Why Your Drive to Perform Is Keeping You Burned Out and Busy as a NGO Leader

Do you ever end your day exhausted, inbox overflowing, and still feel like you’ve barely made progress on what really matters?

If that sounds familiar, you might be suffering from High Performance Syndrome - a hidden trap that affects nearly every NGO leader. It’s what keeps you busy but not productive, constantly “on” for your team, chasing perfection, and running on a treadmill that leads to burnout instead of real impact. In this episode, you’ll learn why this mindset is so common in the humanitarian and development sector - and how to break free from it so you can finally lead with focus and ease.

Here’s what you’ll gain from tuning in:

• The ability to recognize the subtle beliefs and habits that drive overwork and dependency in your team.
• Practical mindset shifts that free up your time and energy for what truly creates impact.
• A simple process to reframe “I have to be available all the time” into a healthier, more effective way of leading.

Hit play now to uncover how letting go of High Performance Syndrome can help you work less, lead better, and create the impact you’ve always aimed for.

WATCH HERE ON YOUTUBE

What Is Your Leadership Style?  Free Quiz:

Want to know how to lead better?  It starts by understanding your leadership style.  To find out yours, take my free quiz “What Is Your Leadership Style” - you’ll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting your team and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.  Just click on the link fill out your quiz and click submit.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:

High Performance Syndrome: Leader Burnout Breakthrough

[00:00:00] Are you working long hours feeling that you don't have any control of your time and that you're constantly distracted? If so, you may be suffering from High Performance Syndrome. Find out more about this and how to overcome it in today's episode.

Welcome to the Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader podcast. The podcast helping humanitarian and development supervisors make a greater impact by taking control of your time, leading more inclusively and empowering your team all the while avoiding stress, burnout and overwhelm. I'm your host, leadership coach and former aid worker, Torrey Peace. Are you ready? Let's get started.

Hello, my [00:01:00] aspiring modern humanitarian and development leader. Have you ever ended a workday exhausted with your inbox still full? Your team is still waiting for answers and the sense that you are barely moving the needle on impact? If that sounds familiar, you may be caught in what I call High Performance Syndrome, one of the most common and yet undetected traps for NGO leaders. Today, I'll show you how to spot it and more importantly, how to break free. So in this episode, you'll discover one of the most common and undetected ways NGO leaders think and work that creates high workloads and low productivity; how to diagnose High Performance Syndrome and determine if you suffer from it and steps to overcome High Performance Syndrome which will free you up to become a more productive and a better leader who creates true [00:02:00] impact. Alright, let's get into it, shall we? High Performance Syndrome is a very common, traditional way of working and thinking that keeps you busy, but not productive.

Meaning you are running on a treadmill and going nowhere and not achieving your full potential. Leaders with High Performance Syndrome often find themselves working very long hours, jumping from meeting to meeting, constantly distracted and carrying a team that relies too much on them for answers.

So the result is exhaustion, burnout and still feeling like they're not creating the impact that they truly want. This is very common. In my course, almost a hundred percent of leaders who've taken my course suffer from High Performance Syndrome. It is so common that most leaders are [00:03:00] unaware that they even have it.

So where does this fit in The CLEAR Leadership Model which we've been reviewing over the last few weeks? It's actually in the Letting Go part of CLEAR. The focusing on the beliefs and actions that are holding you back from becoming a modern humanitarian and development leader who is thriving, focused, and achieving impact that you want.

So I first discovered High Performance Syndrome when I was coaching a group of senior leaders, and I started noticing the same patterns in their thinking and their behaving that was keeping them stuck and overwhelmed. What they had in common, which I think most of you listening also have in common, is that they are high performers. They really want to achieve, and they're motivated by the mission of their organization and that they want to make an impact in their work. But the way that they are [00:04:00] doing it is based on traditional and outdated ways of thinking and working, which are keeping them busy, but not productive. So for example, they believe that their role as a leader is to always be available for their team, that they should always be reachable.

They need to do perfect work. They need to tell their team what to do. Notice that all of these things have in common is that they are beliefs. It's because it is our way of thinking that leads us to our actions. Our thinking is what drives High Performance Syndrome, these beliefs. So let's break down an example of how one of these thoughts that causes High Performance Syndrome creates busyness and unproductivity.

