Dr. Rachel Boehm: From Productivity Pressure to Sustainable Leadership and Growth

About Dr. Rachel Boehm: Dr. Rachel Boehm is an organizational behavior expert with decades of experience in individual, team, and organizational change. Through RB Strategies, Dr. Rachel helps leaders change chaos when they are experiencing the chaos of change, whether it's from large business transitions or the constant pivots increasingly required throughout the workday. Leveraging Science-Backed, People-Proven™ strategies, Dr. Rachel transforms the way people naturally respond to change—fear, anxiety, guilt, nostalgia, resistance, sabotage, infighting, unfocused excitement—which otherwise lead to dysfunction, burnout, and failed business goals.

In this episode, Ryan and Dr. Rachel Boehm discuss:

• Change management is both an operational and cultural challenge within organizations.
• Productivity anxiety and its influence on workplace behavior and leadership.
• The fine line between striving for excellence and falling into perfectionism.
• Personal well-being strategies include coaching, therapy, and self-awareness.

Key Takeaways:

• Productivity anxiety doesn’t just make people feel like they are never doing enough—it quietly undermines health, relationships, decision-making, and leadership credibility, which eventually erodes organizational trust and financial results.
• Reframing rest as an essential activity, intentionally using micro to macro breaks, and celebrating progress instead of completion allows professionals to reduce overwhelm and shift from fear-based productivity patterns into healthier, sustainable rhythms.
• Avoidance of paid time off due to fear of returning to a heavy workload or guilt about burdening colleagues is a major contributor to burnout, yet both operational tweaks (before and after time away) and compassionate self-talk can make taking and returning from breaks far less disruptive.
• Burnout should be understood not as a diagnosable mental illness but as a stress response that can be proactively addressed through coaching, therapy, and supportive self-management practices—long before a crisis undermines one’s career or sense of identity. 

"The best laid plan goes nowhere if people are like absolutely not doing it or like I'm gonna half ass it." — Dr. Rachel Boehm

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