By Lindsay Frost September 2, 2025
When Chris Hulls stepped down as the CEO of Life360, a Nasdaq-listed tech company worth $90 billion, earlier this month, he made an unusual admission. In a letter filed with the SEC, Hulls disclosed the “constant weight” of “being the backstop of last resort,” stating there were times when his role drained him and he was “running on empty.”
He’s one of a host of chief executives suffering from burnout, which is likely contributing to the currently sky-high CEO turnover rate, sources told Agenda. Executives who overwork can also cost companies financially and slow down progress on business initiatives, among other consequences.
For boards, it’s important to keep an eye out for red flags, including irritability and anger, to consider hiring executive coaches and to have open and honest discussions with their CEOs about personal well-being, sources said.
“Most CEOs are really putting themselves at risk because of a boundaryless kind of life that they’re living,” said Kevin Fleming, founder of Grey Matters International, a neuroscience-based executive behavior change consulting firm. Boards need to “make executive wellness be a part of [the CEO’s] benefits package.”
More Execs Worn DownHulls highlighted a number of other reasons for his departure but disclosed that some of the challenges that come with the CEO title simply wore him down. He will remain on the board as executive chairman.
He’s not the only one struggling with the weight of chief exec responsibilities. Some 52% of more than 2,000 global CEOs and other C-suite execs told HR advisory firm LHH last year that they currently feel overworked and burned out. Similarly, nearly 25% of more than 1,500 small business CEOs told executive coaching firm Vistage and The Wall Street Journal this summer that they experience feelings of burnout daily or frequently, and 44% said they occasionally feel overwhelmed.
CEOs have also been explicit about their experiences with burnout in recent years at companies including Bumble, EarnUp, Lloyds Banking Group and PagerDuty.
There are a number of drivers of CEO burnout including longer work days, lack of work-life balance, distraction fatigue and the challenges of the current business environment, sources said and data shows.
“Burnout is not just about long hours,” said Glen Hellman, founder of and executive coach at CxO Elevate. “It is about a poor match between personality and the demands of the role.”
Generally, boards have higher expectations for CEOs, which can lead to higher stress, sources said.
“It is expected that if someone is appointed to the CEO role, they typically have greater levels of resilience and can handle the inevitable stress and demands of the top job than your average worker,” wrote Debbie Goodman, founder of executive search firm Jack Hammer Global, in an email. “It’s hot at the top — it’s expected that CEOs will be able to withstand this.”
Recently, CEO burnout has become more acute because “layers of management have been stripped away and more weight sits on the CEO’s shoulders,” Hellman said.
Additionally, because of the “hyper-stimulated, high-technology kind of world” CEOs operate in, “[they] are getting hit nonstop with urgencies. And of course, when everything is urgent, nothing is, and that’s the problem,” Fleming said.
Consequences of BurnoutCompanies face numerous consequences related to CEO burnout.
For one, executives who struggle with burnout, disengagement, overextension and ineffectiveness cost companies on average more than $20,000 per year, according to an academic study published in April in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
CEO burnout also likely contributes to resignations, which can impact succession planning, sources said.
It’s rare for CEO departures to be officially attributed to health reasons, according to data from Exechange. Only 53 out of more than 2,000 CEO exits at Russell 3000 companies between 2016 and 2025 cited health reasons, none of which were mental health or burnout.
However, 71 departures were attributed to personal reasons, which Daniel Schauber, founder of Exechange, surmises, in some cases, could be related to burnout.
Generally, average tenure for outgoing CEOs is at a record low 6.8 years, according to Russell Reynolds Associates’ global CEO turnover index. This “could indicate that the combination of heightened stakeholder scrutiny of the CEO role and the need for continuous business transformation is making the role increasingly challenging to sustain,” according to the index.
The demands of a CEO, and fear of burnout, could also contribute to difficulties in recruiting for the top job, sources said.
Board OversightBoards should keep an eye out for red flags that could indicate CEO burnout, as they likely won’t hear it from the CEO himself or herself.
“I have been burned out in CEO positions, and the last thing I was going to do was tell my board that,” Hellman said. “You can’t share with your board or your staff as a CEO that you’re not feeling it, because then they lose confidence.”
Indeed, “[CEOs are] masterful on keeping a lot of this stuff hidden,” Fleming said.
Before bringing on a new CEO, boards should conduct a personality assessment and psychographic analysis based on what the job requires, Hellman recommends.
Boards should also meet with the full C-suite on a regular basis. If there are resignations beneath the CEO, that could be a sign of fraying ties, Hellman said.
Otherwise, symptoms might not be obvious, Fleming noted. You may see your CEO have “anger, irritability and … emotional dysregulation,” he said. CEOs may also resort to self-medication, showing signs of addictive behavior with alcohol and other substances, he added.
In order to mitigate burnout, CEOs should focus on “ensuring that the basic building blocks for sustainable wellness are in place: good nutrition, moderate exercise, sufficient sleep, periodic breaks, solid routine and being surrounded by an excellent, proficient leadership team,” Goodman wrote.
Sources also advised that CEOs can hire executive coaches to help them navigate stressors and workload. A coach can “help the CEO perform, can create the space to step back, work on the business and work on themselves,” Hellman said.
Ultimately, boards can be valuable partners for CEOs to help manage burnout and related symptoms. But directors also need to consider whether they themselves aren’t causing undue stress, sources said.
After all, few directors or CEOs, 36% and 22% respectively, say their board provides opportunities for the CEO to discuss sensitive topics such as personal well-being, according to a survey from Spencer Stuart of 2,400 global CEOs and directors conducted this spring.
