Burnout is Breaking Your Board: Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Yale School of Management

Yale’s Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is sounding the alarm on an accelerating crisis: boardroom burnout. The same leaders who built today’s biggest brands are now running on fumes—and if the boardroom breaks, the business follows.

As Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies at the Yale School of Management — and founder of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute — it’s a topic Mr. Sonnenfeld understands all too well, having advised Fortune 100 boards, counseled U.S. presidents, and built a global reputation as the conscience of corporate governance. 

In this interview, Mr. Sonnenfeld shares how directors can redesign board culture to encourage candor, dialogue, and connections—and protect leadership capacity to ensure long-term resilience.