LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT | 6-WEEK PROGRAM
Leading out of Burnout
THE GAP MOST LEADERS ARE FACED WITH
You understand the risk. What you need is a system to act on it.
Most leaders in high-intensity environments have been through some version of burnout themselves. They've cobbled together their own approach, and they can spot the warning signs in others. What they don't have is a structured, evidence-based method for intervening before those signs become injuries.
The standard options don't fill this gap. Generic wellbeing programs are designed for awareness, not behaviour change, leaving team members to work out how to apply them. EAPs exist to respond to harm, not to prevent it. The psychosocial safety codes of practice are explicit: allowing people to be harmed by their work and then patching them up with counselling does not meet the standard for duty of care.
Leading out of Burnout is built for the gap between knowing and doing. It gives leaders a practical system, grounded in the Fuel-Gauge-Terrain framework, for reading their team's signals accurately and redesigning the conditions that are making burnout more likely.
What this program isn't
- A wellbeing awareness session managers sit through once and forget
- Advice to listen more, set better boundaries, or model self-care
- Content that treats burnout as a personal failing
- Generic material that ignores your team's real context
- A tick-box for your psychosocial safety obligations
The Fuel-Gauge-Terrain framework
"The Fuel-Gauge-Terrain framework is TANK's evidence-based model for burnout prevention: Fuel is the balance between stress and recovery; Gauge is your ability to read your own signals accurately; Terrain is the system environment that makes balance easier or harder."
How the program works
Structured around a real challenge you're already facing
01
Pre-work: Diagnostic
Participants complete TANK's burnout risk assessment for themselves and their team, and identify the specific challenge they'll work on throughout the program.
02
Week 1: Sustainable High Performance Masterclass
Half-day in-person or hybrid. Foundational knowledge, barrier identification, and core skills practice, anchored in the real challenge each leader brought in.
03
Weeks 2-6: Weekly office hours
Two drop-in sessions each week. Participants bring live challenges, hear how peers are addressing similar situations, and access expert coaching.
04
Week 8: Showcase
Participants present the challenge they faced, how they addressed it, and what worked. Creates institutional knowledge and closes the accountability loop.
05
Post-program: Impact measurement
Post-program data collection, case study capture, and impact reporting. Measurable outcomes, not just participant experience.
06
Throughout: Tools, resources and support
12-month access to TANK's on-demand platform: core burnout prevention content, scripts for difficult conversations, and team capacity assessment tools.
Six capabilities — applied to a real team challenge during the program
Recognise early warning signs with confidence
Most leaders know something is wrong only when it's already a problem. This program builds the skill of reading depletion signals in a team — early, accurately, without waiting for someone to raise their hand.
Manage their own bandwidth as a leader
Preventing team burnout requires working on the system, not just in it. Leaders leave with a realistic approach to creating the headroom to intervene — without compromising their other commitments.
Diagnose the terrain producing depletion
Using the Fuel-Gauge-Terrain framework, leaders map the structural conditions driving burnout in their specific environment — and identify what's within their scope to change.
Apply concrete skills for hazard reduction
Leaders practise specific intervention skills — prioritisation and workload management, facilitating difficult conversations, job crafting, building communication and trust — and leave with a tested plan for their own challenge.
Work within — and around — organisational constraints
Not every lever is available to every leader. The program builds skill in working within scope: identifying what can be changed immediately, what requires escalation, and how to make the case for both.
Sustain change — not just intention
Six weeks of supported practice and peer accountability is enough to shift habits. Leaders finish the program having already applied what they've learned to a real team challenge.
Ryan
Consulting
"I've been to plenty of these trainings, and this one was different. The focus was on mental health as key to high performance was really valuable."
Brianna Cattenach
National Workers Compensation Strategy Manager, Allianz
“TANK helped our teams talk about burnout without the stigma, and gave us a shared way to manage energy, not just workload.”
Catherine Vaara
CEO, Lifeline Mid Coast
“I would recommend TANK in a heartbeat. The method has made a significant change to how we support each other.”
Dr Caroline Howe
Founder, HoweSafe
"The TANK program for Fire and Rescue stood out for the way it engaged our audience in practical ways they can take control of their own stress and recovery to prevent burnout, even in the context of a highly demanding and emotionally intense workplace."
WHO THIS PROGRAM IS DESIGNED FOR
Built for leaders who want to do more than provide emotional support
Leading out of Burnout is for leaders who have a good understanding of burnout risk, and are frustrated that most available resources are so hard to apply in the real world. They want the concrete skills to intervene effectively in their team's system.
The program works best when participants arrive with a real team challenge already in mind. That's by design: the program is built around it.
Making the case internally
Compliance: Australian psychosocial safety codes of practice make clear that EAP-only approaches do not constitute sufficient duty of care. Leaders need skills, not just awareness.
Risk: Burnout drives absenteeism and attrition, which increases workload for remaining staff, amplifying hazards. Early intervention interrupts the cycle.
Documented impact: TANK's programs have reduced burnout risk scores by 19%+ among leaders in high-demand environments. Impact is measured and reported as a standard part of the program.
Scale: Cohorts of up to 50, with staggered scheduling to manage delivery cost and load. In-person or hybrid masterclass.
- Team managers in high-demand industries — professional services, healthcare, education, software engineering
- Leaders managing emotionally complex or high-volume environments
- L&D and HR teams building leadership capability around psychosocial safety obligations
- Organisations where a TANK workshop has created shared language and managers want to go deeper
- Leaders who've been through burnout themselves and want a rigorous system, not a list of habits
On the evidence base
Research by Sonnentag on recovery and performance, Feldman Barrett on interoception, McEwen and Sapolsky on stress physiology, and Meadows and Senge on systems thinking underpins the framework. The program translates that evidence into practical skills — not academic content delivered to a passive audience.
WHERE THIS FITS
Starts with a shared language. Goes deeper with your leaders.
Leading out of Burnout works as a standalone program. It also works particularly well as the next step after a TANK team workshop — where the whole team has built a shared understanding of the Fuel-Gauge-Terrain framework, and the managers are ready to go further.
The workshop creates a foundation that gives leaders a head start. Leading out of Burnout builds the capability to sustain and extend it.
Starting point for the conversation
A discovery call takes 30 minutes. We'll listen to what's happening in your team, walk you through how the program works, and tell you honestly whether it's the right fit — and when. No obligation, no pitch deck.
Ready to build the capability?
A discovery call takes 30 minutes. We'll listen to what's happening in your team, tell you honestly whether the program is the right fit, and walk you through how delivery works.