Avoiding Burnout: The Business Development Leader’s Role in Sustainable Growth

Pearl-Grace Pantaleone

Proposal Manager,
Calista Brice, LLC

business development

Avoiding Burnout

The business development leader’s role in sustainable growth

ave you ever chased a proposal because a leader said, “Let’s win this now, and we can figure it out later?” I bet you’re having a visceral reaction just by reading this due to a traumatic personal experience: Heart racing. Palms sweating. Fast breathing. We’ve all been there.

What if I told you it doesn’t have to be this way? Sustainable growth doesn’t happen when you win more work; it happens when the right work is won at the right place. When business leaders value their marketing and business development leaders, they can play a fundamental role in preventing burnout across teams.

How Burnout is Created

Imagine this: the marketing and business development professionals—let’s call them MBDs—feel an immense pressure to win even though the “go/no-go” decision clearly indicated there wasn’t capacity within the company to perform the project well. This “win now, figure out later” mentality overcommits a team, which leads to overloaded project staff, accelerated and compressed working schedules, and eventually results in declining quality and increased safety risks. This might sound extreme, but this happens more often than not. Every unrealistic promise made in the pursuit of a project becomes an operational burden later down the road. Every. Single. Time.

In the architectural, engineering, and construction (A/E/C) world, burnout doesn’t come from hard work; it comes from misaligned work. This is where the magic of MBDs comes in: they have the power to prevent that misalignment by shaping what work comes in and create a pathway for sustainable success.

Hidden Costs of Always Saying “Go”

Saying yes to every pursuit, whether it’s a hard-dollar bid or a qualifications-based proposal, generates that “turn and burn” cycle. Not all firms have the luxury of a fully staffed house that can accommodate all the requests coming in, especially with an explosion of construction activity in Alaska this year. With compound deadlines and overlapping projects, it’s a perfect storm for employee burnout and turnover. This can lead to inconsistencies with key personnel and clients dissatisfied with delays and possible change orders. The fastest way to lose a client is to win work you can’t deliver.

Strategic growth comes from awareness of market trends, understanding client plans, and strong relationships with communities. Working in tandem with your MBDs on pre-pursuit planning translates into strategic “no-go” decisions, as well as deferring work to protect long-term relationships and focusing on doing current jobs well. It doesn’t mean “no” forever—it just means not right now.

People Are the Priority

You wouldn’t have projects without your staff, so why not take care of them so they can perform to the best of their abilities? Fostering meaningful relationships internally establishes psychological safety for employees to speak up when issues arise, feel comfortable giving constructive feedback to improve processes, and accept feedback in return. Having both clear expectations and a positive communication environment can really set the whole company up for success. Employees’ well-being becomes a competitive advantage because when people feel good, clients feel good, and that attracts business—the good kind of business.

So where do the MBDs come in? I’m glad you asked! MBD professionals support leaders by painting a clear picture of what is possible so that the decision makers can plan for the future while also providing employees with confidence to perform the work. This type of collaboration and support can ultimately influence the pace of work coming in, the types of clients and projects accepted, and the workload timeline during the pursuit phase. Why not be in control of your own destiny if you had the opportunity to do so?

Strategic Pipeline

We are still imagining: you are planning for the future, the firm is making realistic growth, and the workload is manageable. You are at a sweet spot where you can pick and choose the type of work to do—not because the market is exploding with opportunity but because you positioned the company with extreme value and expertise. Instead of being on either end of the pendulum by chasing everything or saying no to everything, prioritize only the best-fit clients and projects, allowing your firm to focus on margin over volume and intentionally spacing out workload.

Let’s look at it through these three pipeline tiers (because I love a good “rule of three”):

Tier 1: Now

Opportunities at this tier fit because they are doable under current capacity.

Tier 2: Next

Opportunities at this tier may fit in future capacity, but not right now.

Tier 3: No-Go

Opportunities at this tier do not fit current or future anticipated capacity. These types of opportunities are risky.

Proposals and bids are in abundance this year. With the busy construction season in full swing, laying out this strategic process is key. The busy season is when discipline matters most so that you aren’t panicking in the slow season trying to catch up. Remember, sustainable growth happens with intention.

Set Realistic Expectations Early (Let’s CM/CG This!)

Let’s view this in a way that is more digestible. A Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/CG) contract is desirable because it places high value on the contractor during early participation. Many design risks can be discussed in the beginning, and the high collaboration typically produces a seamless project where all parties are happy. This is possible from project idea to ribbon cutting by including your MBDs in the early stages and keeping them engaged throughout the project life cycle.

It’s proven that MBD leaders shape expectations before a contract is signed by encouraging honest timelines and transparent resource constraints, and by initiating clear scope boundaries. Taking those steps at the beginning helps by managing scope creep and catching issues early, avoiding last-minute firefighting. Ultimately, this approach increases internal and external relationship building.

Right-Size Your Goals

The nugget I hope to leave you with is understanding how to choose long-term thinking over a short-term crunch. While the busy season creates a sense of urgency, an MBD professional can provide a grounding element to stay strategic. Prevent burnout by avoiding “feast and famine” cycles. Strengthen relationships in the off-season so that, when the time comes, you are ahead of the movement and getting a clear pulse on the current and future project workload—working with the entire team to identify gaps or overlap. Positioning MBDs as the bridge between today’s workload and tomorrow’s stability will really elevate your firm.

Chasing pursuits is a strategic move, not a reactionary one. By shifting your view of MBDs as “deal closers” to “capacity-aware strategists,” you will position your firm for long-term, methodical growth without the burnout.

Pearl-Grace Pantaleone is a Certified Professional Service Marketer, a certified associate through Design Build Institute of America, and a Proposal Manager at Calista Brice, LLC. Pantaleone is an experienced marketing, business development, and communications professional with more than thirteen years of expertise in community engagement and strategic storytelling. She has won local and national marketing leadership awards including the SMPS Chapter President of the Year in 2024 and the Alaska Top 40 Under Forty in 2025. Pantaleone has been a member of the Associated General Contractors of Alaska Editorial Board for The Alaska Contractor magazine since 2018.

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