Let's look at the thought, "I need to be available all the time". That we need to be [00:05:00] reachable for our team and others at any given moment, maybe you identify with this. So from my experience, particularly, this is common amongst finance and other support roles such as admin, but it also impacts programming and other roles too.

So what happens when we believe that I need to be available all the time as a leader? When we think that we always need to be available and we make ourselves always available - because, remember, our thinking leads to our actions - this, from my experience, can lead to team members going to us for answers instead of just figuring it out for themselves.

And this creates dependency. I remember even getting in the habit of this when I had a former leader who was always available. And instead of trying to think of how I would do something for myself [00:06:00] whenever I had a problem, I would just get up and go into his office and ask him, and I was constantly interrupting him because of it.

And it was also creating my dependency on him for thinking and for my answers. It also means when we are always available that we are likely that we are going to be interrupted very frequently. And so we cannot finish any focused work during working hours, which means we are more likely to have to work beyond working hours in order to get any focus work done that requires concentration.

It also means that we are never fully available to someone when they come and interrupt us because we are always distracted by all of the things that we need to get done. Remember, this idea of multitasking is a myth, it's not true. We can't do two or three things at once. When we get interrupted, it takes a few minutes to get [00:07:00] back on track.

So imagine how distracting that can be, when you're constantly interrupted and being asked questions. So basically the thought, "I always need to be available", creates more stress, greater workload, and a more dependent team. Does that sound like the kind of leader you wanna be? I don't know about you, but.

So after reflecting on how this is impacting you, as step one and overcoming this High Performance Syndrome thought, the next step is to look at an alternative way of thinking that would serve you better and create the impact that you do want. Now, right now this thought, "I have to be available all the time", is not creating the impact that we want.

I've seen it again and again. It does not help us. So, what if I take this thought and I [00:08:00] reverse it, so I am available, but not all of the time? What would happen if we use that thought instead to drive our actions? For one thing, our team members may have to look for solutions themselves rather than immediately coming to us.

We're teaching them that we are not always available, and so when they have a problem, they first need to think for themselves, which may create a more independent team. We can get more focused work done during regular hours and not have a great workload at the end of the day. We can be fully present and focused when we are available to others because we're intentionally creating that time to be available to them instead of being distracted and overwhelmed and we are able to get more done and have a team that is the less reliant on us and feel better in the [00:09:00] process.

Sound good? You can choose which one you prefer, but I know which one my students and I prefer. Now when I say be less available, I'm not saying to be completely unavailable or go the extreme opposite and ignore everyone. But putting some limitations or some boundaries on your availability can help you and others be more productive.

You can be more productive, and I promise they will also be more productive. So let's review the steps to overcome High Performance Syndrome. First, we need to be aware of it. So which High Performance Syndrome thoughts is creating your High Performance Syndrome?

Normally leaders have at least two or more of these common thoughts from my experience. Then you need to reflect on the impact that it's having on you and how you might want to think or feel [00:10:00] instead. In fact, in my course, almost every leader discovers that they've been suffering from High Performance Syndrome.

But once they recognize and shift these patterns, they finally feel more focused, energized and impactful. So this week I want you to reflect which of these thoughts shows up most for you: This needs to be perfect; I need to be available all the time; I need to tell my team what to do; or I don't have control over my time.

And how is that belief keeping you busy instead of impactful? High Performance Syndrome is just one example of the old ways of thinking that keep leaders stuck in busyness instead of impact, but it's not the only one. Next week we'll go into a deeper dive into Letting Go part of The CLEAR Leadership Model, looking at the changes that you must make [00:11:00] in yourself before you can truly transform your team.

All right. You won't wanna miss it. Until next week, keep evolving. Bye for now.

Are you the type of leader that tells others what to do, or do you let them figure it out for themselves? Understanding your leadership style is a first step to deciding what's working for you and what's not. To find out your leadership style, take my free quiz, What is your leadership style? You'll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting your team, and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.

Just click on the link in the show notes, www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz. Fill out your quiz and click submit. So what are you waiting for? Go to [00:12:00] www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz and discover your leadership style now. Your team will thank you for it.