Why You’re Overworked (But Not Advancing in your Career)

This is the transcript of The Refreshing Leadership Podcast episode: Why You're Overworked (But Not Advancing in your Career), published on 16th March 2026.

If you are feeling overworked, undervalued, or like you are constantly firefighting, this episode is for you.

I want to walk you through three common reasons that I see in my high achievers that end up making them feel overloaded. They're probably not the ones you think, either. They're not about a lack of ambition. They're not about poor time management. They're about the blind spots that smart, capable people often fall into without realising it.

Reason one: you don't have clear boundaries and you avoid tricky conversations

You care. You want to be collaborative. You want people to know that you are available to help and that you're a good team player. But what happens? You pick up what others drop. You're seen as that safe pair of hands. There are times when you say yes when you actually don't feel like saying yes, and so you end up absorbing more than your fair share - and doing it with a smile.

Underneath this, though, you are avoiding conversations that would actually protect your time and energy. Conversations where you get to say: is this really a priority right now? Or: this isn't sustainable. Or even just a straight no. Sometimes no is the complete sentence you need.

This is about having boundaries, but then it's about being able to clearly voice them. You can always put yourself in the other person's shoes. Something like: "I would absolutely love to help with this.

Here is what I'm currently working on, and here is what my team is working on, in service of the organisation. If this needs to be reprioritised, please let me know - otherwise we're at capacity and we're not going to be able to just slot it in."

That puts the issue back to the person giving you the work. It's saying: how are we going to configure this? This is not something that is going to become my problem to configure. We're already operating at full capacity, so let's have a conversation about what reprioritisation needs to happen.

And it's worth saying: it is not leadership to say yes to everything. It's actually quietly depleting - not just you, but your team as well. I've certainly experienced being part of teams where the ultimate leader didn't know how to say no or when enough was enough. And I've also coached leaders and then spoken to their team members, who've told me that their leader's inability to say no is one of the biggest issues they face. The people who suffer the most are actually the team members. So this doesn't just impact you - it impacts the people who work for you as well.

I have a video on YouTube all about how to say no in a way that actually protects your career. I'll put a link in the show notes. And of course, this is something I work on with my individual clients.

Reason two: you are focused on effort and you think the work is going to speak for itself

You are not putting any time or planning into visibility - or into what actually gets rewarded.

I've told this story before, but I was once launching a major programme for 5,000 people and my then boss said something that stuck with me, and that my clients love to hear. She said: "Maya, you are architecting this programme, and that means it needs to have strong take-up. Launching it alone is not good enough. You need to spend 50% of your time architecting the programme - building it, designing it, getting it ready - and 50% of your time socialising it, so that people feel completely bought in and feel they've actually been able to shape it even before it's launched."

And lo and behold, we had off-the-charts take-up. The programme was such a success. At that time I was naturally quite task-oriented, so having somebody put it into those numbers for me really helped.

This stuff doesn't make its way onto job descriptions. If you look at your job description today, it's probably one line about influencing or getting things done. But actually, this work needs to take up a lot more of your week - and it needs to occupy some of the higher priority slots, because the busy work and the urgent stuff will always get done. What we're looking at here is the important work. Nobody is going to knock on your door at the end of the day and say: did you reach out to that early adopter team, or to that stakeholder or sponsor? Nobody is going to tap you on the shoulder for that. It's our job to get that stuff done.

There are also promotable tasks and non-promotable tasks in any given job. It's up to you to find out which is which. If you're not sure, this is your invitation to go and ask. Sit down with your line manager and get really clear on what the tasks are that are actually going to get you promoted. What are the outcomes the organisation needs to see that will lead to a promotion? You deserve that clarity.

I know that clarity is not easy to come by - I've sought it out myself, and people are remarkably reticent to give it. But if you are working really hard and contributing to the organisation, you deserve to ask for it. I personally recommend sitting down with your line manager to talk about what the next level could look like, what the likelihood of it actually is, what the commercial realities are around the specific roles you're interested in, what you need to demonstrate to get there, when you need to demonstrate it, and where the specific gaps are that they see in you. Getting crystal clear on that is your right.

