I’m Tired. I’m Not Leaving.
"I'm tired. I'm not leaving."
A VP of Sales said that to me a few weeks ago.
She didn't say it like a complaint. She said it like a decision.
I haven't stopped thinking about it, because almost every piece of advice she's ever been given assumes those two sentences can't live together. If you're tired, leave. If you're staying, stop complaining and push harder.
She isn't doing either one.
She isn't looking for a way out. She's looking for a way to stay that doesn't depend on her personally carrying the number.
If that's you, keep reading.
Why Q4 Makes Senior Leader Burnout Harder to Ignore
It’s Q4. You know what that means.
Every deal that slipped in Q3 is now a must-close. You're finishing 2026 while building the 2027 plan. Comp plans are on your desk. The forecast call comes around every week, and your name is on the number.
And when a big deal starts to wobble, who gets the call?
You do.
Not because no one else could handle it. Because you always have.
You’re not imagining the weight of it. A 2025 Tech.co survey of 1,036 US business leaders found directors and vice presidents reported the highest burnout of the leadership levels it compared, at 25%. McKinsey and LeanIn.org’s 2025 Women in the Workplace study found about 60% of senior-level women had frequently felt burned out in recent months, the highest level in five years. And in a 2024 survey of more than 500 B2B sellers and sales leaders, 67% said they were close to burnout, according to this summary of the Sales Health Alliance report.
The Job Isn’t What’s Wearing You Out
You’re good at this. You probably still love parts of it: building a team, the strategy, the win.
The role isn’t the problem. The pattern is.
Right now, you’re doing three jobs at once:
The closer. When a deal gets big enough, it lands on your calendar.
The escalation point. Every discount, every exception, every unhappy customer finds its way to you.
The safety net. When something is about to break, you catch it before anyone else sees it.
That's not leading the number. That's carrying it, with a VP title.
Here's the hard part: it worked. It’s likely how you earned the seat, so nothing about it has ever looked like a problem.
Leaving Won’t Fix It
Say you leave. You take a new role at a new company with a fresh number.
Give it 90 days. A big deal wobbles, and you're the closer again. Your managers learn to escalate. Your calendar fills back up.
I know because I lived it. I carried this pattern through 20 years in global organizations, then brought it straight into my own business. The setting changed. The pattern didn't.
Staying Can Look Different
Staying doesn't have to mean enduring. It can mean deciding to lead differently in the same seat.
This quarter, that might look like:
Joining a deal call to coach your rep afterward, instead of taking the call over.
Deciding which approvals are actually yours, and handing your managers the rest. The decision, not just the task.
Logging off one night in December and trusting the deal will still be there in the morning.
None of these are big. None of them are easy. And your team is watching how you get through this quarter. If you're online at 11 pm, they will be too.
If you want to see where your time goes before you decide what to hand off, start with this calendar audit.
One Question to Sit With
What would have to be true for you to stay here three more years and still like your life?
Not survive it. Like it.
Write your answer down, and be specific. Then look at the distance between that list and how you're leading today.
That gap is the work.
You Don’t Have to Figure This Out Alone
Most women in your seat are working this out on their own. Maybe you have a peer you vent to on Fridays. That helps you get through the week. It doesn't change how you lead.
The VIP Catalyst Intensive is for women who are staying and are ready to change how they lead. It's one day, one-on-one with me. We look at what you're carrying, decide what's actually yours to hold, and map how you'll lead differently starting the next morning, so the change holds when Q4 hits.
You're tired. You're not leaving. Let's make staying work.
Book a call to talk about the VIP Catalyst.
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