Anaerobic Leadership
Walk through too many organisations and you'll witness senior leaders operating in survival mode – gasping for air, making reactive decisions, and running their teams into the ground alongside themselves.
This isn't sustainable leadership; it's anaerobic leadership.
Just as anaerobic exercise occurs without sufficient oxygen, anaerobic leadership happens when leaders operate without the essential elements they need to thrive: professional development, effective delegation, and strategic time management.
The result? A leader who suffocates.
This is about more than individual health and wellbeing; it's also about the creation of systemic inefficiencies that ripple through entire organisations.
What are the issues and what to do about them?
Here's four aspects to consider.
1. Generational exposure
The multigenerational workplace has exposed this dysfunction more starkly than ever before.
Generation Z employees, in particular, arrive with clear expectations about work-life integration and professional development.
They've witnessed the burnout culture that previous generations accepted as inevitable, and they're not buying in.
Gen Z staff typically have a strong focus on mental health, continuous learning, and sustainable work practices. Older leaders and managers may think they are modelling this-is-what-it-takes-to-be-successful, but younger employees just see the inefficiencies and the risks from increasingly unstable single points of failure.
Tired and run down leaders tend not to make great decisions, or have time to engage properly with their workforce in order to make better ones.
When recruiting and retaining Gen Z (and others) becomes increasingly challenging, it's often because they can sense the toxic culture that anaerobic leadership creates.
2. Professional development breathlessness
Senior leaders who consistently ignore their own professional development create a dangerous precedent.
This self-neglect sends a clear message that learning stops at the top. Necessary for everyone else, but a luxury for them. And besides, they are already out of breath as it is. Why compound the problem?
It is profoundly ironic. Those who most require professional development are the last to ask for it and senior folks are amongst them. The sheer effort to clear the diary and get out of the office makes the hassle of ‘going to the conference’ not worth it for them, and everyone else affected.
Generation Z employees notice this disconnect immediately. Having grown up in an era of rapid technological change, they expect leaders to demonstrate genuine commitment to professional growth. When senior leaders haven't updated their skills or perspectives in years, it creates a credibility gap that's difficult to bridge.
And with the current pace of change as it is, those who do not engage only risk getting even further behind. The tendency can be to double down and stick with what you know when circumstances demand a different approach.
The multigenerational workplace demands leaders who can adapt, learn, and evolve. Anaerobic leaders who've stopped investing in themselves become bottlenecks. When they think they are operating at pace they instead present as unfit to others.
3. Unfit to perform
Anaerobic leadership might deliver short-term performance gains, but it systematically undermines them in the long term.
For clarity - leaders do need to be able to sprint. So do their colleagues. But it cannot be the rule. Pace can be productive when the time flies by and people feel engaged. Anaerobic leadership feels overwhelming very quickly, and for good reason.
I have worked with (and have been myself) senior leaders who pride themselves on their ability to push through challenges after challenge, work into the small hours, and deliver results regardless of personal cost.
It is a helpful modus operandi to slip in and out of, but it cannot be the primary leadership strategy. Burnout is a problem, not a badge of honour.
The multigenerational workplace is exposing the fundamental flaws in this approach. Generation Z employees have grown up understanding that sustainable high performance requires adequate recovery to draw on mental and physical resources. Leaders who operate anaerobically undermine their desired outcomes.
The multigenerational workplace rewards leaders who can model sustainable excellence rather than unsustainable levels of intensity.
4. Oxygen for innovation
Creativity and innovation require psychological safety, time for reflection, and space for experimentation – all elements that anaerobic leadership systematically eliminates.
When leaders are permanently out of breath (and proud of it), they create environments which limit innovative thinking. The joint pressures of immediate demands and crisis management are not conducive to finding productive breakthroughs.
Anaerobic leaders typically respond to pressure by tightening control, reducing experimentation, and demanding immediate results from every initiative. As the saying goes, prioritise everything and you prioritise nothing.
Teams who learn it is best to avoid risks and stick to ‘proven’ approaches do not move forward.
The generational implications are particularly significant. Gen Z employees arrive in the workplace expecting to contribute fresh perspectives and drive meaningful change. When they encounter leaders who operate anaerobically, their innovative energy gets redirected toward finding new employers who appreciate their creative potential.
Organisations that continue to promote anaerobic ways of working will find themselves falling behind competitors who understand that breakthrough thinking requires breathing room. Worrying about running out of oxygen is one of the best ways of losing competitive advantage.
Remember that
A successful multigenerational workplace demands leaders who model healthy work practices – Generation Z employees spot anaerobic leadership very quickly and will actively avoid organisations that promote an approach that they regard as toxic. Far better to redesign the workflow than run yourself into the ground.
Oxygen is not a luxury. Your perspective on this as a leader will have a bigger impact on your organisation than you imagine.
How can I help you?
1. Talks, workshops and seminars - including managing topics relevant to the two areas above plus explaining Gen Z to Gen X and dealing with the intergenerational workplace. Speaker showreel here.
2. My book The Snowflake Myth will be published in September 2025 - to receive a free chapter (when available 😬) please click here.
3. One to one coaching programmes for senior leaders who are swamped by their jobs so they can thrive in life. Click here to discover where you are on your journey from Frantic to Fulfilled? Just 5 minutes of your time and you will receive a full personalised report with guidance on your next steps.
4. Team coaching programmes - working IN a team is not the same as working AS a team and yet they are often treated as if they are the same. I help teams move from the former to the latter, and generate huge shifts in productivity and outcomes.
