What if your workload isn't actually the reason you're overwhelmed? The real problem may be your thought load.

CEOs can spend an entire day moving from meeting to meeting, making decisions, switching between priorities, and managing other people's problems, yet still wonder what they actually accomplished. In this episode, Jim Schleckser talks with teamwork expert and author Liane Davey about thought load, the invisible combination of cognitive demands, emotional burdens, and depleted energy that's quietly undermining leadership performance.

By listening to this episode, you'll learn how to:

• Recognize the difference between workload and thought load and identify what's actually draining your capacity.
• Reduce unnecessary meetings, distractions, decision fatigue, and emotional burdens that prevent you from focusing on your most important work.
• Use a practical framework to decide what to delete, delay, distribute, or diminish so you can spend more time where you provide unique value as a CEO.

Listen now to learn how to manage your thought load, reclaim your attention and energy, and create the space you and your team need to do your best work.

05:35 | It's Not Your Workload. It's Your Thought Load.
Liane Davey breaks down the concept of thought load and its three components: cognitive demands, emotional burdens, and depleted energy reserves. She explains why leaders can feel completely overwhelmed even when workload itself isn't the real problem.

19:40 | Shrink Your Teams and Strengthen Your Communities
Liane explains how oversized teams, endless meetings, and cross-functional complexity increase thought load. Her solution challenges leaders to create smaller core teams while building stronger communities around them for support and expertise.

38:45 | Four Questions to Get Your Time Back
One of the most actionable parts of the episode: Liane shares a four-question triage framework for CEOs. Is it important? Is it urgent? Is it uniquely you? Is all of it essential? The answers help leaders decide what to delete, delay, distribute, or diminish.

About Liane Davey

Liane has spent more than 25 years researching and advising teams on how to perform at their best. Known as the "teamwork doctor," she works with teams from the frontlines to the boardroom, across industries and around the world, from Boston to Bangkok. Through her work with hundreds of teams, including 26 Global Fortune 500 companies (and counting), she has developed a practical, research-backed approach to solving the challenges that prevent teams from working effectively together.

Liane is a New York Times bestselling author of You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done and The Good Fight: Use Productive Conflict to Get Your Team and Organization Back on Track. She is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and a sought-after expert for media outlets including CNN, NPR, USA Today, The Globe & Mail, and Forbes. Her work focuses on increasing productivity, strengthening engagement, developing leaders, and helping teams navigate conflict in healthier, more effective ways.