The polite version of burnout doesn’t look dramatic.

It looks like efficiency, pressure, responsibility… and the slow normalising of a pace that leaves no room for you.

Most leaders aren’t falling apart - they’re quietly running on empty.

The question isn’t “Can you keep going like this?”

It’s “What is it costing you to keep going like this?”

Last year, somewhere along the way, the joy slipped out of my work travel.

I went from exploring new places to doing the plane-hotel-plane routine on autopilot.

Miami was the wake-up... two days in a venue, not one step outside.

I realised I wasn’t choosing joy anymore… I was choosing “get through it.”

So 2026 is different: more space, more presence, more moments that actually matter.

If the joy’s gone, what’s the point?

Because success without joy isn’t success.

Here’s the part most leaders miss.

People don’t usually rise because they suddenly believe in themselves. They rise because someone credible, someone they respect, sees a version of them they haven’t grown into yet.

This is where real leadership happens.

Not in the big presentations or the complex strategy moments, but in the everyday interactions where you choose to see someone’s capability instead of their hesitation. When you reflect back the strength, clarity or potential they’ve been downplaying, you give them a reference point they can grow into.

This is ROGUE in practice.

People change when the truth about them is named clearly.

And leaders who understand that create more progress in one sentence than others do in an entire quarter.