Silent Night, Stressed Executive: Why Burnt-Out Leaders Cost You More Than Money This Holiday Season

Silent night, holy night.
All is calm, all is bright.
But not for many senior leaders.

Executive burnout is not a seasonal inconvenience. It’s a structural risk with measurable financial consequences. Research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine puts the annual cost of a burnt-out executive at $20,683. Multiply that across a C-suite, and the cost becomes difficult to ignore. For a 1,000-person organisation, typical burnout levels translate to losses of around $5 million per year.

The harder-to-see impact is what boards notice in the quality of thinking around the table, in the tone of leadership conversations, and in the health of the leadership pipeline heading into a new year.

For boards, this isn’t an HR topic or a wellbeing footnote. It is a governance signal.

Burnout at the top affects far more than budgets. It influences judgment, risk appetite, succession, and trust: the very foundations of sustainable performance. And December, with its compressed timelines and heightened expectations, has a way of revealing all of it at once.

Why Burnout at the Top Becomes a Governance Issue

Leadership effectiveness is one of the strongest predictors of organisational performance. When senior executives are depleted, the effects appear long before the financial numbers do: slower decisions, lower-quality strategic thinking, reduced foresight, and a tendency to focus on the urgent rather than the important.

CUNY’s burnout model illustrates this clearly: the more senior the leader, the more expensive disengagement becomes. A fatigued CFO misses nuance. A stretched COO avoids complexity. A tired CHRO defaults to reactive decisions instead of shaping the environment.

These are not individual shortcomings. They are symptoms of systems under strain; the kind of underlying patterns boards are expected to spot.

They also mirror questions that frequently arise around the board table:

• Are expectations clear enough?
• Is the pace sustainable?
• Are reporting demands proportionate?
• Are we enabling executive judgment, or overwhelming it?

The State of Engagement: A Leadership Pipeline Under Pressure

Gallup’s 2024 findings show that burnout is not isolated. Globally, only 33% of workers describe themselves as thriving. Even in the U.S. and Canada, where the figure is higher at 52%, the trend is downward. Engagement among managers has fallen to 27%.

The steepest declines in engagement are among:

• Female managers (-7 points)
• Managers under 35 (-5 points)

These groups represent the leadership pipeline; the future C-suite. When they disconnect, organisations lose both immediate momentum and long-term potential. Many young managers look at senior roles and quietly conclude: it’s not worth it.

Burnout near the top accelerates this pattern. Fatigue is contagious. When executives struggle, those below them see leadership not as an aspiration, but as a cost.

What Strong Boards Do Differently

It’s easy to highlight poor governance habits, but far more helpful and more accurate to look at the practices that consistently support leadership performance.

Across industries, the best boards share a small set of disciplined behaviours. These behaviours align with modern governance expectations and reinforce executive clarity, judgment, and resilience.

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A Brief Note from Experience

Through our board advisory and director search work at Stanton Chase, we consistently see the difference it makes when directors understand the practical realities of executive time. The strongest boards include members who have led organisations recently enough to remember that every additional request carries a cost. They ask thoughtful questions without turning curiosity into unnecessary analysis. They are comfortable with uncertainty between meetings, and they know when “good enough” genuinely is enough.

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1. They Keep Governance at the Right Altitude

Good boards maintain the essential distinction between governance and management. They focus on direction, context, and risk framing. They resist the pull toward operational detail, even in turbulent environments. This protects executive time for high-value decisions.

2. They Create Clarity, Not Volume

Clarity is one of the strongest antidotes to burnout. High-performing boards streamline priorities, simplify agendas, and avoid shifting signals. They anchor conversations around what matters most. Executives can handle intensity; they struggle with ambiguity.

3. They challenge in a way that expands thinking

Effective challenge enhances decisions without adding unnecessary workload. Good boards ask:

• What assumptions underpin this?
• What risks matter most?
• Which trade-offs are we making?
• How could we simplify the approach?

These questions strengthen insight while preserving capacity.

4. They Set a Predictable and Constructive Tone

Tone from the top begins at the board table. Consistency, respect, curiosity, and calmness under pressure cascade through the entire organisation. These behaviours create psychological safety; a foundation for better judgment and healthier leadership.

5. They Take a Long-Term View of Leadership Health

Boards don’t manage wellbeing. But they do oversee the conditions that shape it, including:

• The sustainability of leadership roles
• The depth and readiness of the succession pipeline
• Organizational cadence and delivery expectations
• Early indicators of strain or disengagement

This is governance work. And it is increasingly central to effective risk oversight.

Why December Matters

December compresses two cycles: the organisational drive to close the year strongly, and the human need for rest and recovery. It is the moment when boards see the cumulative impact of their own expectations, not just in financials, but in the energy, clarity, and tone of the executives representing them.

If your leadership team looks more depleted in December than they did in January, that is not a coincidence. It is a sign the system requires adjustment.

Silent nights don’t happen by accident. They happen when boards and executives share clarity, cadence, and trust; the foundations of sustainable performance.

When those foundations are unsteady, the effects of burnout last well beyond the holidays. The decorations may come down in January, but the consequences continue shaping decisions, culture, and strategy deep into the next cycle.

A Final Thought

Burnout is predictable, measurable, and, with disciplined governance, largely preventable. Boards that understand this don’t “soften” expectations; they sharpen them. They create environments where executives can think clearly, lead effectively, and sustain performance over time.

The stakes are more than financial. Healthy leadership teams make better decisions, build stronger organisations, and ultimately deliver more enduring results.

Silent night can be peaceful again. But it requires boards and executives working in rhythm, not in tension.

About the Author

Çağrı Alkaya is Managing Partner at Stanton Chase London and Global Chair of the Board. With over two decades in executive search, he specializes in C-suite placements across technology, professional services, and financial services. His career spans roles from Coopers & Lybrand’s Business Assurance division to co-founding Oxygen Consultancy before joining Stanton Chase in 2006. He holds an MBA from Yeditepe University and is a certified Co-Active Coach. Çağrı champions the belief that leadership is not a position, but a system of relationships that determines how energy and impact flow through organizations.