High achievers are the ones everyone counts on.
They say yes.
They move fast.
They carry the team when things get heavy.
And on paper, it looks like high performance.
But underneath?
A lot of “high performance” cultures are really optimizing for output… not human flourishing.
And the people who pay the price first are the high achievers — the over-functioners — the ones who quietly become the bottleneck and the safety net.
Because when success means sacrifice…
sharing the load can start to feel like failure.
My special guest today is Meghan French Dunbar, and she’s simplifying how to help high achievers share the load — without slowing everything down.
Here’s how.
My special guest today is Meghan French Dunbar and she’s simplifying how to help high achievers share the load.
We tackle and simplify all aspects of it, including:
- How to spot whether your culture is optimizing for productivity or human flourishing — and how you can tell by what gets measured and rewarded.
- What the “success means sacrifice” mindset looks like in day-to-day behavior for high achievers — and why it’s so hard to interrupt.
- Why burnout is a systemic problem, not an individual one — and the org-level drivers that push high achievers into over-functioning.
- One simple practice she’s seen in healthy companies that helps high achievers share the load without losing momentum.
- And for the HRBPs and managers listening: 3 quick moves you can try this week to make “sharing the load” normal — using collaboration and psychological safety, not guilt or heroics.
Q: Are you ready to learn how to help your high achievers share the load? If yes, this one is for you.
It’s time to #DoTheThing!
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<What’s catching my eye this week>
- 3 hours of (free) focus music for deep concentration - Quiet Quest - Study Music
- Hire Mary Baird, PHR to help you run a 30-day Employee Experience Accelerator to listen better to your workforce, rebuild trust in your senior leadership and improve culture at work - The Simplifiers
- 50 powerful questions to help you reflect - The Institute of You
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My challenge for you this week:
How are you going to take what you’ve learned in today’s episode and take action by helping your high achievers share the load? What’s one thing you’ll do differently? Share it with me, privately or publicly. Snap a photo of you doing the thing, and send me a DM over on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thesimplifiers) for added accountability and support!
Links, books and apps mentioned:
Resource: Find Meghan French Dunbar on LinkedIn - click here
Resource: The Human Flourishing Program: Global Flourishing Study - Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science
Podcast: Better Than This: Listen on your favorite podcast player - Better Than This Podcast
Book: This Isn't Working: How Working Women Can Overcome Stress, Guilt, and Overload to Find True Success - Meghan French Dunbar
Book: The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture - Gabor Maté + Daniel Maté
Podcast: How to practice empathy without burning out, featuring Joseph Cope - The Simplifiers Podcast
Podcast: How to be a better leader (guided visualization) - The Simplifiers Podcast
Hire Mary to Teach Your Teams AI at Work
More organizations are bringing me in to teach their teams how to use AI at work — practically, ethically, and strategically.
Whether you’re rolling out ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or Gemini, I show non-techy teams across all levels and departments how to use AI in simple, practical ways to use immediately. Your people will walk away clear, confident, and ready to use AI to reduce busy work and drive better results. Great as an ERG workshop, too! Curious? Visit marybaird.co and click “Let’s Talk!” to book a call and see if it’s right for your teams.
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About Meghan French Dunbar:
Meghan French Dunbar - She is the best-selling author of This Isn’t Working: How Working Women Can Overcome Stress, Guilt, and Overwhelm to Find True Success. She’s a journalist, speaker, and workplace strategist—working with companies like Coach, Kate Spade, John Deere, and Eileen Fisher—who helps leaders create cultures where people and businesses can thrive together.
Her work—which has reached over a million people worldwide to date—is informed by over a decade of research working directly with executives at deep-dive retreats and her more than 1,000 interviews with business leaders as co-founder of Conscious Company Media. Meghan lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and two young kids.
Where Meghan hangs out online:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanfrenchdunbar
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meghanfrenchdunbar
Website: https://www.meghanfrenchdunbar.com
Meghan’s vote for the perfect guest on The Simplifiers Podcast:
Melanie Dulbecco - She is the CEO of Torani (R. Torre & Company), where she’s led the family-owned flavor company since 1991 as its first CEO from outside the founding family. Under her leadership, Torani has expanded distribution across the U.S. and to more than 50 countries, while building a people-first culture rooted in the company’s purpose: “Flavor for all. Opportunity for all.”
She’s also been recognized for turning Torani into what she calls an “Opportunity Company,” focused on economic mobility and growth for its people and community. Melanie earned her MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.
