In my work with executives, I routinely observe a striking gap between a leader’s self-assessment and objective reality. Some seek guidance because they are tired or sleeping badly. Others want to proactively protect their long-term performance and health. Either way, when asked how they are doing overall, they almost always rate their wellbeing much higher than the fuller picture supports. These leaders are not blind to individual warning signs. They know they are waking up during the night, skipping lunch during packed days and letting work creep into once-protected personal time. What they fail to see is how these changes compound. When we look at objective data, such as blood biomarkers, cognitive fitness metrics and glucose monitoring, we often find physiological changes that contradict the narrative that they are “just going through a busy period.” The real question is not how a smart, capable leader fails to notice that they are tired. It is how they can recognise individual red flags yet still believe they are thriving.
The superhuman phase
I call this pattern Superhuman Syndrome. This is the phase where an executive drains their biological reserves while still feeling remarkably capable and energised. For high-performing leaders, the conditions for this syndrome are almost built into the way they work. Their attention is constantly directed outwards towards people, deadlines and problem-solving. When operational demands increase, they sleep a little less, work a little longer, eat on the run and deprioritise recovery. And it works. At least initially. Under sustained pressure, stress hormones including cortisol and adrenaline mobilise energy, boosting alertness and drive. They can also suppress appetite and temporarily mask some of the body’s natural signals for rest and recovery. The resulting state is deceptive. A leader may be short on sleep and recovery yet still feel energised and highly productive.
Crucially, external results reinforce this illusion: they are still delivering. The presentation goes beautifully; the difficult decision gets made. Each successful outcome drives the same dangerous conclusion: “I’m coping better than I thought.” Meanwhile, the physiological cost continues to accumulate. Research involving more than 3,000 people found an association between higher burnout and elevated allostatic load, a measure of cumulative strain across biological systems.
When signals become harder to hear
Interoception is our ability to perceive internal bodily signals, including hunger, heartbeat, breathing, tension and fatigue. In my clinical work, I often find that leaders who operate at a relentless pace for long periods lose touch with these vital cues. Hunger doesn’t register until the day is over, and tiredness is overridden with caffeine. Eventually, this abnormal state is accepted as the new normal. A 2025 study involving 68 schoolteachers offers an interesting insight into what may be happening. While acute stress increased attention to internal bodily signals, this effect was diminished in individuals experiencing high chronic stress.
A single study cannot explain what happens in every chronically stressed executive, but it raises a compelling possibility: prolonged pressure may make some of the very signals we rely on to protect our health harder to detect.
Performance is a lagging indicator
For high-performers, professional output is often the very last thing to fail. Other changes appear much earlier. Patience shortens, thinking becomes less flexible and it becomes harder to sit with ambiguity or balance competing possibilities. The prefrontal cortex, which supports executive functions such as working memory and cognitive control, is particularly sensitive to sustained stress. And that is part of the trap. Chronic stress can impair some of the very cognitive functions you need to step back, assess what is happening and change course. If you measure your wellbeing solely by your current ability to perform, your warning signs may arrive dangerously late. By the time your professional output is visibly compromised, the underlying depletion may have been compounding for months.
Stop measuring yourself by output
To protect yourself, shift your focus away from your output and look at what has dropped out of your life. What has been displaced over the past eight weeks? Is it sleep, balanced meals, exercise, recreation or time with family and friends? Depletion often reveals itself in what no longer fits into your schedule.
Know your early signs
Your warning signs might include a pattern of waking up at 3am, becoming unusually impatient, losing concentration or putting off decisions you would normally make with ease. The most useful comparison is against your own baseline.
Get an outside view
Ask someone who knows you well if they have noticed a shift in your patterns. Trusted colleagues or family members often spot subtle changes in mood, energy and behaviour long before we acknowledge their significance ourselves.
High performance will always involve periods of intense demand. The danger lies in mistaking your ability to keep pushing forward as proof that your current pace is sustainable. Continued performance simply tells you what you are still capable of delivering today. It tells you nothing about how much capacity you have left for tomorrow.
