From the Battlefield to Boardroom: How Jimmy Burroughes Transforms Overwhelmed Leaders Through Operational Friction Removal
A conversation with 'The Energy Coach' about sustainable high performance and why resilience starts with one small change
Welcome to The Bend Like Bamboo Resilience Show
We discover that our greatest challenges often become our greatest strengths.
Each month, I sit down with remarkable leaders who've transformed adversity into triumph, sharing their inspiring journeys of resilience and renewal. Together, we explore the mindset shifts, practical strategies, and breakthrough moments that turned their setbacks into comebacks.
What you'll discover:
Real stories of people who've learned to bend without breaking, actionable tools to transform stress into strength, and evidence that when we change our story, we change what's possible for our health, relationships, and future.
Like bamboo, we're designed to be flexible.
When we embrace this truth, we don't just survive life's storms - we use them to grow stronger, wiser, and more resilient than ever before.
Join me as we explore how flexibility builds unshakeable resilience.
When a Staff Sergeant's Wisdom Changed Everything
Picture this: You're a young British Army lieutenant in the Iraqi desert during Gulf War II. You're exhausted, running on fumes, convinced you need to be the perfect officer—super fit, awake longer than everyone else, with all the answers at your fingertips. Then your staff sergeant, a veteran with 15 years of experience, pulls you aside.
"Sir, with all due respect," he says, "your job is to make the decisions. Our job is to give you the information."
For Jimmy Burroughes, that moment was a revelation that would shape not just his military career, but his entire approach to leadership—and ultimately, his mission to help thousands of leaders worldwide reclaim their time, energy, and strategic focus.
The Accidental Warrior
Jimmy didn't set out to become a military officer. With a degree in tropical medicine, he was still figuring out his professional direction when the military called. Having enjoyed his time in the Officer Training Corps at university, he thought it would be "a great way to see the world, do lots of adventure training, have lots of dinner nights, make lots of friends."
"There was nothing really going on in the world when I joined up," Jimmy recalls with a wry smile. "And by the end of my training, we were in the midst of the Second Gulf War."
His first assignment? Leading soldiers in what he describes as "essentially a supermarket on demand in the middle of the desert"—coordinating military logistics in Kuwait and Iraq. Those six years would prove transformative, teaching him lessons about leadership, resilience, and what it truly means to operate under pressure.
The Expert Trap: Why Great Individual Contributors Struggle as Leaders
The lesson from Staff Sergeant Dobbs cut through Jimmy's beliefs about leadership like a knife. He was holding onto a dangerous misconception that many high-performers carry with them as they advance: the belief that you need to be the expert in everything.
"It works when you're an individual contributor, and it kind of works when you're a manager," Jimmy explains, "but when you move into managing managers and leadership roles, it doesn't work anymore. Actually, it's one of the quickest routes to burnout—you being at the center of everything."
This realization became the foundation of Jimmy's work today. Now, as a Fortune 500 leadership expert and developer of the "Simplify to Amplify" methodology, he's transformed over 3,000 leaders across 20+ countries. His clients include some of the world's largest enterprises—Bank of America, Bank of New Zealand, and many others.
But at its core, his message is beautifully simple: Your job as a leader is to make decisions, not to have all the answers.
What Resilience Really Means: It's Not About Bending—It's About Removing the Weight
When we think of resilience, we often imagine bending under pressure, bouncing back, or toughing it out. But Jimmy's approach is fundamentally different. True resilience, he argues, isn't about becoming stronger to carry more weight—it's about removing the unnecessary weight entirely.
"Leaders don't need more resilience training to carry more load," Jimmy says. "They need operational friction removal to reduce the load in the first place."
This philosophy is captured in what he calls "operational friction"—all the unnecessary complexity, unclear expectations, duplicate work, and inefficient processes that drain leaders of time and energy. By systematically identifying and eliminating these friction points, leaders don't just survive; they amplify their performance by an average of 47% in just 90 days.
It's resilience through intelligent simplification, not through gritting your teeth harder.
The Five Operational Frictions That Drain 6+ Hours Weekly
Through his work with thousands of leaders, Jimmy has identified five core operational frictions that consistently rob managers of managers of valuable time:
Unclear expectations – When leaders aren't crystal clear on what success looks like, teams waste time guessing, redoing work, or seeking constant clarification.
Duplicate efforts – Multiple people doing the same work without knowing it, or reinventing wheels that already exist.
