You know the profile: the leader who is competent, committed, respected AND running on empty. Depletion is the symptom. It’s not the disease.
The disease is under-resourcing.
The difference between those two determines whether anything actually gets better.
Here’s the framework, in plain language. Decades of motivation science and self-determination theory, one of the two conceptual frameworks behind my doctoral research, say human beings sustain motivation when three psychological needs are met.
Competence: I have the skills this role demands, and I’m growing.
Autonomy: I have real say in how I lead.
Relatedness: I’m connected to people who see me and support me.
That’s it. Three needs. Leaders don’t deplete because they’re weak; they deplete because one or more of those needs is being starved, usually for a long time, usually structurally.
In my study of federal healthcare leaders, the starvation patterns were specific and recognizable.
Competence-starved: leaders promoted into roles without foundational preparation, learning by trial and error, with real people bearing the errors.
Autonomy starved: leaders held accountable for outcomes while decisions were made levels above them.
Relatedness starved: development delivered as solitary compliance modules instead of the mentorship, peer cohorts, and relational learning that participants consistently said transformed them.
Now here’s why the diagnosis matters. If you believe your leader is depleted, the interventions are personal: rest, self-care, resilience, maybe a sabbatical. Sometimes those help.
BUT… if the leader is under-resourced, every one of those interventions returns her to the same starvation conditions with slightly more energy to burn through. You haven’t treated anything. You’ve extended the timeline.
Under-resourcing has structural treatments: preparation timed to role transitions, real decision authority matched to accountability, development designed around human connection rather than content delivery.
The next time a leader on your team looks like they’re running out or the next time it’s you… run the three-needs check before reaching for the resilience toolkit. Which need is starving? The answer changes everything about what to do next.
Dr. Sarah Davis-Arnold
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