Why brilliant leaders implode

I watched a brilliant leader implode last month.

VP in big tech. multi-seven-figure comp. Team that delivered. Then she took a sabbatical and never came back. Burnout so severe she couldn't read a full email without her heart racing.

She'd won every finite game while losing the only one that matters.

The finite game is seductive: quarterly numbers, promotions, the next title

. 

The infinite game is about building the capacity to keep leading when everyone around you flames out. 

As I get deeper into the work of midwifing leaders into their own power, I've learned something counterintuitive: the leaders who thrive aren't sprinting hardest. They're obsessively protecting five types of runway most leaders don't even track.

Health Runway

Leadership is an energy game. Without it, your perspective narrows, your patience evaporates, trust erodes.

One VP came to me with a prioritization problem. Frameworks stacked on frameworks, couldn't execute on any of them. 

First question: "How much sleep are you getting?"

"Five hours. Maybe six if I'm lucky."

We built a non-negotiable sleep protocol: in bed by 10pm, wake at 5:45am, no exceptions. Within three weeks, everything shifted. 

Her thinking sharpened. Her communication became crisp. Her team suddenly knew exactly what to do - because she finally had the clarity to tell them. Her impact grew, everyone noticed. Her confidence skyrocketed and her team size tripled. 

The unlock wasn't smarter frameworks. It was sleep.

Your move: Go to bed before 10pm for 14 consecutive days. Track what happens to your decision-making, your patience, your presence.

Money Runway

Without financial breathing room, every decision becomes a negotiation with fear. You can't take the calculated risk. You can't walk away from the toxic culture. You can't explore the transformational opportunity.

One director was miserable - toxic culture, undermining manager, Sunday night anxiety attacks. But he had a mortgage, two kids in private school, and no idea if he could afford to leave.

We created a deeper understanding of his finances, and shifted his thinking to “My money works for me.” rather than “More is always better.” 

Suddenly, scarcity transformed into choice. 

The freedom was there the whole time, hidden behind his refusal to look.

Your move: Open a spreadsheet right now. List your liquid savings, your true monthly expenses, and calculate your runway. If you've been avoiding this, that avoidance is costing you freedom.

Time Runway

If your calendar is wall-to-wall meetings, you're not leading - you're performing the theater of leadership while the actual work gets relegated to nights and weekends.

One Director was brilliant, hardworking, respected - and completely underwater. We shifted from having her calendar run her to intentionally designing her calendar every week..

Within a month, with actual space to think, she spotted a critical gap in the company's strategy. She developed a proposal, presented it to leadership, and was asked to lead the initiative - a next level project that put her on the map. 

Creating time runway didn't just give her space. It created opportunity.

Your move: Audit your calendar to understand what it’s saying about you. Learn how to save 10+ hours / week here. 

Satisfaction Runway

If you're miserable while "winning," you're not winning.

The infinite game requires joy- not constant bliss, but a baseline of satisfaction that makes you want to keep playing. Yet most leaders don't believe they're allowed to have it.

One director was succeeding by every external measure. Promotions, comp increases, glowing reviews. She was also desperately unhappy.

We dug into what actually gave her energy: developing managers. The one-on-ones where she helped someone have a breakthrough. But she was spending maybe 10% of her time on that work.

We restructured her role. She delegated the operational work, built systems for her team to own the processes, and created a formal manager development program. She wasn't just happier - her engagement scores went up, retention improved, and her VP started using her program as a model for other teams.

Satisfaction wasn't a luxury. It was the unlock.

Your move: Ask yourself honestly: does the work you're doing right now matter to you? Are you spending time on things that create flow, or grinding through tasks that leave you flat?

Resilience Runway

Setbacks aren't just possible. They're guaranteed.

Resilience isn't about gritting your teeth. It's about structures you build before the storm: rituals that ground you, community that holds you, practices that keep you connected to who you are when everything is chaos.

One candidate made it to final rounds for a role he desperately wanted. Perfect fit. Then: rejection email.

His old pattern would have been devastating. But he had a daily meditation practice. He was part of our leadership community. He had frameworks for processing setbacks without drowning in them.

Within 48 hours, he'd done the debrief. Within a week, he'd moved forward. Two months later, he landed a role that was objectively better-more aligned with his strengths, stronger cultural fit, higher impact.

The difference was the resilience infrastructure he'd built before he needed it.

Your move: Build one grounding practice this week. Ten minutes of meditation, journaling, movement - whatever grounds you. The steadiness you create now is the foundation you'll need when the storm comes. If you want to learn the best way to meditate, check out this video. 

The Paradox

Once you build these five runways, the finite wins you've been chasing—promotions, comp increases, recognition-actually get easier.

Because you're no longer playing scared.

When you have health, money, time, satisfaction, and resilience, you make different decisions. Clearer decisions. Bolder decisions. You show up as the leader you're capable of being instead of the exhausted version just trying to survive.

Your Move

Grade yourself honestly, 1–10, on each runway: Health. Money. Time. Satisfaction. Resilience.

Where are you strong? Where are you running on fumes?

Pick the runway that needs it most and take one action this week. Not next month. This week.

Build an extra hour of sleep. Calculate your real financial runway. Block thinking time. Identify work that creates flow. Start a 10-minute grounding practice.

One action. One runway. One week.

The infinite game rewards the leaders who build capacity, not the ones who sprint until they break.