The Quiet Burn: Lynn Blades Is Rewriting the Rules for Ambitious Women Who Refuse to Burn Out
When Lynn Blades speaks, it’s with the clarity of someone who’s been in the room where it happens—and walked out with her dignity intact. As a renowned executive leadership coach with over two decades of experience advising Fortune 500 leaders, Blades has spent her career helping women lead without losing themselves in the process. Her new book, The Quiet Burn: The Ambitious Woman’s Guide to Recognizing and Preventing Burnout, is both a warning and a lifeline for women who are climbing the ladder with blistered hands.
Published by Greenleaf Book Group and priced at $21.95, The Quiet Burn arrives in May 2025 with perfect timing. Ambition, once viewed as the currency of success, is being reexamined by women exhausted from the cost of overextension. Blades doesn’t shy away from the truth: burnout is the tax many women pay for access to spaces they were never expected to enter, let alone dominate.
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Drawing from her private coaching practice and decades inside boardrooms, Blades offers tools to help women recognize when the fire that once fueled them is quietly burning them out. It’s not the blaze you see coming—it’s the slow simmer of overcommitment, perfectionism, and self-abandonment that many women have normalized.
The book is filled with accessible exercises, case studies, and affirming messages. Blades encourages women to get comfortable with saying no, to practice guilt-free self-care, and to quiet the inner voice that says they must do it all to prove they belong. A standout moment is her “Self-Care Check-In,” a reflection tool that pushes readers to pause and ask: Am I even okay? Through guided prompts and interactive QR-code videos, including Reflecting on the Power of No, readers are nudged to reestablish boundaries and speak their truth in rooms that profit from their silence.
Blades understands the weight of visibility. Her clients—many of them the “only” in high-stakes rooms—aren’t lacking competence. They’re lacking space to breathe, rest, and say, “This isn’t sustainable.” Whether it’s the mom running a six-figure household or the executive overseeing a global team, the patterns are the same: stress is disguised as success.
This isn’t theory. Blades has led courses for Nike, PayPal, EY, and Barclays. She’s created leadership programming for the UK government, helped shape the AllBright “Elevate” initiative, and sits on multiple boards for creative and educational equity. She was a journalist long before she was a coach, using her voice on networks like CNN, CBS, and the BBC to tell global stories—and now she’s telling one of the most urgent: the need to rescue women from burnout before the damage is irreversible.
More than just a guidebook, The Quiet Burn is a cultural reset. It reminds women that ambition should never cost you your wellness, and that preserving your peace isn’t a detour—it’s the most powerful move you can make.
To learn more about Lynn Blades and her leadership work, visit LynnBlades.com.