Inefficient processes – Systems and workflows that made sense years ago but now create more problems than they solve.
Poor delegation – Leaders holding onto tasks they should release, or delegating without proper context and authority.
Reactive firefighting – Constantly responding to urgent demands instead of working strategically on what matters most.
By systematically addressing these five areas, Jimmy helps senior leaders reclaim 6+ hours per week—time that can be redirected toward strategic thinking, team development, and the high-value work that actually moves the needle.
The Calendar is Your Life: Designing Days Around Energy, Not Time
One of the most practical pieces of wisdom Jimmy shares is how to structure your day for maximum effectiveness. The key? Plan your day around your energy, not your time.
"Tackle the hard tasks when you're clear and agile," Jimmy advises. "Leave the administrative tasks or the basic tasks till you've got a little bit less energy."
He recommends allocating two 90-minute or three 60-minute deep work windows—and here's the critical part—before you even turn your emails on. Get that important strategic work done first, when your mind is fresh and focused.
"When you're feeling really overloaded, everything feels out of control," Jimmy acknowledges. But by taking control of your calendar and protecting time for deep work, you create islands of clarity in the chaos.
The HEART Principle: Help as an Antidote to Overwhelm
When I asked Jimmy what advice he'd give to someone feeling overwhelmed right now—whether by work, health challenges, or just life—his answer was both surprising and profound.
"The first piece of friction that you can control is asking for or giving help," he says.
He teaches a mnemonic called HEART, where the H stands for Help. But here's where it gets interesting: help works in both directions.
Asking for Help
"A problem shared is a problem halved. You get a second perspective, you get a sounding board. And often, when you're in the middle of it, you can't see it."
There's wisdom in recognizing that we all have blind spots, especially when we're overwhelmed. It's easy to coach someone else on their problems, but incredibly difficult to see our own clearly. Asking for help isn't weakness—it's strategic clarity.
Giving Help
But perhaps even more powerful is the act of giving help when you're struggling yourself.
"There's this beautiful neurochemical pattern that happens when you're giving help to people," Jimmy explains. "When you're volunteering, when you're being charitable, when you're helping somebody else walk the dog, when you're helping a child learn—it creates this incredible oxytocin response, which is the connecting and loving chemical. It also creates a beautiful dopamine and serotonin response, which are the happy chemicals in the brain."
When you're feeling overwhelmed, Jimmy suggests asking yourself: Who could I help? What could I do to support somebody else?
"It just makes my problems feel a little bit less, and it gives you a feeling of control that you're doing something that will help people."
It's about tuning your energetic tuning fork, focusing your electromagnetic energy in a positive way. And remarkably, when you start helping people, help tends to come to you.
From Military Precision to Corporate Impact: Books, Podcasts, and Practical Wisdom
Jimmy's mission to eliminate operational friction and prevent leadership burnout is captured in his body of work:
📚 Books:
🎙️ Podcast: The High-Performance Leader
His approach combines military-tested operational frameworks with corporate practicality, and his humility shines through in everything he does. As he says with characteristic modesty, "It's all done with love."
Final Thoughts: Bend Like Bamboo by Removing the Wind
The bamboo doesn't just bend in the storm—it thrives because it's built with hollow chambers that reduce weight while maintaining strength. Similarly, Jimmy's approach to resilience isn't about building more capacity to handle stress; it's about intelligently removing the unnecessary weight so you can move with agility and grace.
Whether you're a manager of managers feeling crushed by constant firefighting, a senior leader struggling to find time for strategic thinking, or simply someone who feels overwhelmed by the complexity of modern life, Jimmy's message is clear:
You don't need to be the expert in everything. You don't need to carry all the weight. You need to simplify, delegate, and amplify what matters most.
And sometimes, the most resilient thing you can do is ask for help—or give it.
Connect with Jimmy Burroughes
Website: www.jimmyburroughes.com
Podcast: The High-Performance Leader
Books:
LinkedIn: Connect with Jimmy to learn more about his "Simplify to Amplify" methodology and operational friction removal programs.
This conversation is part of the Bend Like Bamboo podcast series, exploring how leaders, innovators, and change-makers cultivate resilience in the face of life's challenges. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Amanda Campbell is a Sports Kinesiologist, Speaker, and Author who helps CEOs and leaders build resilience to thrive through life's challenges. She hosts the Bend Like Bamboo Resilience Podcast and offers programs designed to maximise performance whilst reducing stress and preventing burnout.
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