From Burnout to Balance: Why Executives Need Breath Training in High-Risk Roles
In my years working with executives and high-performance teams, I have witnessed a recurring scene: leaders arriving at the office at dawn, phones vibrating since early morning, with a schedule packed with meetings that leaves no room for anything else. Quite literally, no room to breathe.
Life at the corporate top is often celebrated as a privilege, yet from the inside I know it is frequently experienced as a burden. The responsibility of representing an organization, inspiring hundreds or thousands of people, and responding to shareholders, clients, and the media creates a demand that depletes and consumes. As recent research highlights, the role of a CEO or senior executive is unlike any other position: it is all-consuming, a task that absorbs every minute and every personal resource available.
I have confirmed this in private conversations with leaders who, behind a façade of security, admit to experiencing anxiety, insomnia, and clear signs of exhaustion. And yet, their organizational culture expects the opposite: unwavering control, composure, and grace under pressure. This contradiction, between what they feel and what is expected of them, has become one of the greatest mental health risks at the executive level.
Burnout does not appear overnight. It is a sustained process, a repertoire of behaviors reinforced by both the organization and the leader themselves. It is maintained through praise for excessive hours, the systematic avoidance of vulnerability, and the social reward for hyper-productivity. Left unchecked, this pattern culminates in resignations, serious health problems, and, not rarely, strategic missteps that impact the entire company.
The Trap of Executive Sacrifice
The discourse of self-demand is often disguised as virtue. I have heard more than one leader repeat lines like: “If I’m not at 100%, the company suffers,” or “I must set the example by sacrificing myself first.” This narrative aligns with what the literature calls implicit leadership theories: the belief that a “good leader” must be unbreakable, inspiring, and capable of bearing any load.
In practice, this heroic ideal ends up fueling a spiral of overload. Studies show that executives tend to impose on themselves demands even greater than what the environment actually requires, creating an imbalance between what they can deliver and what they believe they must deliver. This imbalance translates into chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, and, over time, a significantly higher risk of burnout.
From a behavioral perspective, I see this phenomenon as a cycle of learning. Each time an executive responds to pressure with more hours and sacrifice, they receive positive social reinforcement, admiration, proximity, recognition. That reinforcement strengthens a problematic pattern, one that fuels burnout.
Here lies the clarity of the behavioral approach: burnout is not merely an emotional state, but a repertoire of behaviors repeated and sustained by the organizational context. And like any behavior, it can be redirected, with new skills, different feedback, and tools that help break the automatism.
Early Warning Signs
In weekly meetings with executives, I often hear recurring complaints about muscle tension, headaches, accumulated fatigue, family conflicts, and, most telling of all, a torrent of words followed by shallow, irregular breathing.
The physiology of stress is well documented. Elevated cortisol levels, reduced heart rate variability (HRV), and irregular breathing patterns are clear markers that the sympathetic nervous system is over-activated. For executives, this activation often extends far beyond office hours: their minds fail to “switch off” during vacations, and sleep ceases to be restorative.
Workplace health studies confirm that this sustained physiological pattern not only heightens the risk of burnout and cardiovascular disease, but also leads to what I call institutional cynicism: a state of detachment, indifference, and negativity that executives develop toward their own organization as a result of chronic stress and overwhelming demands.
Thus, the cost of leadership is not limited to the emotional realm. It becomes a tangible risk to the physical, social, and organizational health of the person in charge.
High-Risk Roles: Lessons Beyond the Uniform
Many associate the term “high risk” exclusively with police officers, firefighters, or military pilots. Yet recent research shows that executive occupations share similar dynamics. The risk does not stem solely from physical threats but also from high demands, emotional intensity, constant exposure to critical decisions, and the perception that a single mistake can have massive consequences.
In such environments, leadership style is decisive. Transformational leaders, those able to provide support, foster trust, and infuse work with meaning, can moderate the relationship between stress and burnout. This should be read as a clear message for the corporate world: the way a CEO or executive board manages pressure can either aggravate or alleviate the impact of stress across the entire organization.
When we translate this lesson into the corporate context, it becomes evident that executives are exposed to an invisible high risk. They may not face bullets or flames, but they do confront the unrelenting demand to deliver results under the scrutiny of multiple stakeholders. And that risk, though less visible, consumes and wears down the body all the same.
Personal Resources: The Forgotten Side of Leadership
According to the Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) model, the balance between what the role demands and what the individual can provide determines the level of strain. When demands are high and resources are scarce, the result is chronic stress and burnout. But when the individual has sufficient internal and external resources, those same demands can be transformed into motivation and growth.
Leadership studies confirm that resources such as self-efficacy, resilience, emotional recovery capacity, and mindfulness practice buffer the effects of stress. It is not about eliminating demands, but about strengthening the resources that make it possible to face them.
This is why I propose viewing breathing not as an automatic act, but as a strategic personal resource. Conscious, regulated breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, balances HRV, and restores the body to a state of recovery. In my interventions with executives, simply incorporating breath training has produced radical changes in how they approach critical meetings, negotiations, or crises.
Respa: Measuring to Transform
The biggest challenge has always been consistency. Many leaders acknowledge the value of breathing better, yet in the rush of the day they forget to practice it. That is where technology becomes an ally.
I recently began working with Respa. To call it merely a “tool” feels insufficient: it is a technology that has reshaped the way we support wellbeing, in any context. It is a portable sensor, designed as a clip, that supports more effective breathing practice through real-time feedback. It helps users regulate and refine their breathing, making breath awareness both accessible and measurable.
For executives, Respa is invaluable in maintaining consistency and preventing dangerous levels of stress. It is not abstract theory, but tangible data that signals when their breathing has turned chaotic and nudges them back toward balance. It even provides a retrospective view of the day: when stress peaked, how the body responded, and when balance was restored.
I have witnessed how Respa changes conversations in the boardroom. Discussions are no longer about “managing stress” as an abstract concept, but about live respiratory curves that reveal how a team endures the pressure of negotiation. This visibility is not invasive, it is empowering. Executives realize that their bodies hold an immediate resource for self-regulation, and organizations gain a new KPI that anticipates risks before they escalate into resignations or rash decisions.
Respa does not replace mental strength or inspirational leadership, but it adds what was previously missing: the ability to listen to the body in real time and adjust behavior before hitting the breaking point.
Toward a Possible Balance
Both data and lived experience make it clear: we can no longer treat executive burnout as a “collateral cost” of leadership. Balance is not a luxury, it is a prerequisite for organizational sustainability. If the figure at the top becomes a source of stress, the rest of the team is likely to follow suit. Emotions are contagious, and context directly shapes behavior.
Breath training offers a practical, accessible path toward that balance. We are not talking about lengthy therapies or costly interventions, but about reclaiming a basic habit: the natural rhythm of breathing. And with tools like Respa, we can ensure that habit does not fade amidst the chaos, but instead becomes part of the daily routine of even the most demanding leaders.
