The Anatomy of Burnout: Moving from Isolation to Trust

Reconnecting with the Power of Community and Trust

This winter, my organization closed for two weeks in recognition of what has been an incredibly hard year working in trans healthcare, as well as the inevitable challenges in the years ahead. After 10 slow days of Uno, latkes, stocking candy, and beach adventures with my family, burnout is far from my mind.

Yet as I return to zoom calls, 1H OKRs, and 2025 performance numbers I am reminded that as leaders of mission-driven organizations, we need to enter the year looking for symptoms of burnout in ourselves and within our organizations.

In my own history with burnout, it took me years to recognize my fatigue. By the time I did, the best option in front of me was stepping away altogether. However, spotting the indicators early enables us to lead by example and ensures we continuously reinforce the foundations our organizations need to sustain this work for the long term. Now, I’m interested in knowing how to spot the symptoms sooner and act before it gets to that point.

Key Symptom: Isolation

One key symptom of burnout that we all need to be looking for is both individual and organizational isolation.

In my burnout journey, as my accountability and responsibility increased, so did my isolation. I noticed it wasn’t just me. Harmful, externally reinforced, and self-perpetuating messages around leadership are common. It can look like being expected to “figure it out” without the investment in training to do so, a deep desire to prove oneself (imposter syndrome), or lack of authenticity.

At the organizational level, isolation is also common.

This can appear as organizations starting new initiatives more frequently than joining ones that already exist (an easy trap for entrepreneurs!), deep departmental silos, and the reinforcement of accidental adversaries in internal and external systems.

Root Cause: Self-Importance

In exploring solutions to isolation, we need to go deeper to understand the root. In my observations, a close sibling to ‘going it alone’ is self-importance.

In Let Your Life Speak,

Parker J. Palmer

names one shadow common among leaders: “The belief that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with us. This is the unconscious, unexamined conviction that if anything decent is going to happen here, we are the ones who must make it happen.”

This belief shows up as swimming in each other’s lanes, hierarchical decision-making, lack of healthy turnover or succession planning, or, as

adrienne maree brown

notes in Emergent Strategy, obsessing over rock-star leaders and then subsequently burning them out.

Solution: Trust as the Antidote

The antidote sounds simple, but in a culture marked by individualism, dismantling self-importance requires a clear solution: trust.

Palmer writes, “We are not the only act in town. I am not the only player. Trust others.”

As leaders, if the antidote to isolation is community, then the solution to self-importance can be turning over decision-making with self-management structures, stepping back and disconnecting for extended periods of time, and, ultimately, turning over the reins to someone else entirely via succession planning.

Trust also has implications beyond internal ways of working.

Examples of this include organizations like Common Future deploying $250K capital to nonprofits needing to make payroll in the early days of the pandemic, or MacKenzie Scott investing nearly $20 billion in unrestricted funding rooted in the ethos of giving up control. Partnerships that lead to risk-sharing and distributed power, rooted in the long, hard work of alignment and co-creation, can create both individual and organizational healing.

Putting It Into Practice: A Reflection Checklist

Here’s a series of questions to help you (and me!) reflect on isolation, self-importance, and how these issues impact trust within yourself and your organization.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

For Your Organization

Internal Dynamics

• Do we have a shared vision for the work, and is everyone aligned on how to get there?

• Are there silos within my organization, and do they prevent effective collaboration?

• Are we inadvertently creating “accidental adversaries” between departments or teams by not aligning our goals and priorities?

• Do we have systems for cross-departmental communication and idea-sharing?

• Are we making space for rest, reflection, and training?

• Are we actively planning for healthy turnover and succession within the team?

External Partnerships

• Do we have mechanisms to learn from and stay aware of the work of others in the field?

• Is my organization going it alone on initiatives where we could partner with others?

• Are our existing partnerships transactional, or are we investing in long-term, mutually supportive relationships?

For Yourself and Your Team

For Yourself as a Leader

• Am I delegating effectively, or do I feel the need to “own” or “fix” everything myself?

• Do I trust my team to make decisions, or do I tend to micromanage or overrule them?

• When things go wrong, do I internalize the responsibility as a personal failure?

• Am I modeling healthy boundaries, such as disconnecting from work during off-hours or vacation?

• Am I transparent about decision-making processes, and do I seek input from others?

• Do I regularly recognize and celebrate team contributions, both individual and collective?

For Your Team

• Are my direct reports expressing feelings of isolation or overwhelm in their work or role?

• Are team members comfortable sharing challenges or asking for support without fear of judgment?

• Do I notice anyone withdrawing, disengaging, or showing signs of burnout?

• Do I observe healthy, open communication between my team members?

• Can I name recent examples of collaboration across teams or departments?

• Are there individuals who tend to shoulder the majority of the work or avoid collaboration?

• Are there indicators of self-importance among my team, such as hoarding information, resisting feedback, or avoiding delegation?

• Does my team celebrate individual contributions over collective success?

• Do my team members feel safe sharing feedback—both about their own experiences and about the organization?

Which of these questions will you explore first? By starting small and addressing these issues, we can build trust, foster community, and help ensure the long-term health of our teams and organizations.