Field Notes:

High Accountability Burnout

Context

At a high-end, single-location grocery store, I was wrapping up a broader engagement with the leadership team. In one of our final conversations, the owner shared a point of pride: a particular team member they described as a “total rockstar.” This person was seen as someone who could be completely trusted—so good, they didn’t need management’s time or attention.

Challenge

The only concern, the owner noted, was that this employee could get “a little obsessive” and “too intense sometimes”—but always in a way that was self-directed. They brushed it off as part of the package of excellence.

I saw it differently. What they were describing wasn’t a quirk—it was a red flag. I shared my concern: high performers without clear boundaries and expectations often carry too much weight. When they care deeply and don’t know where their accountability ends, they’ll try to own everything. I call this Accountability Overreach. It’s what happens when someone’s internal drive meets organizational ambiguity. And it’s preventable.

Shift

While I wasn’t working directly with that department, I raised the concern and encouraged the leadership team to clearly define this employee’s areas of accountability. The goal was to give him clarity not just on what was his responsibility—but also what wasn’t. That clarity would allow him to ask for support, expect ownership from others, and stop overreaching by default.

Outcomes

The warning wasn’t acted on, and a few months later, the employee burned out and left. The company was in a strong position overall—they had built solid structures in other departments and were able to transfer in a high-performing leader to stabilize the team. But the opportunity cost was real. With the right support, this individual had the potential to grow into a senior leadership role. Instead, the company lost one of its most promising people.

Insight

Accountability isn’t just about performance management—it’s about protecting your people. Especially your most driven, high-accountability team members. When they don’t know where the edges are, they take on too much, too often, for too long.

Reflection

Is there someone on your team who’s quietly doing too much—simply because no one ever told them where their responsibility ends? Maybe it’s the “one person you don’t need to worry about”. Maybe you’re even sure that this person is ‘the future of the company’.

Don’t let high accountability and high performance of a team member be a reason you skip the hard work of leadership, particularly if the risk is losing that high performer.

If you want help defining the right accountabilities for your team members, or connecting those accountabilities to an effective growth business system, I’d love to chat: schedule an intro call with me.

Keep Growing,