One question we’re hearing more often in Executive Coaching with female leaders — particularly those identified as top talent — is this: “Can you really have it all?”
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a noticeable rise in stress levels and burnout among women progressing through senior leadership pathways. Data from Deloitte’s global study (2025) reflects what many female leaders feel every day:
- Nearly 90% of women believe their manager would respond negatively if they disclosed mental‑health challenges.
- Women continue to shoulder the majority of household and caregiving responsibilities, intensifying exhaustion.
- Burnout rates remain significantly higher for women than for men.
This will not surprise most women reading this.
So What… Can We Do as Female Leaders Today?
A framework we regularly use in coaching conversations to help women rethink potential burnout and capacity is James Clear’s Four Burners Theory.
Clear suggests that life consists of four “burners”:
Family | Friends | Health | Work
To perform well, one burner must be turned down.
To perform exceptionally, often two.
In other words:
You can have it all — just not all at the same time.
This reframing helps leaders shift from guilt to intentional choice.
It moves away from the myth of “Super-Woman” and creates a new definition of strength.
- Strength isn’t burning at all four corners.
- Strength is knowing when to turn a burner down.
- Strength is recognising capacity before collapse.
- Strength is building a life that honours both ambition and wellbeing.
Ahead of International Women’s Day, we celebrate the women who:
- Turn one burner up to pursue a dream
- Turn another down to protect their health
- Redistribute their flame with courage and clarity
- Reject the myth of “having it all at once” — and instead choose what matters today.
Here’s to women — leading, rising, resting, recalibrating — one intentional flame at a time.
References:
Deloitte (2025). Women @ Work: A Global Outlook. Based on a survey of 7,500 women across 15 countries, examining stress, mental health, burnout, and workplace experience.
jamesclear.com/four-burners-theory