Rebecca Heiss 
The Breakdown I recently wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal about a stressful experience and the surprising antidote I discovered – helping others. This discovery aligns with research from organizational psychologist Adam Grant, whose work in “Give and Take” reveals why helping others transforms our entire relationship with stress and pressure. The Neuroscience … Read more
The Silent Killer of High Performance (Tips from a science-backed motivational speaker) I was recently in a meeting with a typically high-performing leadership team when the CEO said something that stopped me cold: “Our best people have just… stopped trying. They show up, they do the work, but they’ve lost that fire. It’s like they’ve … Read more
The $190 Billion Burnout Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight Employee burnout costs U.S. companies up to $190 billion annually in healthcare expenses, yet most organizations are addressing it wrong. As a corporate wellness speaker and stress physiologist, I’ve observed that traditional burnout prevention strategies often accelerate the very problem they’re trying to solve. The solution … Read more
As a top keynote speaker on high performance, there is nothing that bothers me more than hearing leaders give THIS terrible advice to their teams Olympic athletes don’t break world records during practice. They break them when pressure, stress, and stakes are at their absolute highest. Meanwhile, most business leaders receive training that teaches them … Read more
Why Your Change Management Strategy Isn’t Working – many people struggle with a fear of change. Here’s what I’ve learned from decades as a stress physiologist and change management speaker After two decades of studying stress physiology and working as a change management speaker with organizations worldwide, I’ve discovered something counterintuitive: employee resistance to change … Read more
Discover why 90% of workplace stress management programs fail and learn the science-backed approach that transforms employee stress into peak performance. Expert keynote speaker insights.
This week I made a massive error. The kind you make and immediately recognize your mistake but it’s already too late. Let me set the stage. I’m in the middle of doing a pilot study with a small sample size of people and needed to send out a message to them with further instructions. But … Read more
Remember those frustrating school projects where one teammate thrived under pressure, while another crumbled like a stale cookie? Turns out, that difference might not be about raw talent, but about the wiring in their brains. As a stress physiologist, I’ve spent years peering into the neural soup, and let me tell you, leaders with a … Read more
Last week I was hospitalized with two lethal bacterial blood infections. By the time I was admitted, my body had gone septic. Was I scared? Sure. But my overwhelming emotion wasn’t fear. It was sadness. Deep sorrow for the potential loss of days ahead. For not being able to read the rest of this epic … Read more
Imagine scaling Mount Everest, not with the swagger of a seasoned climber, but with a rusty ice pick and a borrowed parka. That’s the uphill battle most businesses face – obsessing over innate talent, the “Sherpas” of the workforce, while neglecting the vast, untapped potential of the rest who with courage and resilience trek up … Read more
