeah, and oh, I have to—uh, I also have to update the IT project in Jira. Yeah, here we go. And, oh, I have to update the documents in on our SharePoint server as well, and I have to flag that in the internet. And, oh, then we have Monday.com where I have to update the plan as well. And, oh, we also have a Microsoft project file from a different project. I think I used that as well, so I have to update that. Bit of internal communication. Oh, oh, Microsoft Teams here. Yeah, I have a couple of unanswered messages, so I'm going to answer that as well. And suddenly, 10:30, 10:30 PM, and you had zero minutes of recovery.
Niels Brabandt
The hybrid approach needs to be taught to people because otherwise people will, especially when they're very engaged, keep on working until they basically drop off the chair. The hybrid approach has many—have many positive ways. You—you—you can't say you are remote first. You can't say you are hybrid. If you say you are onsite only, you will struggle the most to find talent because that, for most people, is the least attractive approach of work today. The hybrid approach means you need to have rules in place how people should and should not work.
Niels Brabandt
And some people—some organizers had very drastic approaches. Well-known German car manufacturer simply said, "For anyone who is not on the highest three leadership levels, after 6:00 PM, they can neither send nor receive emails. After 6:00 PM until 6:00 AM." Just cutting them off because they said, "We tried it the soft way, but they just kept doing it, and our numbers of people calling in sick just go through the roof." And that, of course, cannot be the case. So hybrid work needs certain guidelines to put it in place properly.
Niels Brabandt
And on top of all of that, you need to get under control the amount of change projects you have. And I very often hear, "Look, we don't have that many change projects." And then I talk to the people who are on the receiving end, and they say, "Well, the department lead thinks that, and for him or her or that person, that's correct because they have one or maybe two change projects." And then we have another change project with the IT department and another one with the neighboring department, another one with compliance, one with the CHRO, one with the CRO, one with the CEO, one with the CIO, one with the financial department, one with the SAP project, and so on and so forth. So they're going through an uncontrolled number of changes, and they are totally non-synchronized. Every single project thinks, "Oh, it's not that bad. It's just us, isn't it?" That is becoming a massive issue.
Niels Brabandt
Change is inevitable, and change is omnipresent. We fully agree here, at least I hope, because you will not change that there is change. You either change and adapt, or you will be—will be replaced in one way or the other. However, when there is too much change and direction gets completely lost, people lose the purpose of what they do because they think, "We're just juggling 11 balls, although we were trained to juggle three, and we just try to pick up the ones that fall down and try to pretend no one ever saw that it fell down." So you see that change is inevitable, but still, it needs to have a proper steering.
Niels Brabandt
And the question now is, how can we do better? If you now want to implement it in a better way, very important is first, you have to make a decision, and the first decision is you need to address this issue. You need to address that leadership burnout is a thing. And just as a hint, the mental health webinar for $49.00, whatever currency you have, is not what is going to change your organization. It might be a starting point to get awareness in the room, to make people aware of what they probably see or feel, to probably make people aware of maybe when you feel anything off that maybe you should get help.
Niels Brabandt
But then there needs to be an offer, and the offer needs to be a professional one. Anything from training to coaching, anything you can offer, up to psychotherapy, proper therapy led by professional counselors, not by people who feel entitled to make comments on other people's lives, professionally educated, professionally licensed counselors. The offer needs to be there because if the offer is not there, your culture very quickly turns toxic towards some people are hard enough and others are not. And when you go down that route, you might win a couple of days, maybe weeks in the short run, but midterm to long term, you're not only going to lose people, you're going to get the reputation that in your organization no one cares. No one cares really about what people do. No one cares about how people feel. No one cares about how people actually are doing in your organization. And that usually is a massive, massive damage to your employer branding. And from there, everything goes downhill.
Niels Brabandt
The top point, however, is always one aspect, and this aspect sounds horribly complex, and it's not when you really implement it properly, and that is leadership science. Most leaders simply have never learned what they're doing, and that is an ongoing issue. As I mentioned before, when more than 80% of all leaders never had a single minute of leadership training according to CMI, the Chartered Management Institute, the articles are still all online there. When you see that and you still don't do anything, here are the news. Whenever anyone told you how to put a water pipe into the ground, you don't know how to do it properly. Whenever anyone told you how to build a wall properly, you will build a wall that collapses sooner or later because no one taught you how to do it properly. When no one ever taught you how to tie your shoelaces as a child, you're not going to figure it out on your own. You won't even have the idea that shoelaces actually exist until someone tells you and tells you how to actually tie them properly.
