Amanda Fajak of Walking The Talk, a ZRG Company On How the World’s Best Leaders Build Burnout-Free…
  • Chad Silverstein
  • March 31, 2025
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Amanda Fajak of Walking The Talk, a ZRG Company On How the World’s Best Leaders Build Burnout-Free Workplace Cultures

An Interview With Chad Silverstein

Promote Sustainable Workloads

Create clarity around organization priorities.

Set realistic deadlines and avoid a culture of constant urgency (though accept that urgency is sometimes required).

Encourage delegation and collaborative teamwork to distribute responsibilities.

In today’s high-pressure business landscape, burnout has become an epidemic affecting both employees and leaders. The question is — how can companies create workplace cultures that prioritize well-being without compromising performance? To dive into this important topic, we are interviewing Amanda Fajak, CEO, Walking The Talk, a ZRG Company.

Amanda Fajak is a global culture thought leader. She is passionate about helping organizations unlock culture as a catalyst for growth, helping people and organizations thrive. Over the past 25 years she has worked with hundreds of CEOs, and other high ranking executives globally and helped them build culture as a strategic asset.

Amanda regularly shares her expertise through CEO advisory, top teamwork and keynote speeches, and her work on culture has taken her to every continent in the world (except Antarctica). She offers a global outlook on culture and leadership development, and her hands-on expertise covers an array of sectors including financial services, telecommunications, energy, technology, and pharmaceuticals. Amanda holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of London and has contributed to the British Journal of Social Psychology, specifically focusing on Diversity and Inclusion.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

I love travel, and I am incredibly lucky that my job takes me to fascinating places all over the world. I have traveled and worked in over 30 countries where I have had a chance to dive with sharks in the Caribbean, visit Buddhist temples in Mongolia, celebrate Eid in Dubai, eat Laksa in Kuala Lumper, and participate in a tea ceremony in Tokyo among many other extraordinary experiences. My work in so many countries with such diverse cultures has exposed me to the essence of humanity, the extraordinary similarities we have as humans on this planet and the fascinating differences that different routines and beliefs create. It is my greatest honor to be able to appreciate and work with those differences in the work I do every day

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Positivity — I am a big believer in the importance of finding a solution. I love problem-solving and to me nothing is an issue. When faced with a challenge I always ask my team … “given that (problem) what can we do?” I am passionate about figuring the way through. I have started a number of businesses and think that this attitude when faced with obstacles is the only way to succeed. It also reduces frustration and overwhelm for you and your team

Balancing caring and performance — This is the most important skill a leader can have. The ability to keep pressure on results whilst knowing what it will take for each team member to be in their best physical and psychological state to deliver. I am an extravert, and big picture thinker, I love what I do which means I often work long hours. My business partner for many years was an introvert and loved figuring out how to make things happen. She was also passionate and always delivered but did it in her own way. I learned that performance and delivery don’t always look the same, but it’s the outcomes that matter and respecting the fact that different people get to the outcome in different ways. To me this ability to be empathetic about how to draw out people’s strengths and help them flourish is key to success.

Experimentation — I love the idea of testing and trialing things. I love saying yes to ideas without being trapped in implementing everything, I deeply believe it is motivating for people to give things a go and let the customer and market decide if something works vs myself being the arbitrator. While I am a leader, I absolutely do not have all the answers. I am finding increasingly in a world that is changing rapidly, where we can’t predict the outcomes this approach is key to moving at pace.

Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you share a pivotal moment in your career when you realized the importance of creating a burnout-free workplace culture? How did it influence your approach to leadership?

I used to work in the electricity sector in Australia for many years where crews often face extraordinary challenges post cyclones (hurricanes). An extremely passionate and dedicated team of people both in the field and behind the scenes would work day in and day out to bring power back on for communities and so that they could have the most basic of services — often of those working on restoring power had put themselves at the heart of the cyclone to be in position to restore power quicker and many had families who had lost homes.

Watching those crews and being a part of the background pit crew, I saw the importance of taking time to rest and recover, to drive for the number of houses with power on whilst caring for the wellbeing of the people who were making it happen. I experienced first-hand how a few good hours sleep, some good food, a kind word and a laugh with mates could reinvigorate. I learned that when there are stressful times and you need to deliver, care matters and I learned that hitting your numbers means having your people feeling fresh and psychologically enabled.

