Thoughtload, the combined weight of cognitive demands, emotional burdens, and declining energy, explains why teams feel overwhelmed while their leaders see little progress. On The Coaching Edge Podcast, organizational psychologist and New York Times bestselling author Dr. Liane Davey joins hosts Dr. Steve Jeffs and Erwin de Grave to show how coaches and leaders reduce thoughtload and rebuild team effectiveness.
Liane holds a PhD in organizational psychology and works only with teams. Her career began with a university case study of the Space Shuttle Challenger launch, where many people within NASA knew the risk and the team dynamics still let the launch proceed.
Three insights stand out. First, leaders create more emotional contagion than anyone else on a team, so most team behavior traces back to the leader in some form. Second, Liane separates activity, output, and outcome. Attention to activity produces effort, attention to output produces responsibility, and only attention to outcomes produces accountability. Third, teams need time to metabolize thoughtload. Liane blocks three one-hour periods each week with zero input to process what she carries.
Listen to the full episode for tools you take into your next team session.
Guest: Dr. Liane Davey
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