One practice I've found effective for supporting burned-out teams is setting up "recovery days" rather than focusing only on vacation time. These aren't formal days off, but scheduled, light workdays with no heavy deadlines or meetings. My goal was to give employees mental space to recharge while still feeling connected to the team. I use this when I notice the first signs of burnout. When people get quieter in meetings or seem disengaged in their work. Giving a team member flexibility to focus on easier tasks, or letting them take a breather without guilt, already makes a lasting positive impact. As for me, knowing when to step back is key. I've learned to embrace not being available 24/7. Setting boundaries around my availability, especially when my team needs space, keeps me from burning out too.
For me, the best way to support my teams and prevent burn out both in employees and in leadership (including myself) is just to implement good work/life balance policies across the board. For instance, since leadership is able to work on a more flexible schedule according to their own preferences and needs, this is something we have also made available for our teams. Additionally, it's accepted and respected that leadership and employees alike are to be considered unreachable when they are "off the clock." These policies help because it creates a much more even playing field, and can help both employees and leaders feel like their autonomy and their time away from work is respected. When it comes to early warning signs, I tend to look for things like decreased productivity in people who are usually excellent workers, along with changing attitudes and people dropping the ball when normally they are very on top of things. I don't like to approach these with disciplinary action, but instead take the time to speak with employees first to get a better idea of what is going on and what support they could use.
I work a lot with startups as an advisor, and one thing I see across the board, especially in lean teams, is HR and people managers taking on emotional labor for everyone, without a clear outlet for themselves. One strategy I've seen work well is shifting the mindset from HR protects everyone to wellbeing is a shared responsibility. That looks like giving managers more tools to check in, building in quiet time during the week, and treating emotional capacity like any other team resource that needs monitoring. For the HR folks themselves, I always say: your own burnout is a data point. If you're feeling it, the system probably needs a reset and that's not a personal failure. It's a signal worth listening to.