24 - Jim Young on Beating Burnout and Achieving Sustainable Performance

Episode Overview

Burnout isn’t just a buzzword — it’s a chronic condition that can drain energy, cloud purpose, and leave us feeling isolated or ashamed. In this episode of The Learning and Performance Podcast, I speak with Jim Young, Director of Organizational Development at Keiter Corporation and author of Expansive Intimacy: How Tough Guys Defeat Burnout.

After hitting burnout himself in 2018 and stepping away from corporate life, Jim went on a journey of recovery, reinvention, and reconnection. Today, he helps individuals and organizations pursue sustainable performance — balancing short-term demands with long-term health and purpose. Together, we explore what burnout really is, why it happens, and what it takes to recover and thrive.

About The Guest

Jim Young is the Director of Organizational Development at Keiter Corporation in Western Massachusetts. He previously built a career in IT leadership and project management before experiencing burnout in 2018, which led him into coaching, writing, speaking, and teaching others about sustainable performance. Jim is also the author of Expansive Intimacy: How Tough Guys Defeat Burnout and a trained improv comedian.

Connect with Jim:

• Website: ⁠thecenteredcoach.com⁠

• LinkedIn: ⁠Jim Young⁠

• Book: Expansive Intimacy: How Tough Guys Defeat Burnout (⁠Amazon⁠)

Key Topics & Insights

• Performance, Learning, and Purpose — Jim’s view of high performance as doing work you love, that you’re good at, and that serves something larger than yourself.

• What burnout really is — not momentary tiredness, but a chronic condition involving loss of purpose, confusion, isolation, comparison, and shame.

• Common myths about burnout — why throwing the term around too loosely can downplay its seriousness.

• Root causes — including isolation, unrealistic social ideals, and cultural pressure to always achieve more.

• Identity and masculinity — how socialized expectations of men as “providers” and “tough guys” contribute to burnout.

• Pillars of recovery — therapy, recovery programs, intimacy, support groups, community, and service.

• Balancing resources and demands — the shift from reactive to creative modes when we’re resourced enough to meet life’s challenges.

• Boundaries and balance in practice — Jim’s decision to step back from a stressful executive role into organizational development work that better aligns with his strengths.

• Leadership lessons — how distributed leadership and autonomy help organizations sustain high performance.

• Expansive Intimacy: How Tough Guys Defeat Burnout by Jim Young (Amazon)

• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk (Amazon)

• 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman (Amazon)

• Fried: The Burnout Podcast with Kate Donovan (Podcast)

• Research on burnout: Christina Maslach & Michael Leiter’s work on the Maslach Burnout Inventory

• Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg (CNVC)