If a company’s growth plan requires people to sprint forever, the plan is broken. Burnout is not a character flaw or a rite of passage. It is a system failure. That failure becomes painfully obvious in companies that try to start, acquire, and build multiple businesses at once, especially when the operating model treats time and focus as infinite.
In a modern holding company, capital is rarely the limiting resource. Attention is. When leaders ignore that truth, the result is a long line of exhausted teams, frayed handoffs, and clever projects that never quite cross the finish line.
Burnout blooms where the operating model rewards urgency over clarity. When every project is labeled critical, nothing is. When planning is wishful and resourcing is theatrical, reality collects the bill. People spend their days negotiating bottlenecks, then spend their nights doing their actual job. That is not commitment. That is design debt with interest. When people drown in work, fix the water, not the swimmers.
A plan that chains every milestone to five others turns Tuesday into a traffic jam. Work stalls because one team waits on another, and frustration compounds like interest at the worst bank on earth. The fix begins with decoupling. Scope modules that small teams can finish without standing in line for signatures. Momentum loves boundaries. Chaos does not.
Applause is a fine thing. A policy of applauding only the longest hours is not. If the way to get noticed is to carry two laptops and a third cup of coffee, the culture will burn out its best. Heroics should be rare and followed by recovery. Reward prevention as much as rescue, or you will schedule emergencies on purpose.
When money feels cheap and hours feel free, companies buy tools and pay with attention. Context switching empties accounts you never see on a budget. Time's value mirrors scarce assets. Staff to the plan you have, not the fantasy you pitched. Match seniority to complexity, not open calendar slots. Waste less and you will need fewer heroes.
Policy sprawl sneaks up on good intentions. A form here, a weekly review there, and suddenly the calendar looks like a patchwork quilt of meetings that breed more meetings. Process should protect focus. If audit trails or reporting require checkpoints, make them short, predictable, and owned by the smallest responsible group. Clarity reduces friction. Friction creates heat. Retire rituals that exist only because they exist.
A healthy model treats energy like capital and designs for conservation and compounding. Decisions sit with the people who hold context, and that context is shielded from needless interruption. The portfolio uses a shared language for scope, cost, and risk. The board packet is not a guessing game. People feel tired after a push, then they feel proud, not hollow, and they can repeat the feat.
Cadence is posture, not decoration. Set quarterly horizons for outcomes, monthly checkpoints for flow, and weekly plans that fit inside human weeks. Calibrate capacity with honest data. If a team ships three meaningful pieces of work per quarter, do not promise eight. Promise three and make them excellent. Speed follows rhythm, not the other way around.
Capital should buy time, not only toys. Use budgets to remove the worst distractions first. Pay down systemic debt in scheduling, tooling, and training. Fund shared services that shrink cognitive load, like a clean data backbone or a legal desk that answers in plain English. The best purchases often erase a hundred tiny cuts you stopped noticing.
An organization chart is not a bucket. Design role families with paths for growth that do not require becoming a manager just to earn a raise. Put decision rights in writing, then respect them. Build cross functional pods that own outcomes, not tool stacks. When work is legible, careers are legible, and stress stops masquerading as mystery.
New tools arrive with confetti, then leave with confusion if you ask them to do the wrong job. Choose technology that fits the grain of your work, then commit to it. Fewer platforms, deeper mastery, calmer brains. Consolidate where possible. Integrate where necessary. Automate chores that no one brags about but everyone resents. If a tool costs focus, it is not leverage.
If you only notice the problem once people start whispering about leaving, you waited too long. Measure energy like you measure cash. Track plan accuracy and how often priorities flip mid cycle. Watch average focus time per person and defend a decent number like it is your last cup of coffee. Keep an eye on lead time for typical work. Spy less, ask more. Invite blunt feedback and publish what you change.
Look at the ratio of meetings to maker time. Listen for how often teams ask who can decide. Notice how long it takes to set up a fresh environment or sign a standard contract. None of these are glamorous metrics, yet they are early smoke. A healthy system is boring here. The charts level off. The blockers shrink. Vacations do not require disaster plans. If the basics take weeks, the strategy is already late.
There is no magic phrase that restores morale or replaces a poor structure and bad business planning. There are direct, unflashy moves that change the air. Start by admitting the pain is real and that it comes from design choices, not from weak people. Then protect focus next week.
Cancel the meeting that confuses more than it clarifies. Combine reviews that repeat each other. Return one decision to the team that knows the work. Momentum returns when people see that choices changed, not slogans.
Freeze net new initiatives for one sprint, then finish the half done work that clutters every desk. Publish a short stack rank of current goals with clear owners and dates, and reconcile anything that conflicts. Replace scattered chat requests with a single intake path that is checked at sane intervals. Give the people who just ran hot a real cool down.
Design the planning ritual you want to be measured by. Write capacity rules that keep magical thinking out of public promises. Build shared libraries so teams borrow rather than reinvent. Train managers to ask about energy and to adjust scope before they adjust sleep. Align incentives so that predictable delivery gets the spotlight. The habit feels awkward, then normal, then like relief.
Lower burnout is not simply kindness. It is a return profile. Teams that can sustain attention produce steadier throughput and fewer costly surprises. They make cleaner handoffs across a portfolio because everyone speaks the same operating language.
They attract talent that cares about craft, which compounds quality. Investors like the absence of drama almost as much as they like the presence of cash. Calm keeps ambition alive. Calm companies buy optionality that panic can never afford.
Burnout is not a moral failing and it is not a rite of passage. It is a diagnostic signal that your operating model needs refactoring. Decouple priorities so progress is possible without a parade of approvals. Match capacity to reality, and let capital buy attention, not noise. Build roles that grant autonomy with clarity.
Choose fewer tools and use them well. Measure energy before it evaporates, and change rituals that cost focus. The reward is a portfolio that runs cooler, ships better, and remains quietly, stubbornly excellent.
Ryan Schwab serves as Chief Revenue Officer at HOLD.co, where he leads all revenue generation, business development, and growth strategy efforts. With a proven track record in scaling technology, media, and services businesses, Ryan focuses on driving top-line performance across HOLD.co’s portfolio through disciplined sales systems, strategic partnerships, and AI-driven marketing automation. Prior to joining HOLD.co, Ryan held senior leadership roles in high-growth companies, where he built and led revenue teams, developed go-to-market strategies, and spearheaded digital transformation initiatives. His approach blends data-driven decision-making with deep market insight to fuel sustainable, scalable growth.
