6 Practical Ways to Reduce Burnout While Still Leading Effectively

Logan McKnight
Aug 19
3 min read

Leadership doesn't mean doing it all, it means creating space for you and your team to thrive.

#1 - Assess Your Energy

Take an honest look

Examine where your time and energy are currently being allocated throughout your workday and week.

Identify energy sources

What activities, projects, or interactions consistently fuel you and leave you feeling energized?

Recognize energy drains

What responsibilities, meetings, or tasks consistently deplete your energy and contribute to burnout?

Assess – Take an honest look at where your time and energy go. What fuels you? What drains you?

#2 - Prioritize What Matters

Prioritize – Not everything is yours to carry. What truly requires your attention, and what can you delegate?

Identify tasks that only you can perform
Determine which responsibilities can be shared
Recognize which items can be eliminated entirely

Remember that effective leadership means making strategic choices about where your time and attention should go.

#3 - Plan Your Day Strategically

Plan Your Day – Limit yourself to 2–3 key tasks each day. Overloading your schedule with six "must-do's" sets you up for frustration.

When you try to accomplish too many "important" tasks in a single day, you often end up completing none of them well.

Focus creates results.

#4 - Expect and Plan for Disruptions

Expect Disruptions – Build a buffer. Assume something will go wrong, and have a contingency plan ready. If you're in the field, you may might not have an choice but to put out fires... yet

Schedule Buffer Time and Breaks

Add 15-30 minute gaps between meetings and important tasks to accommodate unexpected issues.

Develop Plan B

(and C)

For critical projects, always have an alternative approach ready if your primary strategy encounters obstacles.

Maintain Flexibility and Create Calm

Cultivate a mindset that views disruptions as normal rather than exceptional events in your workday.

#5 - Always be Training Your Replacement

Always be preparing others to step in. It not only lightens your load, but strengthens your team and gives you to the capacity to grow outside of your role.

After all, real leaders are always creating new leaders.

#6 - Give Yourself Grace

Give Yourself Grace – The higher you go, the more unread emails and missed details pile up. That's normal. Remember: If everything is a priority, then nothing is.

Perfect completion of every task is impossible at leadership levels. Learning to be comfortable with necessary incompletion is a critical leadership skill.

Accept that you cannot do everything perfectly, and that's not a failure, it's the reality of effective leadership.

The Essence of Effective Leadership

Leadership doesn't mean doing it all, it means creating space for yourself and your team to thrive.

Mastering Resilience

Building your capacity to bounce back from challenges and maintain energy through difficult periods.

Delegating Effectively

Learning to entrust others with meaningful work that develops them while freeing you to focus on priorities.

Coaching Your People

Developing your team members to lead alongside you, creating a multiplier effect on your impact.

For those who want more than a list, who want real tools, strategies, and a supportive community:

Join my FIRST Group Coaching Program: The McKnight Method: Resilient Leaders Who Create Impact

Lead With Clarity. Communicate With Influence. Create Your Legacy.

The Promise: Participants leave with strategic awareness, sharper emotional intelligence, and a repeatable playbook for building resilient, high‑performing teams and their careers for years to come.