Most of my clients when they start working with me do not have that clarity. If you are delivering and pushing the boat out, you have every right to ask for it. It's not being demanding - it's just being strategic. And it enables you to know how to best allocate your time. You can even say that directly: "I've got a full plate right now, and I need to know where and how to allocate my time best."

Reason three: you don't have a clear vision, so you default to doing everything

When you don't have your own clear personal vision - your personal north star - you become a deliverer of other people's visions and other people's priorities.

Without a vision, it's easy to say yes by default. You don't have a filter for what to say yes to and what to say no to. Sometimes the things that are in line with your bigger vision are not the obvious yes inside the organisation. It might be a lateral move to another part of the business that doesn't move you up a rung, but actually opens you up to your broader vision. Sometimes it's about doing that panel or that media opportunity, or being more visible on LinkedIn. Your team or marketing might be really pushing you to do this, but because you don't have a clear vision of how you want to position yourself, it feels like extra work or a diversion.

Without that clear vision, it's really easy to say yes to immediate priorities or to somebody else's priorities.

The other thing, for high achievers, is the tendency to try to be excellent at everything - just in case. You don't want to drop any balls, so you work extremely hard to make sure you're not making mistakes, because not making mistakes is exactly how you've got to where you are.

I've had loads of clients tell me that part of the success they've already achieved is down to their incredible work ethic and the fact that they don't make mistakes. That is brilliant up to a certain level.

But after a certain point, things shift. I had a finance client recently who told me it was fine as a financial controller to make sure he didn't make a single mistake - but now he's being groomed for a CFO role, and in that role he's going to need to make decisions with much less information and adopt a completely different decision-making mindset. That approach can be really useful at certain earlier levels, but as you start to occupy the bigger roles, the C-suite roles, you need to know what to be good at. You're not going to be able to treat it like an exam and get every single thing right.

Once you do have a vision, though, you can be strategically bad at things. You can hire people and work with others who complement your skills, so you can reside in your zone of genius. You can say no without guilt, because you have an inspiring vision that is going to make a real contribution - and in order to serve that higher vision, you are going to need to say no to some of the noise. You are going to need to know what is truly important and not get lost in other people's demands, people-pleasing, and trying to be brilliant at everything, because that used to work in the past and you were rewarded for it in the earlier years and stages of your life.

Now you stop leaking energy and you start focusing deeply on a smaller number of things - and that really starts to compound.

Quick recap

If you're feeling overworked right now, check if any of these apply.

First, you are not setting boundaries or having the hard conversations to reprioritise things, and to make clear what your capacity is and what you're able to deliver on.

Second, you're pouring effort into tasks without checking which ones are going to give you, your work, and your projects the visibility they need - and perhaps the next career step you're looking for.

Third, you don't have the clear vision to serve as a filter for what to say yes and no to. If you're seen as a high achiever, everybody wants you. Everybody wants you to work on their stuff, and everybody trusts that you will deliver - which means you are in high demand. That feels good until it is completely exhausting, and you need a way to filter it.

If you've listened along and thought, yes, I've definitely been doing some of this - don't just keep pushing harder. Here's a first step: download my free Career Blind Spots checklist. It will help you see in more detail where your effort is being wasted or where you might be missing a real trick when it comes to your career, and help you redirect your work.

The second option is my Vision Unblocked programme - a three-day programme to help you get crystal clear on your bigger vision and unblock yourself from being able to access it. It's the foundation for understanding what your bigger purpose is, for knowing what to say yes to and what to walk away from, and for how to protect your time without guilt. It's built specifically for my super busy high achievers, so I've created it in a way that even in your busiest week, you're still going to be able to listen to it and complete the small but critical actions.

The first person who carried it out told me she had her mum visiting, stuff going on with her daughter, was working flat out - and she still managed to get it done and found it absolutely transformational.

I hope you might take one small action from hearing this today - perhaps clarifying a boundary in your work, or picking something to be strategically bad at. Your future self will thank you for it.

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About Maya

Maya Gudka is an executive coach specialising in C-suite career progression and leadership development. She works with senior leaders in major organisations on strategic career planning, executive presence, and building sustainable influence. Maya hosts The Refreshing Leadership Podcast, which ranks in the top 2% of podcasts globally and has nearly 300 episodes exploring the challenges faced by ambitious professionals.