The One Habit Leaders Need To Prevent Burnout In 2026


Right now leadership teams are locking in 2026 goals, finalizing budgets and setting Q1 expectations. Most of that time is spent on what was accomplished in 2025: the launches, the numbers and the visible outcomes. Far less attention goes to reflecting on the cost in energy, health and home life to get there - or whether that approach is sustainable for another year.

As executives set goals for the new year, recent data shows why this review matters. Johns Hopkins' 2025 Well-Being at Work report found that employee well-being has declined steadily since 2020. For women, the strain is particularly acute, as the 2025 Lean In Women in the Workplace report highlights burnout among women leaders is higher than ever.

In a Zoom interview, Dr. Hise Gibson, a retired Army colonel and Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, offered a critical observation on why high-performing leaders thrive over the long-term and others burn out.

The difference isn’t talent or grit. It’s design. “We are going to keep going around the sun,” Gibson noted. ”The same pressure being felt right now circles back 12 months from now. The leaders who perform the best anticipate and intentionally take steps to moderate that pressure in a very process-driven way.”

In short, the reset for 2026 isn’t about working less or lowering standard. It’s about designing for endurance over decades, not just quarterly results.

Gibson identifies three strategies to implement this approach.

Consider Leadership Longevity: Treat Well-being As a Non-Negotiable

Organizations plan for Q1 complexity. They staff for peak hiring seasons, budget for major initiatives or prepare for product launches. However, it’s just as important for leaders to plan for the physical, mental and emotional energy to mange it all.

Gibson sees how current practice is far from that reality. "Executives typically don’t think about well-being until there is a crisis event," he said. "Leaders should be in a preparation mode versus a reactive mode as it relates to well-being, not only for their organization but also for themselves."

For many busy professionals, especially those managing caregiving responsibilities for aging parents, young children or both, well-being often feels like an indulgence when weighed against other demands. The workout moves for the early call. The midday walk is overridden by another meeting. Another hour of emails takes precedence over incremental sleep.
The reset Gibson describes changes that calculation. Well-being doesn’t have to disappear when pressure increases; the timing can move. If an early call is required, the workout shifts later. The priority remains, the timing changes. The difference is treating well-being as a priority that requires flexibility, not something to sacrifice.

The business case supports the mindset shift. Research from the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre links higher employee well-being with stronger profitability, higher firm value and better stock performance over time. Organizations that prioritize health also tend to see higher productivity, lower healthcare costs and stronger employee engagement. Managing well-being supports performance in the short term and resilience in the long term.

The personal stakes run deeper. Leaders today are building careers that may span 30-40 years as lifespan increases. Leadership longevity requires energy that holds across decades, not only through the current fiscal year. Prioritizing well-being now is part of preparing to lead over a longer time horizon.

How to Reset:

  • Name Your Well-Being Baseline: Before Q1 starts, identify practices that will support your health and well-being over the next twelve weeks. A weekly strength practice, 5-10 minutes of meditation, time for coaching or therapy. The list doesn’t need to be ambitious. It needs to be tailored to your life, enjoyable and realistic.
  • Think in Blocks, Not Routines: Plan time in flexible blocks rather than rigid schedules. Some commitments, like work and family, may be fixed. Movement and recovery time may adjust, but still need calendar space. When interruptions surface (client emergency, illness, unexpected travel), blocks move but don’t disappear. This prevents one difficult week from becoming an untenable quarter.

Make Leadership a Team Sport, Not a Solo Performance

In senior roles, the complexities of decision making often grow faster than the circle of people leaders can confide in. A single week may bring a restructuring conversation, a client escalation and multi-hour calls about care for aging parents.

On paper these appear as separate initiatives and calendar blocks. In practice, they add up to pressure that requires support, not solitude.

Gibson identifies isolation as a major vulnerability, consistent with research linking loneliness to heightened burnout risk. "A lot of times those leaders who have that burnout part actually have been going it alone their entire time," he said. "They rely solely on themselves, rather than seeking support, feedback, and perspective from people around them.”

As responsibilities grow over time, support systems should scale as well. Treat community building with the same rigor applied to annual targets.

How to Reset:

  1. Define a Small, Strategic Support Circle: Identify three distinct voices you trust. An adviser who provides candid, clear feedback. A mentor who has navigated similarly complex stakes. A peer thought partner who can process half formed ideas without judgment. The goal is to create a brain trust that can offer a holistic view on your journey.
  2. Create a Realistic Check-In Cadence: Schedule initial check-ins with each of these stakeholders in January. Then maintain a quarterly rhythm with the adviser and mentor, and keep more frequent, informal touch points with your thought-partner: short calls, coffee walks or quick voice notes. The goal is not more standing meetings. It’s having a few reliable channels for strategic advice and soundboarding.

Harness the Power of Reflection: Think in Seasons, Not Single Quarters

Q1 isn’t a one time test. As Gibson explained, it’s just the closest target. “A lot of leaders are really focused on the alligator closest to the boat, or what I would use in military terms as the 25-meter target. As a result, they don’t necessarily consider the potential fallout from short-term thinking.” The better strategy for leaders is to intentionally reflect on 2025 and use that pause to define what winning looks like for the year, both at work and at home.

That longer view changes decisions. If delivering a major is your team’s priority this quarter, it may mean saying no to joining another cross-functional task force. At home, it may mean consistently protecting one evening a week for family or scheduling downtime after major deadlines. The point is to have a process-based approach for what should take priority, rather than reacting in real-time as demand inevitably pile up.

Thinking in seasons forces a short list. What actually needs to move in this quarter. What can wait until summer or fall. What no longer deserves space at all.

Gibson emphasizes the importance of taking time to reflect before setting 2026 priorities.

How to Reset:

  • Run a Personal After-Action Review (AAR): Take 30 minutes with pen and paper to capture these three lines:
  1. Wins: One decision or effort in 2025 that clearly moved you forward (professionally or personally) and how you accomplished it.
  2. Challenges: One initiative or experience you found difficult and what you learned from it.
  3. Insights: One moment that clarified a boundary or capacity constraint for leading over the long term.
  • Set Five Milestones, Not 20 Goals: Gibson advises leaders to use their AAR to identify five specific milestones across domains such as personal, professional, social, financial and health. Using the word “milestones” instead of “goals” signals that they are markers on a path, not rigid checkpoints. This creates flexibility for multiple paths to success as the year unfolds.

The Leadership Reset for 2026 Starts Now

The leaders who thrive in 2026 won’t be the ones who survived 2025 by sheer force. They’ll be the ones who paused before the year turned and asked whether their current model still works. The reset isn’t dramatic. It’s deliberate. And it starts now, not in January when the calendar is already full.

Originally published on Forbes and republished with permission.