By Janet Coin
In 2007, Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, collapsed from exhaustion while building her media company. Working approximately 18-hour days, seven days a week, while raising her two teenage daughters, she had come to accept relentless work as the price of success. When she fell, she hit her head against her desk, broke her cheekbone and injured her eye. The incident forced her to reconsider what professional achievement meant when it came at the expense of her health.
Huffington later described the experience as a turning point that challenged her understanding of success. She developed the concept of the “Third Metric”, expanding success beyond money and power to include well-being, wisdom, wonder and giving. Her experience raises a question that deserves greater attention in conversations about women’s leadership: what does it mean to advance women into positions of power if the conditions of leadership leave them exhausted, overwhelmed and struggling to remain well?
The Hidden Cost of Women’s Leadership
The pressure facing women leaders is reflected in recent workplace research. According to McKinsey and LeanIn.Org’s Women in the Workplace 2025 report, 60 per cent of senior-level women frequently experienced burnout, compared with 50 per cent of senior-level men and approximately 40 per cent of employees overall. Among senior women who had spent five years or fewer at their companies, the figure rose to 70 per cent. The report also found that 77 per cent of senior-level Black women frequently experienced burnout.
These findings reveal how professional pressure can intersect with gender and race to shape women’s experiences of leadership. Reaching senior leadership does not necessarily bring greater control over one’s workload or well-being. Women may face competing demands from professional responsibilities, caregiving, household expectations and the additional emotional labour of supporting colleagues. They may also find themselves handling administrative duties that consume time without advancing their careers.
Gallup’s workplace research provides further evidence of this challenge. Its Q4 2025 data indicated that 31 per cent of women, compared with 23 per cent of men, reported feeling burned out very often or always. These figures demonstrate that burnout is not an isolated experience affecting a few individuals. It is a workplace challenge that can undermine the well-being, effectiveness and long-term participation of women in leadership.
Burnout, therefore, should not be treated simply as a failure of personal resilience. It also raises questions about workplace structures, unrealistic expectations and the unequal distribution of responsibilities.
From Personal Recovery to a Different Definition of Success
Following her collapse, Huffington began advocating a broader understanding of achievement. She went on to write Thrive and The Sleep Revolution and founded Thrive Global in 2016, an organisation focused on behaviour change and solutions to stress and burnout.
Her approach emphasises practical, incremental changes rather than dramatic resolutions. These include protecting sleep, taking short breaks, setting boundaries around technology, incorporating movement into daily routines and maintaining meaningful human connections. Such practices can support well-being, although they cannot compensate for persistently excessive workloads or unhealthy workplace cultures.
For women leaders, recovery can begin with recognising early warning signs, including persistent exhaustion, growing cynicism, difficulty concentrating and a declining sense of effectiveness. Protecting sleep, redistributing responsibilities, taking appropriate breaks and seeking professional mental-health support can form part of a recovery plan. Therapy or counselling may also help women address perfectionism, chronic stress and the belief that asking for help signals weakness.
The deeper change is learning to distinguish being capable from being endlessly available. A woman can be committed to her organisation without accepting every assignment, answering every message immediately or sacrificing her health to demonstrate competence.
Practical Strategies for Burnout Recovery
Prioritise sleep and rest. Adequate sleep supports concentration, emotional regulation and decision-making. Adults generally need seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Women leaders who routinely sacrifice sleep to meet professional expectations may need to reconsider their schedules, delegate responsibilities and establish consistent bedtime routines.
Set boundaries and manage workloads. Constant availability can create the impression of commitment while gradually depleting energy. Leaders can begin by identifying tasks that genuinely require their attention, delegating appropriate responsibilities and declining unnecessary commitments. Protecting personal time is not a rejection of leadership; it is a way to preserve the capacity to lead effectively.
Seek professional support. Therapy, counselling and appropriate coaching can help women recognise persistent stress patterns, perfectionism, anxiety and the pressures associated with leadership. Burnout accompanied by prolonged exhaustion, emotional detachment or difficulty functioning deserves attention rather than dismissal. Professional support can provide strategies for recovery and help identify when additional clinical care is needed.
Build small recovery habits into the working day. Brief breathing exercises, walking, journaling, nutritious meals and device-free periods can provide practical opportunities to interrupt cycles of constant activity. These practices are not substitutes for adequate staffing or manageable workloads, but they can complement broader changes.
Manage energy, not just time. A full calendar does not necessarily reflect meaningful productivity. Leaders can assess which activities drain their energy, which responsibilities can be redistributed and when demanding work should be balanced with recovery. Accepting that every task cannot receive maximum attention also helps challenge perfectionism.
Why Organisations Must Share the Responsibility
Although personal strategies are valuable, employers also have a responsibility to create conditions in which women can lead without compromising their health. Flexible working arrangements, realistic performance expectations, accessible mental-health services and equitable promotion opportunities can reduce pressures that individual self-care cannot resolve.
McKinsey and LeanIn.Org’s 2025 research found that women occupied 29 per cent of C-suite positions among the companies studied. The report also identified gaps in career support and sponsorship. These findings matter because sustainable leadership requires more than appointing women to senior positions; it requires giving them the resources, authority and support needed to succeed.
Employers should examine whether women are disproportionately assigned administrative work, mentoring duties and responsibilities that are necessary to team functioning but rarely recognised in promotion decisions. They should establish realistic workloads, provide accessible mental-health services, support flexible working arrangements without penalising employees and ensure that managers model healthy boundaries.
For African organisations, these questions are equally important. Women leading businesses, public institutions, media organisations and community initiatives may navigate professional pressures alongside family responsibilities and resource constraints. However, the statistics cited above primarily concern United States workplaces and should not be presented as a direct measurement of burnout among African women leaders. African employers and research institutions need more context-specific data to understand the scale of the challenge and develop effective responses.
A Call to Action
What practical steps can organisations take to prevent burnout and protect the mental health of women leaders? Share your perspective and join Amazons Watch Magazine in advocating for leadership cultures that value women’s contributions, protect their well-being and create the conditions for lasting professional success.
Share this article with a woman in leadership, a workplace decision-maker or an organisation committed to women’s advancement. Together, we can challenge the culture that glorifies exhaustion and promote a future in which women can pursue ambitious careers without sacrificing their mental health.
Conclusion: Women Should Not Have to Burn Out to Lead
Arianna Huffington’s experience reminds us that professional success loses its meaning when achieving it comes at the expense of personal well-being. Her journey challenges organisations to reconsider the cultures, expectations and working conditions that make exhaustion appear to be a requirement for leadership.
The statistics from McKinsey, LeanIn.Org and Gallup demonstrate that burnout among women is not an isolated experience. Addressing it requires more than encouraging women to sleep better, practise self-care or become more resilient. It demands workplaces that distribute responsibilities fairly, recognise emotional labour, provide access to mental-health support and allow women to pursue ambitious careers without being penalised for protecting their well-being.
For women in leadership, recovery is not a retreat from ambition. It is an opportunity to redefine success, establish healthier boundaries and build careers that remain sustainable over time. For organisations, it is a responsibility to ensure that women’s advancement is accompanied by the support and resources necessary for them to thrive.
Women should not have to choose between their ambition and their well-being. Both must be part of the future of leadership.
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