What are some of the most common causes of burnout in today’s workplaces, and what signs should leaders look out for in their teams?

The most common cause of burnout is a lack of appreciation of the importance of recovery.

Recovery is an idea that is deeply understood in the world of elite sports but somehow is undervalued in the business world, where we are all expected to be superhuman. Elite athletes rely on structured recovery plans, including rest, nutrition, and mental conditioning, to maintain peak performance.

Similarly, in business we must better integrate recovery strategies such as strategic downtime, delegation, and mindfulness to prevent burnout and sustain high performance. Just as athletes cycle between intense training and recovery to maximize results, business leaders must balance high-pressure decision-making with rest and rejuvenation to maintain clarity, creativity, and productivity.

Business leaders need to recognize that recovery is an essential part of human growth, a process that allows individuals to regain strength, heal from setbacks, and emerge stronger than before. Whether it is physical, emotional, or psychological, recovery empowers individuals to overcome adversity and be effective. Understanding the importance of recovery, its different forms, and how to cultivate it is critical for resilience and success.

One of the most significant benefits of recovery is its role in reducing burnout. By taking intentional breaks, individuals can maintain their energy, improve focus, and sustain long-term performance in both their personal and professional life.

How do you personally balance the need to drive results with the need to ensure employee well-being?

On a personal level I do a number of things. I and my leadership team spend time understanding how our team work best and we try and accommodate that as best we can.

We actively role model working hard but also balance and recovery. We do that in different ways; for some people, it is not working on weekends, for others having mobile-free holidays. What’s important is that there is not one-size-fits-all, and we are all role models of hard work, passion and dedication.

We are also pretty open when the balance is off kilter — and sometimes it needs to be! Sometimes you just need to get stuck in and work the long hours, deliver the project, hit the numbers — that is business — but the key is making sure that you are not constantly in crisis for everyone all the time. For me constant crisis is an opportunity for a business to refocus and prioritize. I am a believer in taking a few big bets on what will make you win, get everyone aligned around those and run hard.

What role does communication play in creating a burnout-free workplace, and how can leaders foster open dialogue about mental health and work-life balance?

Know your people, know what works, find out what helps them perform at an optimum. I also think that being up front when people join your organization or team about the work ethic of the environment is important. I don’t think it does anyone favors in the recruitment process to present one picture and then have a reality that is different. I strongly believe that you need to be open to what people are signing up for and if you do that you will have much more engagement because the psychological contract is clear.

For me, purpose is key. The hardest working, most passionate teams I have worked with were teams driven to do something extraordinary in the world and achieve something that no-one else had done.

Tapping into inner passion vs a KPI in my view is what unleashes passion and hard work. When you have that inner drive there is much less risk of burnout because the work you are doing is meaningful and often fun because you are part of a collective achieving something, which taps into our innate achievement and connection psychological motivators.

What is your take on traditional corporate norms, like long working hours and “always-on” availability? Are these practices outdated, or do they still have a place in certain industries?

Working long hours for the sake of it has always existed and will likely be present in many companies ongoing.

If that is what people know coming into the organization, in my view that is ok. People who join those organizations often want to achieve something career wise and the psychological contract is clear. I have little problem with this.

What I think is trickier is where the long hours emerge because there is lack of clarity of vision, strategy, poor prioritization, and focus. Unfortunately, this malaise exists in many companies and the long hours and burnout are really because organizations are not being managed well.

To me focusing on burnout is merely treating the symptoms. Until you deal with the cultural issues in organizations you fight a never ending battle.

Ok, let’s dig into actionable strategies. Based on your experience and research, can you share “5 Ways to Build a Burnout-Free Workplace Culture”? If you can, please include examples or stories for each.

1. Promote Sustainable Workloads

  • Create clarity around organization priorities.
  • Set realistic deadlines and avoid a culture of constant urgency (though accept that urgency is sometimes required).
  • Encourage delegation and collaborative teamwork to distribute responsibilities.

2. Set clear Boundaries

  • Encourage open conversations about workload and set realistic expectations.
  • Set clear expectations for response times to prevent employees from feeling “always on.”
  • Set clear expectations of ways of working when interviewing and when people join.