Niels Brabandt
This is an extremely important aspect. People need to learn the skill. They need to learn the craft. They need to learn the science. And that does not mean boring lectures. That does not mean boring papers. That does not mean you need to have a scientific thesis about this. It means you can offer anything which leads people to the solution to learn leadership properly. Of course, you need a qualified professional, someone who has the practical experience, but also the qualification on a scientific basis because only having the real-world experience means someone will tell you, "I did it this way. You do the same. It works." And that's, of course, nonsense. You can't copy leadership from one person to the other. If you only have the science bit, you're great in theory, but you don't know the real-world practice. And that's another issue. When you have both together and then you're a bit entertaining, a bit of a nice person maybe, and bring it along in a charming, entertaining way, that's how people love to learn. And when you put that in place, your risk of leadership burnout will be way lower, and everything gets better from there. And I wish you all the best doing that in your organization.
Niels Brabandt
And when you now say, "I have a couple of questions about this," feel free to contact me anytime. First, of course, if you feel free when you just watch me on YouTube, feel free to leave a like here. Thank you very much for doing so. Subscribe to my channel. Put the little bell in there as well so you get updates as soon as new videos are online. We update this quite frequently, almost every week sometimes even every day. I'm going to get into that in a minute. Of course, feel free to leave a comment here. I'm looking forward to our discussions. And of course, when you liked it, Apple Podcasts or Spotify, when you're following there, leave a review there, five stars. Thank you very much for doing so. And of course, on top of that, I'm always happy when you, of course, then return and recommend this channel to your friends, colleagues, on social media, anywhere. I'm always looking forward to growing the audience here because we do this advertising free, and we will keep doing so because we need to get the information out there. Education is about participation, and that's why we're here.
Niels Brabandt
So when you now say, "I'd like to have leadership tips more frequently, more than weekly," very happy to do so. Go to the YouTube channel. We have YouTube Shorts. That's why I told you to put not only the subscribe button in there, but click on it and put the little bell in there because then you get a short notification either on your computer or on your mobile phone that a new video is online. The YouTube Shorts, we invest a lot of time in there. YouTube Shorts means short leadership tips, 30 to 60 seconds, and we give you at least one per day. Sometimes we had days where we put out three, four, five, six. We have a lot of experts there. It's me. It's other experts we bring in. So we invest a lot of time and effort to get you the best advertising-free knowledge you can ever have. And of course, you can also follow me on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I'm looking forward to seeing you there.
Niels Brabandt
Feel free to go on my website, by the way, when you need a professional trainer, speaker, coach, consultant, mentor, project intro manager. Feel free to get in touch. I'm looking forward to hearing from you and working together with you if you'd like to. And of course, if you now say, "I'd like to get in touch, but just have a chat with you because I can't put our company problems into the YouTube comment section," I can understand that. Of course, feel free to send me an email. Thank you very much for the great discussion we had during the last couple of weeks. NB at NB hyphen networks. Sorry, NB at NB hyphen networks.com is my email address. I'm looking forward to hearing from you there as well. And of course, we offer live sessions. When you want to go for one of our live sessions, we only announce the live sessions via our leadership letter. We had one just last Friday, very successful one. Great exchange. Thank you very much. expert.nb-networks.com. As soon as you sign up there with your email address, you receive—no worries—only one email every Wednesday morning. It's 100% content at free guarantee. So feel free to sign up there. You get full access to all the articles, all the podcasts, all the video casts, everything in the English and German language, fully available, fully for free. It's all content, no advertising. And of course, we only announce the next date and time plus the access link for the next live session only via the leadership letter.
Niels Brabandt
And of course, feel free to connect with me. Go on LinkedIn, follow me there. Do do do the proper connect thing. Don't do the follow thing. Connect with me on LinkedIn. Follow me on Instagram if you like. Put a like on Facebook if you like.
Niels Brabandt
And of course, you can also subscribe to my channel. As I just mentioned before, I'm always happy to be in contact with you. The most—and by the way, no worries—if you contact me, I answer every single message within 24 hours or less. So there's a guarantee for a quick response.
Niels Brabandt
The most important thing, however, is always the last bit that I say in every episode: apply, apply, apply what you heard in this podcast because only when you apply what you heard, you will see the positive aspects that you obviously want to see in your organization. So at the end of this podcast, as well as at the end of this video cast, there's only one thing left for me to say: thank you very much for your time.