How to Lead Your Team When You're Running on Empty

You’ve just finished a one-to-one where you barely heard a word. A team member brought you a problem and you fixed it yourself because explaining felt like too much. You snapped in the group chat and spent the evening replaying it.

Leading while you’re running on empty is one of the loneliest parts of being a founder. The team still needs you. You don’t have much to give.

Leading well on empty comes down to four things. Be honest about your capacity, protect the few moments that matter most, hand over decisions as well as tasks, and treat your own recovery as part of the job.

Does your stress really affect your team?

Yes, and the research is fairly clear on this.

A 2017 meta-analysis in The Leadership Quarterly pulled together 157 independent samples from studies around the world. It found that leaders’ stress influences how they lead, and that leadership behaviour and the quality of the relationship between leaders and team members are significant drivers of stress and burnout in teams. The researchers looked at positive leadership styles, the quality of leader-team relationships and abusive supervision. Toxic or abusive leadership had clear negative effects on teams.

It works the other way too. A longitudinal study of 67 leaders and 315 team members found team members’ states could act as a demand or a resource for their leaders. Stress moves around a team in more than one direction.

So your exhaustion isn’t a private matter. It’s part of the culture you’re creating, whether you mean it to be or not. That isn’t a reason for guilt. It’s a reason to take your recovery as seriously as you take your revenue, because both shape the business your team shows up to every day.

What are the signs you’re leading on empty?

You might recognise some of these:

• you’re short with people over small things, then feel guilty
• you take work back because delegating feels like more effort
• you avoid one-to-ones or cut them short
• you can’t think beyond this week
• you’re the bottleneck for every decision
• you say “I’m fine” more than usual

These overlap with the signs of burnout. If they’ve been around for weeks, it’s worth taking seriously, for you and for your team.

Should you tell your team you’re struggling?

Usually, yes, with some care. You don’t need to share everything. But pretending you’re fine when you’re clearly not tends to confuse people, and teams fill silence with worse stories than the truth.

A simple, honest message works better than a speech:

That message does three things. It names reality, it gives a plan, and it invites feedback. It doesn’t hand your stress to them to manage.

What to avoid:

• venting to your team about clients, money or other team members
• making them responsible for your mood
• oversharing health details you’d rather keep private

How do you keep leading well while you recover?

These five practices protect your team and your energy at the same time.

1. Protect the moments that matter most

You can’t be at your best all day. So decide which leadership moments matter most this week, such as a key one-to-one, a team meeting or a difficult conversation, and schedule them in your best hours.

2. Delegate decision rights, not just tasks

If you delegate the work but keep every decision, you’re still the bottleneck. Set clear limits instead: “Anything under this budget, within these guidelines, you decide.” It reduces your load and builds your team’s confidence.

3. Lower the pace before you snap

Slowing a project by a week is cheaper than damaging trust. Push back a deadline, pause a launch or say no to a new client if you need to.

4. Use a reset before hard conversations

A few slow breaths with a long exhale before a difficult meeting can take the edge off. One 2023 trial found five minutes a day of exhale-focused breathing improved mood more than mindfulness meditation. It’s a small tool, but it’s quick.

5. Switch off properly

A 2017 analysis of more than 38,000 workers linked switching off from work after hours to better recovery, health and sleep. If you’re sending messages at 10pm, your team learns that they should be reading them. A clear end to your day protects them as well as you.

How do you handle a hard conversation when you’re depleted?

Some conversations can’t wait until you feel better: a performance issue, a client complaint, a team member who’s struggling. A few steps make them safer.

1. Check if it’s urgent. If it can wait 48 hours and a good night’s sleep, let it.
2. Write down the one outcome you need from the conversation. Keep it to one.
3. Schedule it in your best hours, not at 4:30pm after a full day of meetings.
4. Take three slow breaths before you start.
5. Listen more than you speak. You don’t need to solve everything in the room.
6. If you feel yourself getting short, say so: “I want to give this proper attention. Can we pick it up tomorrow morning?”

Pausing isn’t weakness. It’s what good leaders do when they know their capacity is low and the stakes are high.

What does a recovery-friendly leadership week look like?

Here’s an example to adapt.

Leading on empty: a week that protects you and your team

The aim isn’t a perfect week. It’s fewer leaks of energy and more of your best self in the moments that count.

When is it more than a hard season?

If you’ve been running on empty for months, a better week won’t fix it. Exhaustion, irritability and brain fog can also come from low iron, thyroid problems, perimenopause, poor sleep or depression. See your GP if you’ve felt this way for more than two weeks or it’s affecting your work and relationships.

And if your team is showing signs of burnout too, that’s a signal to look at workload, resources and expectations across the business, not just individual resilience.

Where can you get support as a leader?

Founders often have nobody to talk to who understands the weight of being the one at the top. The Conscious Founders Club is my 12-week group coaching experience for founders, CEOs and high-performing women, with six frameworks and live group calls every two weeks. It’s a space to rebuild how you lead, recover and grow, alongside women at the same level. If you’re not sure where to start, book a call with me.

“I didn't feel like I had the capacity or vitality I desired anymore. ... This is the best I've felt in 10 years.”

If you’re not sure how close to the edge you are, read the signs of burnout female founders often miss.