3. Encourage Autonomy and Purpose

  • Align work with individual strengths and professional goals to increase motivation.
  • Give employees control over their schedules and work methods.
  • Recognize and appreciate contributions to reinforce a sense of purpose.

4. Normalize Rest and Recovery

  • Encourage employees to take breaks between peak periods.
  • Implement flexible schedules to allow deep work and recovery time.
  • Promote and model recovery — leaders should set an example by prioritizing rest.

5. Train Leaders to Recognize and Address Burnout

  • Equip managers with skills to identify early signs of burnout.
  • Provide leadership training on empathetic management and active listening.
  • Encourage regular one-on-ones to check in on employees’ well-being.

What do you say to skeptics who believe that creating a burnout-free culture may come at the cost of productivity or profits?

Look at any athlete! They do not achieve peak performance without recovery. In business, it is a false economy not giving people time to recover. They will be there physically, but you will not be maximizing their contribution.

Can you share a real-world example of a team or organization where prioritizing employee well-being led to unexpected or exceptional results?

Yes. The story relates to the power of working on the cultural dynamic to reduce burnout. We had a client with a super high performance culture that wanted to increase innovation for the future.

The dynamic that was playing out was that they were so dedicated, they said yes to everything, which meant that they had no time to experiment and learn, and people worked incredibly long hours.

The key to reducing long hours in this case and increasing innovation involved the organization focusing on better clarity of focus and prioritization — creating more time. There was also a deep belief shift: saying yes to everything only delivered short-term goals but undermined the long term success of the organization.

How can leaders in high-pressure industries (like tech, finance, or healthcare) realistically apply these principles without falling behind on deadlines or performance goals?

Focus is key. My view is that when everything is important, nothing is. Get your people aligned on the key priorities that matter, find what motivates people and make sure that between the heavy workload you create space for people to recover.

Be honest with the nature of the environment and what is expected. If people opt in, then they are making a choice to work long hours and burnout — while not impossible — is less likely to occur because of the psychological contract people have with you.

A bad combination is people frustrated that they didn’t opt into long hours and feeling “trapped.” This creates the most negative of circumstances

What trends or innovations are you seeing in workplace well-being and culture that excite you the most?

I am a massive fan of Karim Lakhani’s sentiment that ‘AI Won’t Replace Humans — But Humans With AI Will Replace Humans Without AI.’ I am a big believer that the effective use of AI can help drive personal productivity leaving humans in workplaces delivering the more value added work.

I think this transition will remove administrivia out of people’s day to day, freeing up significant time and removing boredom and frustration.

In your opinion, how does a burnout-free culture impact a company’s long-term success, its relationships with employees, and even its customers?

As I mentioned previously, organizations that are more intentional about how people work and how to maximize the impact of every human, and that are clear in their contracting, are more likely to win in the long term.

Organizational success is a marathon, not a sprint. Thus, ensuring recovery is built into your processes and systems, and the value of it is built into your beliefs is the foundation of success. Employees are more productive and engaged and customers experience this.

In my experience, the more focused organizations are, the more they accelerate their deliverables. A classic example of the paradox — go slow to speed up.

There is nothing wrong with bursts of high intensity. It is realistic and needed to pivot in our uncertain world. Creating clear expectations and norms around this means that employees know what to expect and customers can be the beneficiaries of an organization that moves fast when it needs to.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement to help more companies embrace burnout-free workplace cultures, what would it be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Stop one thing for speed. I am a massive believer of transformation and speed coming when organizations are clear on their purpose and cut out the noise. Importantly, this also means that people can get more focused, more impactful and burnout is less likely.

How can our readers further follow you online?

This was great. Thank you so much for the time you spent sharing with us.

About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience as a Founder and CEO. While attending Ohio State University, he launched his first company, Choice Recovery, Inc., a nationally recognized healthcare collection agency — twice ranked the #1 workplace in Ohio. In 2013, he founded [re]start, helping thousands of people find meaningful career opportunities. After selling both companies, Chad shifted his focus to his true passion — leadership. Today, he coaches founders and CEOs at Built to Lead, advises Authority Magazine’s Thought Leader Incubator.

Amanda Fajak of Walking The Talk, a ZRG Company On How the World’s Best Leaders Build Burnout-Free… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.