The Real Reason High-Performing Leaders Feel Exhausted, Even When They’re Doing Everything Right
What executives are missing about sustainable performance.
This expert opinion, by Marcel Schwantes, Inc. contributing editor, executive coach, speaker, and author, was originally published on Inc.com.
High-performing professionals are surrounded by systems designed to help them win. From time-blocking to productivity tools and performance metrics, they’ve engineered nearly everything. And yet, many are still running out of energy long before they run out of ambition. The issue isn’t effort or efficiency; it’s that most people are optimizing their time while ignoring the very thing that sustains performance: energy.
Erin Coupe, an executive partner, speaker and author who works with senior leaders across various organizations, sees this pattern repeatedly. “Most high achievers don’t need more routines,” Coupe told me. “They need a different relationship with how they show up inside the existing structure.”
This paradox shows up most often among entrepreneurs and executives who appear successful by every external measure. They’re organized, disciplined, and committed to their work, yet they feel persistently drained. Instead of clarity or fulfillment, their days blur into a cycle of execution and exhaustion, where decision-making becomes harder, and choices feel less clear.
In her debut book, I Can Fit That In, Coupe offers a shift away from depleting, rigid routines toward something more energizing and sustainable: rituals. Rather than asking leaders to manage time more aggressively, she argues rituals help them steward energy, presence, and intention. She says, “Routines focus on what gets done. Rituals focus on how you want to be while you’re doing it, and that distinction changes how achievement actually feels.”
1. Rituals Shift The Focus From Efficiency To Intention
Routines are designed to create consistency and speed. Rituals use those same moments to reinforce meaning. The action may appear identical on the surface, but the internal experience is entirely different because of the intention behind it.
“Routines ask, ‘Did I check the box?’” whereas “Rituals ask, ‘Is this aligned, and how did I feel while I did it?’”
That subtle shift helps leaders feel less fragmented and more grounded throughout the day.
2. Small Rituals Create Stability In High-Pressure Environments
Many leaders assume they need major life changes to feel better. They think less work, more time off, a complete schedule reset, or even a new role will grant them the inner peace they’re craving.
Coupe’s approach emphasizes small, repeatable rituals instead, which serve as anchors. She calls these “micro-rituals,” described as brief practices that create consistency regardless of how unpredictable a day becomes. Examples include a two-minute breath reset before meetings or a reflective pause before transitioning home. These don’t require more time, just more awareness.
“When leaders feel scattered or when resentment starts to leak out sideways, it’s often because they’ve lost their anchors,” Coupe says. “Rituals give them something steady to return to.”
3. Energy, Not Time, Is The Real Constraint On Performance
Research published by Harvard Business Review has long suggested that energy management is a stronger predictor of sustainable performance than time management. Rituals directly address this.
“Without rituals, leaders are running on autopilot and they unknowingly bleed energy from one part of life into the next. With them, they regain agency over where their energy goes.” she told me.
Instead of squeezing more out of a depleted system and pushing through fatigue, rituals help leaders recognize when to pause or replenish. Coupe encourages clients to design rituals around transitions such as starting work, ending work, and moving between roles to prevent energy leaks.
4. Rituals Shape Culture When Leaders Model Them
Rituals aren’t just personal tools. They shape culture and influence others. When leaders model intentional pauses, clear boundaries, and reflective practices, teams often follow as it sends a powerful signal.
Coupe has seen this play out in organizations where leaders begin meetings with brief grounding moments or close the week with intentional reflections. These practices are stabilizing, and they offer permission for others to value their own alignment.
People don’t burn out because they work hard, but because there’s no personal rhythm to their days.
5. Sustainable Success Requires Rhythm, Not Relentless Motion
Perhaps the most overlooked benefit of rituals is sustainability. Routines can be maintained through willpower. Rituals endure because they’re rooted in values.
“Rituals turn discipline into devotion. They help leaders stay connected to purpose and the why behind what they choose to do,” Coupe explains.
For entrepreneurs and executives playing long games, that connection can mean the difference between short-term success and lasting fulfillment.
In the end, the solution to exhaustion isn’t more productivity hacks. Rituals offer a way forward that doesn’t require doing less, only doing things differently.
