Execution Energy vs. Burnout Energy

This search for a marketing leadership role to put me back to work is reminding me of every single campaign and program I’ve ever seen in the B2B marketing world, at least at the start of them…

It’s an all-out sprint.

LinkedIn and Gmail inboxes fill with networking pings, auto-replies. Resumes get customized and scanned and re-customized at midnight. And you should see my tracking spreadsheets. THE TABS HAVE TABS.  It’s a high-energy Naruto-run (that joke is for my kids)!

Until it isn’t.

Turns out my life-long aversion to sprinting remains, and this sprint is showing it could only work with a finish line in sight. The reality is that in a job search, there really isn’t a finish line. And no finish line when leading a marketing engine or running five “pilot” ABM programs just because. The work is endless, and that “finish line” is always moving.

That’s where most of us break at this point in the process. We mistake “going fast” for “going forward.”  I’ve had to learn, sometimes the hard way, that execution energy is super different from burnout energy. Execution energy comes from rhythm and has clear objectives and defined roles. It takes the right inputs, given at the right time, so you can sustain momentum.

Burnout energy comes from the chaos of running in every direction at once while the walls collapse around you. You can lose track of what matters. And you definitely can stack stress on stress on stress until the wheels fall off.

That’s why I built the OPERATOR framework I’ve been dripping and drabbing out. This week I’m on E… which stands for “Execution Readiness” and thankfully not “Empty.” Mostly because you know I love a framework but also because it was time in this transition to show and not tell, to deliver and not just build (though build it I will). I’m looking at it as the difference between blasting through a wall versus building the door before I get there.

Right now, I’m using Execution Readiness in my own job search. I’m treating it like any go-to-market motion: resources, timelines, ownership, and systems to keep me steady.

Because the truth is: mostly anyone can sprint. Leaders worth following are the ones who know how to keep their teams, and themselves, going mile after mile.